It's a fact that a number of our credit unions have expressed interest in co-operating with Canada Post, if it is done on terms that are fair in terms of the bidding process or the participation process. As I mentioned, our concern is that if it turns into a bidding process that is exclusive, they may end up not being able to participate as a small institution. You have to keep in mind that many of our institutions are below, say, $1 billion in assets, which is fairly small. It might be difficult to participate, so there would have to be an open process. As I said, there are credit unions that are interested.
We do agree that in the north, for example, in rural and remote regions, there are definite challenges. To pick up on the point made by Darren, if you are running a credit union and you are looking at a need, say, in the north, you have to make sure that the branch has some kind of financial viability, or what ends up happening is that your members are actually subsidizing that branch. Part of our job is that we have a responsibility to our members to manage their funds effectively and make investments that work. That said, we are looking at other models that do not necessarily involve branches. We are moving to micro-branches, ones that are a sort of more elaborate ATMs.
We are open to the discussion—I made that point a couple of times in my presentation—but it all depends on what form the dialogue would take.
I just want to pick up on another point, because I've heard it said twice, that credit unions are closing branches. While it may be true that some are closing, the number of branches in our system has been steady—uptick or downtick by one or two—historically for many, many years. It's not like we are shutting down branches wholesale. In fact, Mr. Hannah might think we are over-branched, given our asset size relative to the banks.