The main difference is that you're allowed to operate outside of your home province. There are some other powers that the banks have that perhaps would accrue to a credit union, but many of the credit unions, outside of Ontario at least, or west of Ontario, have access to some powers that the banks don't have. For instance, B.C. credit unions going into the federal jurisdiction have to deal with two particular problems. One is that they no longer would have a 100% deposit guarantee, and the second is that they would have to withdraw from their insurance operations, which they're allowed to do and the banks are not allowed to do.
The primary advantage of going to federal jurisdiction is the ability to operate extra-provincially. That's not to be undersold, because, as I said, diversification of risk is an important thing for any financial institution.
We know that business owners who might be resident in Ontario do business in B.C. When you tell them that you can't help them in B.C., where do they go? They tend to go to the banks. If you're lucky, they'll go to a credit union in B.C., but they don't like to break up their business.
So there are some advantages but also some growing pains that people will have to get their minds around before they go federally.