Members of Copperfin and Northern Credit Unions will start voting next week on a merger between the two financial institutions.

Dennis Alvestad is CEO of Copperfin and says the merger was given regulatory approval last week, and now it’s up to the membership to vote on it.

He says this is the third merger he’s gone through and the feedback they’ve received shows a general support for the merger.

“For this one, because the stakes are higher, there’s significantly more dollars at play, significantly more people that are impacted, so it was just prudent to make sure that we understood where the membership was at,” says Alvestad.

“Overwhelmingly the support is there.”

Alvestad adds that if the merger goes through he’ll hold the title of co-CEO along with the head of the Northern Credit Union.

“It has been done in the past with other credit unions.  I think our opportunity really lent itself to a joint CEO situation.  So, Richard Adam is the current CEO of Northern and he suggested (it) fairly early on in our discussions.”

Alvestad says the results of the membership vote will be announced on June 21st.

Copperfin operates mostly in the Kenora and Thunder Bay area, while Northern has branches in 24 communities in northern Ontario, including two in Thunder Bay.

The merged credit union would lose the name of Copperfin and become the Northern Credit Union.

If the merger is approved, the new credit union will start up on January 1st, 2025.