By the slimmest of margins Access Credit Union members have voted down a proposed merger with Winnipeg based Assiniboine Credit Union. The vote was held at Wednesday's Access and Assiniboine annual meetings, with a two-thirds majority of the votes cast by each respective membership required for approval.

That mark was not met with just over 63% of Access members who voted in favour of amalgamation. Voting took place from 4 p.m. until midway through the annual meeting at the Winkler Mennonite Brethren Church. Nearly 95% of Assiniboine members who cast a ballot voted "yes".

"We've held a lot of public meetings for members in day time and evening to present the case, to hear conversation and hear dialogue, and answer questions and challenges. Those meetings have been attended by very supportive members," explained Access Board Chair Darryl Loewen moments after the results were announced. "We have heard very little from Access members to suggest something unsatisfactory about this merger opportunity, so I'm not sure how to interpret (the results) tonight."
"Clearly not enough of their membership felt they could support the proposal, and we respect that," said Assiniboine Credit Union Board Chair Margaret Day in a news release issued late Wednesday evening.

The proposed merger was announced in February. Had it been approved the new entity would have been comprised of 38 branches across Manitoba, with over $5.7 billion in assets and more than 154,800 members. It would have been the largest credit union in Manitoba (by assets, branches, and members), and sixth largest in Canada.

Loewen says the board will meet shortly to discuss its next steps.

"It is always possible for members to, by petition, ask the board to call a special meeting that could in fact revisit this very merger opportunity again, and if that were to take place in short order, I think the board would be favourable to such a call," noted Loewen. "That has to be member initiated, and so we'll see where we go next."

Loewen says the merger issue is still on the table for the board, because the necessary landscape will still be there.

"This was such a great chance to choose a really compatible partner, and we see the need to do so, and we are going to continue to look for that, and we know the landscape is doing likewise," said Loewen. "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. We hoped this would be out in front of that wave with a really well chosen partner, it may yet be, just not tonight."

Voting Results from the April 22nd, 2015 annual meetings of Access and Assniniboine Credit Unions as read at the Access meeting in Winkler.

                                    Yes      No      %Approval
Access Credit Union       446      258       63.2%

Assiniboine Credit Union 492       26       94.9%