Diversity helps BMO strike gold in PAR

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On Feb. 17, BMO Financial Group became the first financial institution to achieve gold standing in the Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) program.

But considering that developing positive relationships with the Aboriginal community has been a priority at BMO for more than a decade, the results aren't all that surprising.

The bank's commitment to developing good Aboriginal relations began in 1991, when it established a task force to look at ways to improve Aboriginal employment within the institution. As a result of the task force, the bank created an Aboriginal banking unit, along with a division to oversee workplace diversity and equity.

Ron Jamieson is senior vice-president of Aboriginal banking for BMO, a position he's held since it was first created 12 years ago.

According to Jamieson, developing good Aboriginal relations is a priority for BMO because it's good for business.

"At the end of the day, everything the bank does ultimately has to be profitable for our shareholders. So if we can do a good thing like hire Aboriginal people and advance Aboriginal people, which I think is just a plain good thing to do, it ultimately results in doing business with more Aboriginal communities. And of course as a result of that we've made more loans, we have more deposits, and it all becomes a profitable business at the end of the day," he said.

Although the philosophies of the PAR program have been reflected in BMO's operations for some time, the bank put off getting involved in the program until it was confident that it could qualify at the gold level, Jamieson explained.

One of the things involvement in the PAR program will allow BMO to do is to let the world know that it is committed to good Aboriginal relations by putting the PAR gold hallmark on all its promotional materials.

"Every piece of mail that we send out and every correspondence that we have with Aboriginal leadership and/or corporate leadership in the private sector, it sends a message to everyone that we have made a serious commitment to the community and that we are directly and completely involved in the community. That's important to us," Jamieson said.

One of BMO's strengths that helped it achieve PAR gold is the number of Aboriginal people employed by the bank.

"We have more Aboriginal people within Bank of Montreal as a percentage of our total complement of employees than any other bank does. And we've done that on purpose because what we felt was that if we're going to try to do business with Aboriginal people, we have to understand them," Jamieson said. "And just because I'm a Mohawk from southern Ontario doesn't make me an expert on the 48 language groups of Aboriginal people in Canada. So by bringing in Aboriginal people from all over Canada to maybe operate our branches or to do other things within the bank, what you learn about the market place is just tremendously invaluable."

While achieving the gold level was made possible by BMO's efforts to employ and advance Aboriginal people, it is also a reflection of the bank's efforts to do business with Aboriginal people as well.

The bank currently has 17 branches that cater directly to Aboriginal communities, 12 located on-reserve, and the other five serving Metis and Inuit communities.

"Some of these branches are actually partnered with the community," Jamieson said. "And what I mean by that is they, the community, participate directly in the profitability of the branch. So we enter into a partnership agreement with a community, we promise to open a branch and equip it and train people to run the branch. But every account that's opened with Bank of Montreal at that branch, the community shares in all fees generated by that account. And every loan that's referred to the bank, they get a fee for that referral. So not only are they getting Aboriginal employees in their community and being trained in the financial service industry, they're actually sharin in the profitability of the branch. So it's a pure partnership in every sense of the word. So like all good partners, if we're working together with the community and they're working with us, we both benefit."

In another unique move, late last year BMO launched a program to provide home renovation loans on-reserve, without any involvement from government. The program is currently offered on 19 reserves across the country, and many more communities are interested in getting involved. The program was created as a way for the bank to try to address on-reserve housing problems, Jamieson said.

"It's not the be all and end all, and we'll never be able to put it on all the reserves in Canada, but it's going a long way to help communities."