1923 George Bevington, who farmed near the present-day Bevington Road in the west end of Edmonton, addressed the House of Commons Committee on Banking and Commerce in May 1923. He supported cheap farm loans and publicly-owned lending institutions. He called for a federal loan department to loan to borrowers through a provincial government-owned bank and through local credit societies.* UFA MP George Coot reported in the pages of the Grain Growers Guide that Bevington received a good reception from the assembled MPs. A defender of the private banking system also spoke to the committee that same day. Labour MP William Irvine (Calgary) asked him a question and as Coote notes, the attitude of the bankers' defender was shown in this answer “I do not understand your question but I would say no anyway.” (GGG, May 1, 1923) The seeds Bevington, Irvine and the UFA MPs planted in the 1923 investigation eventually bore fruit – Canada formed a central bank to restrain and regulate the private banks in the 1930s. As well the UFA government in the 1920s and the Social Credit government in the late 1930s passed laws to prevent many foreclosures. The theory being that the banks and the farmers were partners in the farm loan and repayment contract, and if farms suffer due to low prices for farm products and/or droughts, which many were in the 1920s and 1930s in Alberta so should banks. * The UFA did not take the radical steps proposed by Bevington nor did the federal government but Aberhart's Social Credit government did. After its election in 1935, a provincial bank was set up as branches of the provincial government Treasury department – Alberta Treasury Branches (ATB) are still in operation today, the only government-owned bank in North America that serves the public. Credit unions are also common and profitable.
Tom Monto
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