Happy 80th Birthday 
Today ATB’s Rocky Mountain House branch celebrates its 80th anniversary. ATB’s history page contains a picture of the branch under the title of “providing hope.” The branch was located inside the Forest Services office. According to Alf Hooke’s memoire 30+5 I know, I was there (Edmonton, Institute of Applied Art, 1971):
“When Mr Aberhart realized that his government would not be permitted to control the credit of the province in accordance with the legislation that had already been passed and later disallowed, other means of accomplishing, at least to some degree, a measure of control of the issuance of credit were sought. The first Treasury Branch opened on September 29th, 1938 in Rocky Mountain House and on September 30th branches were opened in 
Andrew, Edmonton, Grand Prairie, Killam and Saint Paul…..
The public was encouraged to make deposits of cash in the treasury branches in exactly the same way as they would in a bank. A campaign was carried out by the Social Credit Board encouraging the purchase of Alberta-made goods. The slogan “What Alberta makes, makes Alberta,” was adopted, copyrighted and widely publicized. Alberta manufactureres were contacted and their support for the Treasury Branch system solicited….
In order not to contravene the Bank Act, customers of the Treasury Branch paid for their purchases in non-negotiable transfer vouchers. On each voucher was a space for noting the amount of Alberta – made goods or other goods for which the voucher was tendered.
Once again, violent opposition was shown on the part of Chambers of Commerce, big business, Banks and other financial institutions generally, as campaigns were organized to discourage the use by any one of the transfer vouchers.” pp. 147-148.
You can almost sense the great excitement with which this radical experiment was greeted by the people of Alberta. “Treasury Branch,” as it was fondly known in rural Alberta, has grown to a $53 billion financial institution owned by the provincial government. ATB Financial currently operates in 244 communities with 753,000 customers and a branch network of 175 branches and 141 agencies.
I worked at ATB between 1996 and 2009 during which profound changes took place in the governance and management of this organization. In October 1997 when the Alberta Treasury Branches Act was proclaimed, the law required a five year review of the continuance of ATB. Over the years at ATB, these reviews and legislative debates were pro forma. So long as ATB motored along without controversy, why should be public be interested and why rock the boat?
In an effort to highlight the scale of ATB’s operations, its influence on the provincial economy, and to inject needed debate, the
Parkland Institute released a study of ATB. The study, co-authored by Mark Anielski and myself is entitled
Alberta’s Public Bank: How ATB Can Help Shape the New Economy. Our timing could not have been worst as the release coincided with the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal on Trans Mountain.
Our paper emphasizes the incredible power that ATB holds in the money creation process. Anielski and I believe that ATB could perform other functions to assist the province’s economy. Our most innovative and radical recommendation is to mandate that ATB operate on a cost-recovery basis. This would mean that borrowers would pay lower rates of interest. We calculate for ATB to recover its costs, including a provision for loan losses, it could loan money at about 2.5 per cent. Other recommendations include repairing ATB’s capital adequacy rules by eliminating phoney capital; capital that Canada’s banks would not be allowed to count. Other measures include the use of ATB for loans to Albertans and Alberta businesses to support Alberta’s Climate Leadership plan. A key tenet would be a convenant between executive management and the government that all lending decisions are made independent of the government.