HISTORY OF THE LAKE VIEW CREDIT UNION

In the early 1940s after the Great Depression, the people in the Dawson Creek area of northern British Columbia (BC) were suffering financially along with the rest of Canada.  The chartered banks were running a tight ship, and credit was only available under impossible conditions. The economy was exhausted; the "banks were not lending money and homesteaders relied on moose meat and frozen potatoes" (from the obituary of Garda Orr (Mortenson)). As a result, a group of co-operatively minded individuals formed together, conducted research, formed study groups, and discussed the possibility of incorporating a credit union in the area.

On July 28th, 1943 a group of future credit union members collaborated late in the evening at the Lake View schoolhouse. At the time twelve members were required to form a credit union; the Lake View group only had eleven. According to long term board member Dwain Clease," they met to form the credit union and put up their six dollars. They put up fifty cents a piece by 12 of them. In fact they didn't have enough for the twelfth so they went down the road and got Mrs. Golata, who was the schoolteacher, to come up and join in her nightshirt almost. They got her out of bed...to join and to add her fifty cents."

At the' eleventh hour' the original twelve charter members were Gunnar Mortenson, Ben Miller, Wm. Conn, A.R. Crull, Hans Larson, Ralph Lefferson, Bert Faulkner, Homer Stevenson, Ruby Stevenson, Arnold Ebert, Harry Wood and Elizabeth Golata (The Lake View Credit Union, Ruby Stevenson).

Lake View Credit Union (LVCU) received its charter and opened its doors to the public in August 1943. The office for this fledgling financial institution was originally located in the northeast corner of the Dawson Creek Retail Co-op - consisting only of orange crates and a cash box.

Gunnar Mortenson, who was the credit union's first general manager, walked seven miles from his home to open the office every Saturday afternoon. As a result of his hard work and determination, the title of LVCU's chief pioneer is attributed to Mortenson. He handled all Lake View's borrowing and lending, and volunteered countless hours. After three years of dedication to the credit union, on April 1,1946 Mortenson received his first paycheck for $150 as manager of Lake View.
The efforts of the credit union's original members paid off. By December 31,1943, only four months since it's opening, the membership had grown to 76 with a share capital of $2,114.

One year later in September 1944 the credit union had 141 members and a share capital of $25,820. The growth "developed out of lending money on a handshake…when you loan money to someone on a handshake, you basically have put your value in the man's handshake" (Dwain Clease, 2001). This approach allowed Lake View Credit Union to grow quickly. In its formative years LVCU had the distinction of being one of the fastest growing credit unions in British Columbia.