CORNWALL – The city is signing on the dotted line again for white-label automated teller machines (ATMs) in its recreational facilities.
On Monday, council authorized the corporation to enter into another three-year deal, this time with Access Cash General Partnership (GP), to have ATMs in the Benson Center, Aquatic Center and the Cornwall Civic Complex.
The bylaw was passed with no discussion.
The agreement also allows for two additional one year contract extensions.
Access Cash bills itself as the largest white-label ATM provider in Canada with over 10,000 machines across Canada and the United States, according to its website.
The machines are not affiliated to any one bank and using them typically includes a sizable service fee, not including the service fee charged by your own financial institution.
As far as the deal with the City of Cornwall, a spokesperson for Access Cash told Cornwall Newswatch that “everything is open to negotiation” and there isn’t a set agreement for municipalities.
The city receives monthly revenue from each machine, plus a royalty for each transaction and it’s been a revenue generator for the city. But the deal has been a money maker for the corporation.
According to the city’s Request for Proposal document, between 2014 and August 2016, the city made $18,565 from the machines. (That was $6,911 from the civic complex, $2,735 from the Aquatic Center and $8,919 from the Benson Center).
During that time were were 6,189 transactions at the civic complex, 1,937 at the Aquatic Center and 8,307 at the Benson Center.
Cornwall Purchasing Supervisor Nicole Robertson told Cornwall Newswatch the ATMs won’t affect the availability of payment via Interac for city services at its facilities.
Third party ATMs have been in place since 2012.