The establishment of a credit union system was a significant phase in the co-operative movement in the Maritimes. A credit union was simply a small co-operative bank, which takes care of the savings of its members and enables them to secure short term loans when needed, at reasonable rates. Moreover, the interest paid to the credit union was partly returned to the member as a dividend. The credit union also enabled each member to help not only himself but his fellow members as well. Each member obtained a greater control of finance and distribution. The credit union was a necessary solution to the problems that arose from buying with credit at the Co-operative Store.

Father Jimmy Tompkins became acquainted with credit unions while still an administrator and professor at St. Francis Xavier University. He learned of the work of Alphonse Desjardins of Quebec and how he began a credit union called Caisses Populaires, a credit union. In fact, in his pamphlet, Knowledge For the People, Father Jimmy described the work of Mr. Desjardins and of how he used his home as the credit union and of how his wife kept the books of the new financial institution.

Father Jimmy believed that credit unions were an appropriate tool through which adult education could be administered. He believed that before people could set up their own credit union, they would have to first establish study clubs to learn how to operate such an enterprise. Thus, in creating a credit union the people would be creating a system of adult education.

Father Jimmy believed that credit unions would be a natural avenue to rid the people of some of their poverty. The large banks wouldn't loan the common man any money. By creating credit unions the common people would be loaning their own money to each other. To Father Jimmy a credit union was more than a bank owned by its members. It was also a tool to promote solidarity and group action among its participants. It was a form of 'brotherly love'. He once described a credit union. "You simply take what extra money you have-the savings in your sock-and let you neighbor use it a while, only you don't demand his right arm for security."

In the United States Ray F. Bergengren was working at establishing credit unions throughout that country. As early as 1924, Father Jimmy became acquainted with his work and believed that such a financial institution would benefit the fishermen in the Canso area. He said as much in a letter to Morse A. Cartwright in December, 1924.

Mr. Bergengren is immensely interested in the new visions that are coming to him......

Capital must be decentralized (in Canada). Our Branch Banking is making us a glorified branch notion all along the line. I notice in Canso for instance - an important fishing center - that the people are poorer and more dependent today than they were twenty years ago. They damn the place, their employment and their employers. They do not know what the matter is, and they are too poor and too ignorant to find out for themselves. The reason back of it all is that they are being exploited by fish firms owned by men in Montreal and anywhere else but Canso. Montreal banks will give money to Montreal men, but Canso has no money to help encourage Canso brains. And so we become, as I said, a branch people, and a few places hundreds or thousands of miles away skim off the cream, which goes into the pockets of the very few- not the best place to keep cream, but you will forgive the figure. That is the reason I am so interested in the work of Mr. Bergengren. He is doing necessary and fundamental work and , if it is not done, education may only increase unrest.

In 1931 Mr. Bergengren came to Nova Scotia at the request of the leaders of the Extension Department of St.F.X. to speak at the annual Rural Conference. In fact, it was Father Jimmy who suggested that he be invited. The clergy present at the coference were so impressed that they decided to introduce credit unions to the people of Nova Scotia. The governement drafted legislation, which Mr. Bergengren helped to write, and which was enacted in 1932. It permitted the establishment of credit unions in Nova Scotia.

Another dream of Father Jimmy Tompkins was closer to reality. Since 1918 he had advocated the creation of credit unions as a solution to the financial hardships that people suffered. In Canso his study clubs studied the idea and techiques of credit unions. His students had been studying credit unions for two years prior to 1932 but the absence of government legislation precluded their creation.

In deference to Father Jimmy, the leaders of the Extension Department decided soon after the enactment of the necessary legislation to travel to Canso to work at creating the provinces first credit union. Ray Bergengren, Dr. Moses M. Coady and Dr. A.B . MacDonald set out on a December day in 1932. However, they encountered a snow storm that prevented them from travelling all the way to Canso. The three gentlemen decided to travel to Cape Breton instead.

Mr. Bergengren and Mr. MacDoanld would first travel to Broad Cove and talk with the people about forming a credit union. The following night Dr. Coady would meet them in Reserve Mines to attempt to form one there. Both communities were receptive in the formation of credit unions and, because the group in Reserve Mines acted quicker and received its charter first, Reserve Mines has the distinction of having the first credit union in the province of Nova Scotia.

When Father J. J. Tompkins came to Reserve Mines in 1933 he found himself faced with a different problem than that which he had to contend with in Canso. The people were mostly engaged in mining; so he promptly adjusted his techniques to suit the needs of the place. The people of Reserve were entirely dependant on the the local mining organization to support them both economically and physically. Their incomes were looked after by company supervisors without the benefit of their own personal input. Food and services were purchased at company stores and deducted from the week’s earnings. Even their housing, before Tompkins arrived, was entirely controlled by the local industry.

From this humble beginning in Reserve many large bureaucratic Credit Unions have risen throughout Nova Scotia. However these establishments still share the philosophy that J. J. Tompkins and M. Coady had when they first began to speak out in Reserve - a deep and personal interest in their fellow man. Dr. Tompkins took a leading role in the development of the Reserve Mines Credit Union. It was through education and discussion that the humble miners of Reserve came together to bring about this establishment. One of the Credit Union's main participants, Tompkins spearheaded the ideas and interests that shaped the new society in Reserve Mines. An organization of people helping people became the norm for this region.

The Reserve Mines Credit Union was started on March 2, 1933 with 43 members and a Share Capital of $37.00. This was the first charter issued in Nova Scotia and is dated January 10, 1933. The first business day of the Credit Union was March 3rd, also the first pay-day. The office itself was set up in close proximaty to the colliery pay-office.

Following the creation of the credit union in Reserve Mines, other communities took notice and began to form their own. Father Jimmy, in Canso and Little Dover, established credit unions in both places. Soon many communities could boast of having their very own credit union. By the end of 1938 there existed 150 credit unions in Nova Scotia total assets of $605,000. Their total gross business totaled to $1,500,000. Over the years the growth of credit unions continued. By 1960 there were over 400 credit unions in the Maritimes with a total revenue of over thirty million dollars. (To get an idea of the growth of credit unions by county, see the following chart).