- by Anne Finlay-Stewart

Every once in a while you hear the story on the radio - bank balances sitting unclaimed - secret treasures.  I've looked a few times on the Bank of Canada website myself, hoping that a small fortune had slipped my mind.  The hunt, of course, is the most entertaining part - although I would not turn down a few dollars if they happened to be in my name.

When I was sure that I could not delight my immediate family or friends with a surprise bonanza, I was reluctant to give up the search.  I began to look beyond personal names, and into organizations, some of whom I could not trace. Mysteries deepened.

To claim an unclaimed balance you have to prove that you are entitled to the contents of that particular account.  No problem if it is in your name, or you are a legal heir, but it gets a little trickier if it is an organization - especially a defunct one.  This is the reason that the Letters Patent of a non-profit corporation have a disolution clause to describe what will happen to their assets if they cease to operate. If the organization is a charity, and they have been issuing tax receipts, their assets must go to another Canadian charity or charities.  But what if it is a club, or a loose association, particularly one that was formed and perhaps disolved before all the post-9/11 anti-money laundering banking rules came into effect?

So I put some names out to you, loyal readers, to put out to your networks until the great Venn-diagram of Grey County and beyond has reunited this money with its rightful owners, or has had to concede it to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, a.k.a. The Crown.

How about Northern Grey Bruce Men's Slowpitch, c/o Ted Sobczak of Hepworth, who left $210.92 in Canada Trust in September 1990?  Or The Greens in Grey who had $73.13 in TD Bank in Owen Sound in 1993?  What might the Grey Bruce Region Auto Collision Association be - because they left a whopping $3,935.03 in the CIBC in Flesherton back in 1999. Now their mail may have been hard to deliver, because the Bank of Canada has their address as Box 55, Fisherton - and the nearest one of those I can find is in Manitoba, near the Roy Lake Game Bird Refuge.

Does anyone know Martina Rowswell, once of the South Grey Inn?  Or the Grey Bruce Industrial Training Committee?

I'll be adding more names, and I encourage you to write to us with stories about these organizations, or treasures, or whatever you think will intrigue your fellow Hub afficianados.  There may even be rewards or reunions. We await the news!