Glacier FarmMedia – Some western Manitoba farmers will soon have a shorter drive to their nearest crop insurance office.
Shoal Lake and Virden will be getting new Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. (MASC) offices this year, premier Wab Kinew announced last month at Manitoba Ag Days. He expects those offices to be open by the end of summer.
“We expect that this is going to help some 1,600 clients return to MASC offices,” Kinew said.
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The additions will close a gap in MASC service in western Manitoba, Kinew said. He estimated that once the two sites open, 94 per cent of MASC clients will be within an hour’s drive of an office.
“We definitely kicked the tires, if you will, on several potential locations while weighing that one-hour drive standard of reaching more people, against the facilities and infrastructure that communities had to offer to host these. Virden and Shoal Lake came out as the consensus choices,” he told reporters after the announcement.
MASC currently operates 10 service centres, with the furthest west being located in Brandon.
Kinew’s government has criticized the 2021 downsizing of provincial agriculture department and MASC offices under the previous government, which saw 21 sites close. At the time, the province argued that it was modernizing services and pointed to virtual and phone options for producers to access service.
When asked how the new offices might affect services such as the speed of adjuster response, Kinew said that “I think that cutting down on road travel helps to ensure that the turnaround time is much quicker.
“And there’s also the benefit to the local economy in communities where you have rent being paid for these offices. You have people spending money in town on other services, going out to eat, visiting stores and things like that.”
Provincial agriculture minister Ron Kostyshyn says the plan is for each of the offices to staff four permanent and one part-time employee. He would like those to be new staff, he told reporters, although that has yet to be confirmed.
“As a farmer for many years … I know the importance of ag insurance,” he said during his his own Ag Days address.
“That is why I am so pleased to take part in the announcement of expanding of the agriculture MASC office(s).”
Merv Starzyk, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Yellowhead, which includes Shoal Lake, also cited lower travel requirements.
“In spite of the fact that much of the information now is available online, there’s nothing like in-person, one-on-one … discussions with people who are in the know,” he said.
The office will “cover a void that did result with the closure of some of the offices in the area,” he added.
“I think it’s going to be a win-win for the producers, win-win for the community and a win, hopefully, for the province.”
Jill Verwey, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, also welcomed the news.
“Manitoba farmers have been clear in their desire to have access to more in-person services through MASC,” she was quoted in a provincial government news release.
“We are pleased to see the government has listened to farmers with this commitment to open two additional service centres in Shoal Lake and Virden.”
Manitoba Beef Producers president Matthew Atkinson expressed similar sentiments.
“MBP had been advocating for there to be more service centres so that our members can access MASC services closer to home, and we thank the provincial government for fulfilling its commitment to open two new offices,” he said in the same release.
