REGINA – Eight Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation offices were closed Monday, putting 60 people out of work.
Provincial agriculture minister Eric Upshall announced customer service offices in Wilkie, Kyle, Wolseley, Wynyard, Canora, Carnduff, Outlook and Melfort will close immediately as the government streamlines crop insurance administration.
As well, contracts with 154 marketing agents who sell insurance, assist customers in completing forms and gather yield data will not be renewed when they expire July 31.
The announcement came less than 24 hours after premier Roy Romanow said, in a televised address, “your government, and this premier, have jobs and growth as our number one priority.”
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Upshall said that priority remains, but people also want the government to make cuts. Unfortunately the government also employs a large number of people in rural Saskatchewan, he said.
“At the end of the day you have to ask yourself the question, ‘Do we tax people to provide a service that could be provided with fewer people?’ It’s a tough call, a fine balance. The priority is there but you have to be pragmatic about things too.”
The closures were recommended in a $97,000 study that suggested the corporation move to less personalized service and greater use of technology.
Fewer than rumored
Rumors that as many as half the 29 customer service offices would close had been circulating for weeks. The Ernst and Young study recommended the number of offices be reduced to between 15 and 20, but Upshall said he decided to “err on the side of caution” and leave 21 open.
Of the 60.5 full-time jobs eliminated, 18 are management and 42 are unionized positions.
These include 29 full-time and 4.5 temporary head office positions at the Melville office, 17 of which were already vacant, and 27 from the customer service offices. Fourteen seasonal temporary employees will also be affected.
The marketing agents will be replaced by direct mail and temporary sales staff during the selling period.
“With the termination of GRIP (Gross Revenue Insurance Plan) there is less need for the same level of personalized service,” said Upshall. “These changes will save taxpayers $5 million a year.”
The minister said information on levels of business activity and distance to other offices was used to decide which locations would close.
Barry Nowoselsky, president of the Sask-atchewan Government Employees’ Union, said the offices should have been left in place until after a review of the crop insurance program.
