Mayors welcome province’s announcement

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The mayors of Virden and Shoal Lake welcomed Premier Wab Kinew’s formal announcement on Tuesday about the province opening up two new offices of the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC), which they said would allow farmers better access to the services provided by these regional hubs.

Applause rang out across a crowd of about 200 attendees at the Keystone Centre as Kinew made the announcement during the opening day of this year’s Manitoba Ag Days event, saying MASC offices in Virden and Shoal Lake are expected to open before the end of the summer.

He further noted the province chose Virden and Shoal Lake as the locations for the new MASC offices because they would offer a “dramatic improvement” in terms of physical presence.

The province is also looking to maximize the number of clients that are within an hour’s drive of a MASC office, and set up in central communities. For that reason, Virden and Shoal Lake were great options, Kinew said.

“We definitely kicked the tires, if you will, on several potential locations,” said Kinew. “And 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.”

Roughly 1,600 clients are set to be served by the new offices, he added. It will bring the Crown corporation up to a roughly 94 per cent coverage, in terms of the number of clients in Manitoba that are within an hour’s driving range.

MASC offers financial services to producers, such as loans and crop insurance.

A closure from the past provincial government in 2021 had resulted in 21 MASC locations being shuttered. The move created a lack of service in Westman, Kinew said. Re-introducing two offices this year in Virden and Shoal Lake was “another step” toward fulfilling his campaign promise to spread provincial services into rural areas, the premier pointed out.

“That’s our commitment to you: more services closer to home, supporting the ag industry, supporting producers.”

Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn also joined Kinew at Tuesday’s announcement. Kostyshyn said it was a particularly important today to keep farmers connected with risk management services.

“We as producers could do whatever we’ve been educated to do in the proper procedure, but at the end of the day, there’s only so much that we can do, and often Mother Nature has its own mindset, and I think today is an indication of the importance of business risk insurance through MASC,” said Kostyshyn.

He added that roughly 90 per cent of crops grown in Manitoba are covered by crop insurance.

Virden Mayor Tina Williams told the Sun on Tuesday that the community warmly welcomes the new office. She said the physical location will be a big improvement over the long drives to Brandon, or the internet meetings that community members turned to beforehand.

“Not everybody has the great internet connectivity to do that kind of (business) online,” said Williams. She added digital meetings have a place but for many people in farming and in business, “There’s a lot to be said for being able to see a person face to face.”

After the announcement on Tuesday, Rural Municipality (RM) of Yellowhead Mayor Merv Starzyk told the Sun an office was well deserved. He said there has always been a need in the community, and described the absence in recent years as a void.

“I think it’s just fantastic in several ways,” said Starzyk. “It’ll be a great thing for the region.”

The mayor added that in modern times, lots of young farmers were able to use online services. But he said that many continued to travel from the area to get in-person meetings at offices in neighbouring communities, a problem that they won’t face much longer.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com