MASC closing 21 offices across province

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This article was published 08/01/2021 (1914 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Twenty-one Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation offices across Manitoba, including 11 in Westman, are being closed permanently as part of what the provincial government is calling a modernization effort for the Crown corporation.

A press release issued on behalf of Agriculture and Resource Management Minister Blaine Pedersen Wednesday afternoon did not specifically mention the closures, instead being announced at the end of an attached backgrounder document.

The following communities are having their MASC offices close as of April 1: Altona, Ashern, Birtle, Deloraine, Fisher Branch, Gladstone, Glenboro, Grandview, Hamiota, Lundar, Morris, Pilot Mound, Russell, Shoal Lake, Somerset, Souris, St-Pierre-Jolys, Ste. Rose du Lac, Teulon, Vita and Waskada.

These communities are keeping their MASC offices as workplaces for employees, but will be closed to the public: Beausejour, Carberry, Carman, Melita, Minnedosa, Neepawa, Portage la Prairie, Roblin and Virden.

Agricultural service centres will remain open in Arborg, Brandon, Dauphin, Headingley, Killarney, Morden, Neepawa, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach and Swan River, while Brandon, Gimli, Lac du Bonnet, The Pas and Thompson will keep service locations focusing on resource management.

Speaking to members of the media on a Thursday morning phone call, Pedersen said no employees will lose their jobs or be forced to move to different communities as a result of these closures and changes. According to him, the corporation will actually start to hire additional staff and invest more into the operation than the minimum $700,000 expected to be saved by the closures.

One of the benefits of this effort will be that Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development will now be able to offer service at some of the same locations that MASC operates out of rather than having separate offices, Pedersen said. Later on, he said the changes have been in the works since departments were realigned in October 2019 in the wake of the previous month’s provincial election.

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“Whether you email, whether you phone or walk in, there’s going to be somebody there who can direct your enquiry to where it should be,” he said. “It centralizes everything from permits and licensing, general enquiry, whatever it is in our department will be able to help you in these 10 service centres.”

Employees at the offices that will no longer be open to the public will focus on water, Crown land, research and technology.

One of the factors in making this decision was the declining numbers of people coming into rural MASC offices. Before COVID-19 forced the offices to close, Pedersen said they averaged one to two people a day coming into these offices for in-person services. Other offices had as few as two people per week visiting.

The minister called the transition of employees switching from working at offices to working at home “fairly seamless so far.”

Asked what support would be given to producers in communities without reliable internet access, Pedersen said he hoped an announcement regarding the province’s effort to expand fibre-optic networks would be coming soon. He also said that farmers have had a lot of practice filing online reports during the nine months that MASC offices have been closed.

While Pedersen touted that the move would free up office spaces in communities losing offices, Keystone Agricultural Producers president Bill Campbell told the Sun by phone that he believes those offices are integral parts of their communities and their losses would be noticeable.

He also worries about the distances that some producers will now have to travel to get in-person service.

“It’s a long way from Tilston to Killarney or Scarth to Neepawa or other (communities) in the southeastern part of the province to get that person-to-person contact,” he said.

As for Pedersen’s promise that no one is losing their jobs, Campbell believes that cuts will still end up happening.

“If we have to travel for services, you can be guaranteed that somebody is going to have to do more travelling to facilitate those features in those central locations. There may be early retirement packages or different aspects like that. The real concern will be in the delivery of the services.”

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