The offices will be in Shoal Lake and Virden
Farmers in Manitoba will have two new Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) offices to conduct business at.
Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn and Premier Wab Kinew’s announcement at Manitoba Ag Days revealed MASC offices will be opening in Shoal Lake and Virden.
Choosing those communities for the new offices came after some research.
“We definitely kicked the tires, if you will, on several locations,” Premier Wab Kinew told reporters. “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.”
MASC staff looked at larger vacancies and factored potential travel time into where to locate the service centres, the minister added.
Choosing Shoal Lake and Virden means about 94 per cent of MASC clients will be within one hour of an office.
The locations are scheduled to open by the end of summer and support about 1,600 clients.
Each office will have four full-time employees and one casual staff member.
These MASC offices will provide farmers access to programs like hail insurance, ag loans and others delivered through MASC.
Manitoba’s ag community welcomes the two new locations.
Farmers enjoy doing business in person, and these offices support that.
“Manitoba farmers have been clear in their desire to have access to more in-person services through MASC,” Jill Verwey, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said in a statement. “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.”
Local officials are also pleased to welcome the new offices.
Having an in-person experience helps those who may not have great online connectivity.
“Not everybody has the great internet connectivity to do that kind of (business) online,” Virden Mayor Tina Williams told the Brandon Sun. “There’s a lot to be said for being able to see a person face to face.”
The previous Conservative government in Manitoba closed 21 MASC offices.
Opening these locations is an example of the NDP’s commitment to bringing services to rural communities, the premier said.