‘Opportunity to celebrate’: province opens MASC offices in Virden, Shoal Lake

VIRDEN — A pair of Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. offices — closed in 2021 under the Progressive Conservative government — have been reopened in Westman.

Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn visited Virden on Friday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at one site, with the other opening in Shoal Lake.

“It’s definitely an opportunity to celebrate,” Kostyshyn said.

The two new MASC office locations will provide in-person services for clients in the agriculture industry.

The provincial Crown corporation provides farmers with services such as insurance, lending and data. For the past four years, the only way to access such services in the area was online or by driving to urban centres like Brandon.

Kostyshyn referred to the closures by the previous Tory government briefly during his speech. “They closed ’em, we’re opening ’em,” the NDP cabinet minister said.

The Virden grand-opening event was held inside the new MASC office at 297 Seventh Ave. S. Dozens of people were in attendance, including Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard, MASC chair John Plohman and Association of Manitoba Municipalities vice-president Scott Phillips.

There will be four full-time employees each at the Virden and Shoal Lake (312 Elm St.) branches, Kostyshyn said. In total, the professional impact were eight net new jobs across the two offices and some internal movement of existing provincial employees.

Virden Mayor Tina Williams said community members have been excited about the news.

Since the new MASC sign went up on the building this week, she has heard lots of positive feedback from farmers, Williams said on Friday. The sites are important, she added, because a lot of farmers prefer to deal face-to-face rather than over the phone or online.

“I did speak with a younger one who said she was quite happy that it’s coming here,” Williams said. “It’s nice to see people’s faces … Farmers want to walk into a place and see a person.”

When Brandon was the nearest MASC office, it meant people would have to leave the community to make the trip for insurance services, the mayor said. Now that Virden has an office, she expects such traffic to stay in town and add some visits from outside the area, which should be good for business.

In an interview after his speech, Kostyshyn said the new offices were located in spots where they would reduce the distance many farmers had to travel and bring those services as close as possible to the largest number of clients.

“You can’t beat personalized intervention,” he said. “There’s a lot more accomplished than going on social media and online. It’s a lot more of a personal service.”

— Brandon Sun