Some western Manitoba farmers will soon have a shorter driver to their nearest crop insurance office.
Shoal Lake and Virden will get getting new Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) offices this year, Premier Wab Kinew announced at the opening day of Manitoba Ag Days. He expects those offices to be open by the end of summer.
“We expect that this is going to help some 1,600 clients return to MASC offices,” Kinew told Ag Days attendees.
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Why it matters: Manitoba Ag Days is the largest indoor farm show in Western Canada and runs Jan. 21-23 at the Keystone Centre in Brandon.
The additions will close a gap in MASC service in western Manitoba, Kinew said. He estimated that once the two sites open, 94 per cent of MASC clients will be within an hour’s drive of an office.
“We definitely kicked the tires, if you will, on several potential locations 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 choices,” he told reporters after the announcement.
When asked how the new offices might impact services like the speed of adjuster response, Kinew said that “I think that cutting down on road travel helps to ensure that the turnaround time is much quicker.
“And there’s also the benefit to the local economy in communities where you have rent being paid for these offices. You have people spending money in town on other services, going out to eat, visiting stores and things like that. So there’s really a spin-off effect for the local community, which is part of why we see this as an economic development investment. Certainly this is first and foremost about supporting the ag industry and producers, but if we can ensure that rural economic development goals are being lifted at the same time that we’re giving a boost to producers. I think that’s a win-win situation for everybody.”
Provincial Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn says the plan is for each of the offices to staff four permanent and one part-time employee. He would like those to be new staff, he told reporters Jan. 21, although that has yet to be confirmed.
More Ag Days coverage can be found on our Manitoba Ag Days 2025 landing page.
