By Curtis Galbraith

AFSC closing five offices, including Spirit River and High Prairie

Mar 19, 2021 | 2:47 PM

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – The Agriculture Financial Services Corporation says it is streamlining in light of a tighter provincial budget.

AFSC says its one-employee offices in Spirit River and High Prairie will be amalgamated into neighbouring offices.

CEO Darryl Kay says clients would have options where they could move their business.

“In terms of Spirit River, there are probably a few options. We’re not necessarily mandating where they go. There are likely a number of clients that will go to Fairview and some additional ones that will go to Grande Prairie. In the case of High Prairie, we’re likely seeing a shift to Falher. We’re trying to make sure that the impact on clients is minimized.”

He adds AFSC wants to work with the government in what he calls ‘difficult financial times.’

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“Each one of the branches we looked at were one-person branches, employees working alone in those isolated branches. Each one only offered one of our programs, insurance, only one product line, relatively low client traffic and low client levels, and offices in fairly close proximity that were nearby that we could transfer clients and transfer team members to.”

Kay says all the staff involved are still with AFSC and have a choice of what office they want to work out of next. He adds clients often go to other places for other business, so is hoping that helps with the move.

Besides the office closures, the Spring Price Endorsement program will be discontinued immediately. The 20 per cent top-up for the Wildlife Damage Compensation Program will also be eliminated, though Kay says clients will still be compensated for wildlife damage.

“What we’ve seen in the past, in the case of the federal government, they’re only required to pay 80 per cent of a claim. We’ve always paid that additional 20 per cent, that top-up. When we try to find savings and work with the government to help them in a difficult budget situation, this was another program that we felt was important to keep intact but was a way for us to save some funds.”

Kay says there was no federal government money to help pay for the Spring Price Endorsement Program and less than 10 per cent of crop insurance clients also took part in this program. He adds there are what he calls “private sector options” that can be used instead.

Offices in Rimbey, Smoky Lake and High River are also being amalgamated with others nearby. Kay says Rimby clients and employees could go to Ponoka or Lacombe, Smoky Lake can go to Thorhild, St. Paul or Lamont, and High River can go to Vulcan or Claresholm.