The province is closing nine offices of the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation as part of its deficit reduction efforts.
Sixteen people will lose their jobs, 14 vacant positions won’t be filled, and seven employees have been offered transfers to other branches, said AFSC spokesperson Nikki Booth.
As of May 1, eight branches will be closed, in Cardston, Lloydminster, Fort Vermilion, Valleyview, Slave Lake, Castor, Rocky Mountain House, and Fort Saskatchewan. AFSC’s Airdrie and Calgary branches will be combined into one office, at a location to be determined.
The soon-to-be-closed branches didn’t serve enough producers to be viable, said Booth.
“We looked at how many clients were served by all of our offices and determined that some of these offices were servicing as few as five clients,” she said.
AFSC should not see any disruption in service when their accounts are transferred to nearby branches, said Booth.
The closures will see the number of AFSC offices fall from 55 to 46.
