From the Smoky Lake Signal, April 10, 2002. Volume 24, Number 47.

Smoky Lake Alberta Agriculture closes

After 64 years of serving the local agricultural community, the Alberta Agriculture Office was officially closed April 1/2002, and in respect to all the farmers and ranchers, who have supported our office, it is only fair that you be informed about the closure.

Alberta Agriculture officials have done very little to inform rural Albertans, for some unknown reason. My phone is ringing constantly as people want answers to this dilemma.

The Smoky Lake office, along with a total of 40 in the province, being now called co-locations will cease extension services, as farmers have known it, between April 1 and May 30. To set the record straight, NO!!, Smoky Lake office is NOT closed because everybody quit, and NO!! the girls' (secretaries) are not still working to provide the service to farmers. The only way that the Smoky Lake Office would have remained open, if it was designated as a Hub office.
About a year ago, plans began to restructure our department of Alberta Agriculture, known as Rural Advisory Services or the district offices. Only 12 of the original offices were named as Hub offices, and remain open to the public. The other 4 Hubs were in fact research stations, which then make a total of 16 offices open. The provincial format of all new positions after the restructuring have a new focus of either value added or processing initiatives. This of course means less time available for working with local primary producers. We were also informed that approximately one third of the staff would be eliminated.

A co-location office, which Smoky Lake is one of, means very little but can be best explained this way. Because the Smoky Lake is co-shared with Crop Insurance staff, Crop Insurance staff people and services will continue the same, remaining open two days a week. It was made very clear to us as staff, that no walk in client service or phone service to farmers would be provided by any co-location offices. No staff, the office is empty, no service, right! However, if you did arrange to meet a new specialist, through contact with one of the "Hub" offices, or the call centre (1-800 #) in Stettler, you could arrange to meet them at the vacant office. But, in reality, if you want to meet someone to discuss an issue specific to your farm, why wouldn't you arrange to meet at your farm, which was a common practice in the past. The new specialists also have the option to work in vacant co-location offices, behind closed doors to catch up on paperwork or projects. Phoning the old office phone #656-3613, you will hear a recording asking you to call the call centre in Stettler, where your general question will be answered over the phone.

As of the end of May, the closest Hub office will be St. Paul and St. Paul, unfortunately will not have a beef specialist either, as of May 31. Camrose will be the only office with a beef specialist in North Eastern Alberta. What has occurred in the Smoky Lake office is happening to about 40 others and their closures will be implemented in stages between now and May 31.
As you can now see, the four of us in the Smoky Lake office had very few options:

1. Leave the department under a voluntary separation.
2. Compete with our co-workers for the new jobs in their Hub areas and report to their Hub office, forcing us to move and leave this community (if in fact we were successful and were hired).

So, as of April 1, this is what the future holds for the Smoky Lake staff. Heather Wirstuk, our part-time CSR (secretary) leaves the department, with her position abolished. Joyce Baschuk, permanent CSR (secretary) leaves Alberta Agriculture as no position was available in Smoky Lake and Joyce and her husband James did not want to relocate to a Hub in a larger centre. Kathleen Ozmun, Rural Development Specialist, is moving out to the Province of Saskatchewan, to begin a new career with the Health Authority out of Saskatoon, starting May 1. As for myself, Don Christensen, Beef Specialist, I left the department, as I would have had to relocate to the call centre as this is the only job that would allow me to work directly with farmers and ranchers. Our family was also not prepared to leave the community, our friends and neighbours.

Together, all of us in the office, have enjoyed over 50 years of combined service and because of all the accomplishments we have seen in our community we leave with a positive attitude.

Thank you for your friendship and support, and the contributions from each of you. Agriculture remains the mainstay and backbone of our community and more importantly our local economy. The sustainability, viability and growth of our agriculture community is something that you, as farmers and ranchers can be proud of.

We thank each and everyone of you, for your commitment to agriculture and wish you continued success in the future. Change is something hard to accept, but as farmers and ranchers, you face change every day, and willingly seek out opportunity.

Thank you for 64 years of continued success.

From the Smoky Lake Signal, Wednesday, April 17, 2002. Volume 24, Number 48.

"New Service delivered New Ways at Alberta Agriculture," says Alberta Agriculture.

What they really did - they closed the offices, fired the staff

Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development has put an upbeat gloss on the closing of agricultural offices throughout the province. In a news release on April 15, the department said that driven by industry demand, Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development has refocussed the kind of advisory services it provides producers and the way it provides them through its industry development sector. "We will continue to support our primary producers while we add more focus to the business of agriculture, value added and processing," said Shirley McClellan, Deputy Premier and Alberta Agriculture minister. "The 2001 Ag Summit clearly showed we need a change in order to grow the agriculture industry to ten billion in primary production and twenty billion in value added production by 2010."

The new industrial development sector, which is the third of three AAFRD sectors to reorganize will include six divisions devoted to business and innovation, processing development, agri-food investment, agri-entrepreneurship, crop diversification and livestock development. These services will be delivered through a network of 18 hub offices and 16 offices co-located with industry partners, as well as 24 points of access. Previously industry development sector employees were located in 51 regional offices and in Edmonton. (It's the regional offices that are being closed.)

Brian Rhiness, assistant deputy minister of the Industrial Development Sector, says negotiations are continuing to provide points of access in four communities: Drayton Valley, Lac La Biche, Morinville and Coronation, which presently do not have an Industry Development Sector or ministry presence. As well, a co-location in the eastern part of the province is under consideration.

"Through our restructuring, we have increased access for producers to pick up forms and information. Our employees are still just a phone call away. As well, our specialists will continue to provide on farm consultation to producers," says Mr. Rhiness. "This restructuring has been nearly four years in the making and will continue to evolve so we can best serve our producers and processors."

(Best serve producers? Yes, that's what it says. This is to help the farming community, closing the ag offices.)

The news release goes on to talk about the new agri-info centre launched April 2, 2002 to provide toll-free telephone access to producers anywhere in the province through one number, 1-866-882-7677. It will operate Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with extended hours during busy times for producers, such as seeding and harvest. The call centre is in addition to web based information.

The Alberta Ag Info Centre will be staffed by resource agents, that's the new term for the district agriculturists/beef specialists who still remain with the department. "They are being drawn from a pool of client service representatives from across the province." That's government talk for they're the last still employed, and they were willing to move.

"The call centre employees are all experienced at handling producer inquiries from simple production problems to diagnosing complex agricultural issues. And if they don't know the answer, they'll be able to direct the caller to anyone of the specialists located across the province." (Who won't be available to go to your farm cause they're too busy with larger areas to serve anyway.)

Only in the last paragraph does the press release tell the real truth about what they have done. "The reorganization will mean a reduction of approximately 145 department employees. Of that number, 36 have chosen the Alberta Government's voluntary severance provisions and 109 have been notified of their position abolishment and will choose either a severance package or the position abolishment process that includes job placement services and other forms of support. The press release is tucked into Alberta Ag weekly news handouts, between news of rust on geraniums causing crop loss and a press release on drought conditions continuing on the prairies.

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