AGI Westeel announces plans to close Tisdale location

AGI Westeel announced that they will close operations in Tisdale by September.

Paul Brisebois, AGI Canada’s senior vice-president, said they have about 40 employees at the location. AGI Westeel, a division of AGI, offers storage products for grain, water, petroleum and industrial use.

“The level of investment that would be required in Tisdale is 10 times the amount that would be required in our other facilities,” Brisebois said.

“[Employees] continue to work through the decommissioning of the facility. It’s a unionized facility so we will be meeting with union representatives to discuss the decommissioning plans and severance matters.”

For office and managerial employees, Brisebois said they will be meeting to discuss plans to either work remotely or the potential to transfer to AGI’s location in Nobleford, Alta.

“It’s regrettable that we’re announcing this. We’ve had a very good run with regards to the business in Tisdale,” he said. “We definitely feel for the employees, we feel for the town, but it was a decision we needed to make in order to have a sustainable product line moving forward that has the potential to grow.”

Brisebois said they will be looking to sell AGI owned property in Tisdale after operations finish.

Al Jellicoe, Tisdale’s mayor, said the town was made aware of the decision to close the location through a letter from the company on Jan. 11, which informed the town that the decision had already been made.

“Some would say it’s devastating to the town,” Jellicoe said.

“This was a shock to the town because we’ve talked with them before over the years. Back in 2020 they were going to shut down for a few months and then they got busy.”

In response, Jellicoe said the town will be attempting to attract new industry that can use the buildings.