“It is really just cleaning up a piece of land they have used, so their equipment would be on their land. They have had access to it for years. This would be a benefit to them and the municipality.”
Sid Braybrook, the general manager of the Boissevain Western Archrib plant, said the road has already been closed off to through traffic and they wanted to purchase the property from the municipality. He said Boissevain-Morton, or the Town of Boissevain before it, never maintained the street in that portion, which became well known for being quite muddy when weather was not cooperative. He said the hope is they can improve the drainage there to help with that in the future, saying anything done on the street not by Western Archrib itself is great.
The company is in the middle of an expansion project, which was announced in the summer of 2019. In order to stay competitive in the cross-laminated timber market, there were changes necessary, ones that were budgeted at about $3 million. This included the addition to shop three with new equipment, a new finger joint machine in shop one, and eventually, the addition of more employees. The shop three part of the project, which is where the framing and staining will be done, is nearly completed. Other aspects have been slowed down due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
Braybrook said permanently closing the street and taking ownership of the area would simply make the expansion, and regular work, simpler.
“We want to be able to move material from shop one to shop three easier,” Braybrook explained. “This would allow for better flow.”
The hope is the expansion work can continue in 2021, with completion in 2022. The idea is to increase their productivity and add a second eight-hour shift. In 2019, they estimated they could increase their FBM (foot board measure) by 50% when completed.
Swanson said neighbours in the direct area would have been contacted about the hearing. Should the closure and sale pass there will be a few moves that will have to be made. It will have to go through Land Titles, and municipal maps will have to be changed to show it is not a street anymore.
What exactly will happen will depend on the hearing, Swanson stated. If there are concerns brought up, they will deal with them. Their basic idea is to help an expanding business do just that.
“They are doing an expansion and it is a good thing for this community,” Swanson stated. “We don’t want to hinder them. We are working with this company to make it easier on them to expand.”
The whole idea makes sense, Braybrook added. Western Archrib has been using it for years, and it is the only piece of street in town never to be paved by the municipality. He said it was closed long ago, but no one could find record of it.
“We just want to control the area and move ahead with better access and material handling,” he said.

by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff