The Lake Cowichan branch of Westland Insurance, the only insurance company in the area, will be closing on Oct. 31.
Westland spokeswoman Shannon Turner said the main reason for the decision to close the branch is due to staffing shortages, which has seen Westland having to reduce its operating hours in recent months.
“Our goal at Westland is to provide exceptional service to our clients and to provide opportunities for our staff, but we’ve been having trouble at the Lake Cowichan branch keeping our employee levels up,” she said.
“The location is not the best for recruiting the staff we need, so we had to make the difficult decision to close the branch.”
Turner said the Lake Cowichan branch currently has two employees, and they will be given opportunities to continue work with the company.
She said Westland is encouraging its clients at the Lake Cowichan branch to use the two Westland branches in Duncan or the one in Mill Bay for their insurance needs, and clients can also go to Westland’s website for insurance quotes and renewals, or use email or call its 1-800 number.
Lake Cowichan Mayor Tim McGonigle said the town has lost a number of other financial institutions recently as well, including branches of TD Canada Trust and the Royal Bank of Canada.
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But he said there are rumours that another insurance company is considering setting up shop in Lake Cowichan in the near future, but couldn’t provide further details at this time.
McGonigle said that with many people now having to drive to Duncan or further for their financial and insurance needs, it’s not helping with meeting lowering green-house gas emissions targets.
He also said that while many in the younger generations may be comfortable with going online for their financial needs, a lot of older people in the Lake Cowichan area are not.
“Older people tend to like one-on-one personal connections when dealing with these issues,” McGonigle said.