The only grocery store in the Opaskwayak Cree Nation is shutting down, laying off dozens of employees.
Forty-seven employees at the IGA store on the first nation were told Wednesday the store will shut down in the next few weeks.
Ginger Martin, interim CEO and president of the Paskwayak Business Development Corporation, which is run through OCN, said the decision was a difficult one.
"We’ve been monitoring the store week to week. We knew it was experiencing some financial struggles already and it was underperforming, and we made that decision to close the store," Martin said by phone Thursday.
Martin said the IGA is the only grocery story in the Otineka Mall. It opened in December of 1975 and is partially owned by the Opaskwayak Cree Nation.
She cites external economic factors and competition in the adjoining community, The Pas, as reasons for the store’s failure.
However, Martin said plans are already being made for another business.
"We are looking at other options," she said. "It is a smaller market. It is difficult when you have to adjust and compete for that smaller market, but other businesses do very well."
