A lot of Portagers have shared the sentiment that Agassiz Youth Centre closing down is a very disappointing decision.

President of the Portage & District Chamber of Commerce Shawn Roulette shares that opinion, saying he's very disappointed in the province's decision to shut down the centre. He notes, that with the closure, we're losing around 100 well-paying jobs and it's the continuation of an unfortunate trend.

"In the past two years we've had the Manitoba Developmental Centre with big closure," notes Roulette. "There was a scale back at Food Development Centre that was over $2,000,000 in the operating budget, and Stevenson Aviation is leaving Southport."

He explains, that while it's good news to hear the land will be turned into the space for the new hospital, he doesn't like how they decided to close the centre for it. He says we've only gained around 200 jobs with Roquette and Simplot projects, while we've lost 550 jobs with the recent closures.

"Our local city and municipal governments work really hard to get private investment supported and did an excellent job," notes Roulette. "But, lately we've seen a lot of closures from provincial government and they've rushed to close things and not really gave us an alternative."

He says the announcement has left some Portagers feeling neglected by the provincial government. He stresses the importance of supporting the local government as they've done what they could for the community and are not responsible for the closure.