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On July 21, MHPSA said it would “restructure and streamline” its manufacturing operations in Saskatoon. The company later confirmed that it will shutter its Saskatoon manufacturing division on Oct. 15, resulting in about 150 layoffs.

After being informed of the changes, one of the affected employees said in a now-deleted Facebook post that the company’s Saskatoon workers “saw it coming but didn’t know how bad it was going to be.”

MHPSA said the decision was “fundamental to realizing cost synergies” after the global joint venture Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems was created in 2014, and that its power division — which employs about 40 people — would be unaffected.

On Thursday, Fernandez said the company’s power division employees will remain in Saskatoon “in some form, way or fashion,” regardless of what happens to the facility.

MHPSCA’s Saskatoon plant opened in 1988 with 30 employees and has expanded several times since, according to the company. By 2005, it covered 200,000 square feet and employed 300 people, MHSPCA said on its website.

The plant, which sits on a 21-acre industrial property, is by “quite a margin” the largest manufacturing facility in Saskatoon, meaning it could take months before a potential buyer or user is found, according to CBRE vice president Michael Bratvold.

CBRE will market the property not just in Saskatoon, but across the country and around the world, and will consider a wide range of options as it spends the next few months developing a list of potential users, Bratvold said.

“Our goal is to find a user, but we’re obviously going to be very flexible.”

amacpherson@postmedia.com

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