Chapter 9
Expansion and the Computer Age - the 1960's
he 1960's were a continuation of the expansion phase started in the late 1950's. In 1960, an office was opened in Winnipeg with Bruce Bays as Manager. He later became Assistant Manager of the company in 1974. In 1975, he left the Company to join a rival mutual in Saskatchewan, where at this time his is General Manager.
 Bruce Bays |
In 1963, a St. Catharines, Ontario, office was opened. Hugh Owens was transferred to run the Edmonton Branch in 1964. |
From 1960 on, the Company expanded on many fronts. Windsor and Don Mills, Ontario, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Vancouver B.C.
McCartney was born in 1941 and raised on a mixed farm near Portage. He is currently Past-President of the Portage Rotary Club, Past President of the Insurance Institute of Manitoba, and Western Vice Chairman of the Insurance Institute of Canada. Tom is a fellow of the Institute (F.I.I.C.). |
The 1960's saw several big changes in The Portage Mutual both outwardly and inwardly. On the inside, new policies were being developed offering tenants' and the homeowners' insurance packages. The composite or farm umbrella policy was also being updated with the addition of "floaters" for livestock.
On the outside, changes included a new $300,000 building completed in 1961 on Saskatchewan Avenue.
| BOARD OF DIRECTORS - 1961 |
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'BEST IN WEST'
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The two storey building comprised about 13,000 square feet, more than enough for several expansions to come. In fact, it was designed to handle six times the 1959 business. Behind the 110-foot long building was a twenty car parking lot. Private offices, reception desks and general underwriting offices are on the main floor for convenience of customers. The lower floor houses the large storeroom and a records storage room. Zone control heating and cooling allows individual area control.
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| PREMIER DUFF ROBLIN, at right, cuts the ribbon to officially open the new Portage Mutual head office here Tuesday. Looking on are J.C. Miller, QC, president of the company and general manager E.M. Brown. |
A computer, the latest in office automation was soon to be added. The Company had come a long way from 1895 when the typewriter had not yet entered the picture and a letter press to copy handwritten letters was the latest in office equipment.
The earliest mention of a typewriter was an Empire in 1896, soon followed by Underwood. A Burroughs adding machine was added in 1907 and in 1918, the first dictating machine, an Ediphone was added to inventory. A cheque-writer followed the same year.
The 1932 Pitney Bowes mailing machine was modern a wonder as was the Gestetner duplicator about the same time. In 1946 the Company's first printing press was purchased for personalizing company advertising. Two more presses would come and go until the present modern offset press that can print nearly every form the company needs.
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| "1895" | "1946" | "1984" |
During the 1950's, manual typewriters fell by the wayside and were replaced by new, efficient electric models. In 1981, electronic typewriters began replacing the outdated electric machines.
The accounting department was updated in the 1950's with the purchase of Elliot-Fisher billing machines. In 1966, the bulky IBM 403 Tabulator was installed, the first computer, followed by the IBM System 3 in 1972 and the sleek and quiet Burroughs model 1855 in 1983.
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| PORTAGE MUTUAL DIRECTORS look over some of the new computing equipment recently installed in the head office here. Shown are, left to right, Lawrence Smith, John Labatt, J.T. Trimble, company manager E.M. Brown, Neil H. Muir, E.D. Alder, QC, president J.C. Miller, QC (partially hidden) and D.L. Campbell. Back to camera is Bill Watson, in charge of the computing system. - 1966 |
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| Programmers at work on the new Model B1800. Ken Metcalfe and John Mitchell |
Many who started at The Portage Mutual, and went on to higher positions in the Company, had no post-high school education, although a good number have taken insurance courses to hone their insurance knowledge. In the 1930's, courses with the Insurance Institute of America, and later in the 40's with the Insurance Institute of Canada, were company training requisites. Members who complete the courses gain firstly the Associate (A.I.I.C.) designation, and then go one to the Fellowship (F.I.I.C.).
Present-day Associates are Gary Park, Branch Manager of Edmonton; Randy Clark, Branch Manager of Vancouver; Harry Woodward, Senior Underwriter at Head Office, Al Connors, Adjustor at Edmonton; & Doug Mockford, adjuster at St. Catharines.
Those with the Fellowship designation are Hugh Owens, Tom McCartney and Les Green, all of Head Office.
While The Portage Mutual was prospering and preparing to move into its new offices, farmers were again facing disastrously low wheat crops in 1960. But in 1961, prices rose to just under $2 per bushel in the mid 1960's and prosperity returned to farming.
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| "At the Fair" - 1963 |
For The Portage Mutual, the 1960's brought renewed growth. In 1960, the Company had $1.55 million in premium income and $1.74 the following year; ten years later that figure would increase by nearly five times. Interestingly, the Company's success was by now being measured by its premium income rather than total dollars in risk. Based on its volume of risks written, including some liability policies alone worth several million dollars each, the figure would likely be in the billions of dollars.
Today, The Portage mutual has roughly one-third of its business as farm policies, one-third as residential and commercial, and the remaining one-third in automobile coverage.
The late 1960's were a heady time for many Canadians as the country celebrated its Centennial in 1967. The following year, a charismatic man would be elected to one of the longest terms as Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
| In 1968, J.F. (Jack) Mitchell, C.A., replaced Jack Roberts as Treasurer of the Company. He came well-qualified for the ever increasing responsibilities of this position. He was born in Winnipeg, educated in the schools there and the University of Manitoba in 1950. His interests range from reading to horses to hockey, and he is presently Vice President of the Portage Fair Board. |
It was in 1968 that The Portage Mutual began the writing of "extra" coverages, such as liability, glass and floaters, for smaller farm mutuals. King's Mutual of Berwick, Nova Scotia, was the first of these. Later in the 70's, they made similar arrangements with five other mutuals in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Since the beginning, this has worked out to the "mutual advantage" of all concerned.
All in all, the 60's were a time of expansion and growth, much to the credit of the forward-looking Directors and Management. It provided a good spring-board for what was to transpire in the 70's.
| THE PORTAGE MUTUAL REMEMBERS 1969 |
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| Please note: The information provided within this page was originally published in 1984. Any "current", "new", "present" or other such references within this information were correct in 1984 but are not necessarily so now. |
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For quality coverage, personalized service and security, ask your independent broker about Portage Mutual Insurance.
Head Office
749 Saskatchewan Avenue East
P.O. Box 340
Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
Canada R1N 3B8
e-mail us at: info@portagemutual.com
© 1999 The Portage la Prairie Mutual Insurance Company. All rights reserved.
