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Weyburn business fills a need for cashier shields

A request for shields for tellers at the Weyburn Credit Union led John Hulbert Construction Ltd. to create hundreds of shields for businesses throughout Saskatchewan and Alberta.

A request for shields for tellers at the Weyburn Credit Union led John Hulbert Construction Ltd. to create hundreds of shields for businesses throughout Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The shields are to protect tellers and cashiers as they serve customers during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, with variations of the shields now seen in many of the businesses that are allowed to stay open.

“We were contacted by Don Baillie at the Credit Union about making some shields, and we ended up making eight or 10 for them,” said Hulbert, noting he asked if he could take a photo of the shields and post it on his business’s website.

Once he did this, interest came from many businesses, including a Western Canadian manager for the Bank of Montreal (BMO), who ordered shields for many of their branches throughout Saskatchewan and Alberta, and some in Manitoba.

As of Friday, he and an assistant had installed them in Willow Bunch, Yorkton, Melville, Regina and Davidson up to Prince Albert and North Battleford. On Monday they were out in the Calgary area installing the shields.

Some of the shields have been shipped out to locations in Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon and northern Alberta, said Hulbert, with the number of 200 as of Friday.

“We’ve had more inquiries, and we just keep on adding to the list,” he said, noting when the orders were coming in fast, they had family members and Hulbert Construction staff helping with the manufacture and shipping of the shields.

“We cut them to size, whatever size they need,” he said, explaining they are fairly straight-forward to install, with blocks to hold the shield and velcro on bottom, and a hole cut to enable the cashier or teller to interact with the customer.

“What’s nice is that this is really quick to install, and you can take them apart when you don’t need them any more,” said Hulbert.