Radio silence from federal officials on research cuts, implications
UPDATED 11:58 CST: Sources suggest as many as six Agriculture Agri-Food Canada research centres could be set to close, though the federal officials remain radio silent.
Yesterday, about 665 AAFC jobs were confirmed to be cut.
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There are reports from unions representing Agriculture Canada workers that the research centres at Scott and Indian Head will close, while Melfort, Saskatoon, Regina and Swift Current will see job losses. The organic research program led by Myriam Fernandez at Swift Current is expected to close. In Alberta, the Lacombe research centre is rumored to be closing.
Producer-led organizations that work alongside Agriculture Canada staff say they don’t yet know how their work will be affected.
Radio silence from federal officials
Asked last night to confirm whether research centers would close, an Agriculture Agri-Food spokesperson did not address the question directly.
“We can confirm that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) workforce will be reduced by approximately 665 positions and that 1043 affected letters are being issued. Details are being shared with employees first, in keeping with the Department’s obligations and out of respect for its personnel. As such, we do not have any additional information to share at this time,” the spokesperson said.
In the absence of official confirmation from AAFC, sources say they have heard as many as six research sites will be closed in this wave of cuts.
Restructuring Canada’s agriculture research landscape
Cuts to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) could be a step toward restructuring Canada’s agriculture research landscape, according to national stakeholders.
Keith Currie, President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) called the cutbacks a “necessary evil” and said Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Heath MacDonald and Deputy Minister Lawrence Hanson have their “fingers on the pulse of the ministry.”
“There’s nothing wrong with efficiencies,” Currie said. “And if … there were hirings that didn’t make sense, taking a look at it and getting leaner and meaner, I think that’s what we do in business. That’s what you do on our farms.”
He added there have been jobs added in the last decade that some producers have “kind of scratched our head at.”
“Having said that, it depends where these cuts are going to happen,” he continued. “We’ve been clamoring for probably 10, 15 years about not enough public sector research.”
Tyler McCann, Managing Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI) said the cutbacks, particularly the reported closures of research sites, were a predictable development.
“(AAFC) has, for decades now, not been investing in its infrastructure,” he said. “It has not been keeping up the investments it needed to make to maintain quality modern research infrastructure.”
“It is inevitable, if you don’t invest, that at a certain point in time you will need to start to close facilities. And that appears to be where we’re at today.”
He added politicians were likely responding to the signals from the broader agriculture community, which he said has not always championed science and research among other issues like trade and business risk management.
“Hopefully this reminds everyone else in the ag ecosystem that research and development and innovation is critical to competitiveness, and we need to double down on making that a priority going forward.”
McCann said an upside of the cuts is that they could provide an opportunity for a renewal point in agriculture research in Canada.
“Hopefully Agriculture Canada will start to show some leadership on this and engage with the other stakeholders who have significant skin in the game, other R&D funders, other R&D performers, in what that renewal looks like.”
It could be a chance for the AAFC to do more with less. McCann said there is an argument to be made that the department “had too broad of a research footprint for the research funding envelope that they had.”
“What will determine whether or not we can be competitive at a time of cuts is whether or not they’re going to make other changes to how they fund and do research to streamline and improve the efficiency of the work that they do.”
Currie and McCann both said it would be important to keep on those with roles to play in the recently announced Next Policy Framework, which will cover the 2028-33 period.
“That is a real opportunity for governments and the stakeholder community around them to double down on innovation and to say, yes, we know that (AAFC) shrank its footprint, but in the Next Policy Framework, for the next five years, governments are going to commit more resources and more energy and more focus to innovation,” McCann said.
Currie also pointed to the agriculture trade file and the temporary foreign worker/seasonal agriculture worker programs as areas he hoped would remain steady.
