Two Nova Scotia politicians, including a Liberal MP, are among those calling on Ottawa to reverse a decision to close seven federal agriculture research farms that include a more than century-old site in the Maritimes.
In January, Agriculture Agri-Food Canada said 1,043 employees were issued layoff notices as part of the elimination of about 665 positions. At the time, a spokesperson said that would result in the closure of a facility in Nappan, N.S., and six others across the country.
Milton Dyck, president of the union that represents 2,500 workers at Agriculture Agri-Food Canada, said the cuts put at risk the jobs of nine people at the Nappan Research Farm, which opened in 1887 and is one of Canada’s five original experimental farms.
“So that research is not stopped yet, but the plan is to stop it. So we do have this window where we are calling upon the government to reverse the decision to shut the research centres down,” Dyck said in an interview.
Dyck said he expects some staff will remain at the site through the summer to care for the beef herd until it is sold. He said researchers and those who support their work are slated to go first.
“A full closure of sites cannot occur immediately, as it involves a complex series of decisions that must be carefully worked through,” Agriculture Agri-Food Canada said in a statement to CBC News, responding to questions about the Nappan facility and what happens to ongoing beef and forage research at the site.
“We will take the time necessary to engage with research partners on the future of active projects, preserve findings, and continue to build on these collaborations through our other centres.”
Kent MacDonald, MP for Cardigan, P.E.I., said Tuesday at a meeting of the standing committee on agriculture and agri-food that the department told him more than 60 per cent of costs at Nappan were associated with maintenance. However, some say revenue from beef sales more than offset the cost.
“I have to ask the government, have they looked at the books?” Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, the Independent MLA for Cumberland North, said in Ottawa on Tuesday at the committee meeting.
“Just last year alone they generated over $400,000 in the beef they had raised there. That they had been doing research on.”
Alana Hirtle, the Liberal MP for Cumberland-Colchester, has also asked Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald to provide more information and reconsider the decision to close the site.
“However, if that is not possible, the assets at the Nappan Research Farm should not simply go to waste without benefiting the broader agricultural community,” Hirtle said in a letter Tuesday.
She also asked MacDonald to engage with stakeholders, including the neighbouring Maritime Beef Test Station in Nappan, and meet with his counterparts in the Maritime provinces.
Reynold Bergen, a science director at the Beef Cattle Research Council, said the Nappan site was closely tied to others across the country, including those in Quebec City and Lacombe, Alta., that were also closed.
“They weren’t independent. They all worked really, really closely together. There was a really strong network all across the country,” he said in an interview from Calgary.
Bergen said while the beef industry is heavily concentrated in Western Canada, research is needed in various climates and soil types. He said the decision was also a “head-scratcher” as research that ended up being cut was in areas considered a high priority for industry.
Bergen said two researchers previously based in Nappan are expected to remain with the federal department, but it remains to be seen if there will be access to the fields where research has been done since the 19th century.
“To lose those plots up in the Nappan station is a loss of a lot of knowledge and a lot of material that is just in its infancy,” he said of multi-year research in areas such as soil carbon sequestration.
Heather Bruce, the dean of Dalhousie University Agricultural Campus in Bible Hill, N.S., was asked at Tuesday’s standing committee meeting if it was possible for post-secondary institutions to take on the work.
“In a word, no, we are currently facing our own fiscal realities and challenges,” Bruce said.
Agriculture Agri-Food Canada said forage breeding research will continue at the research farm in Kentville, N.S.
“We will look to maintain and build our collaborations with many partners in the region,” the statement said.
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