Ottawa's plan to shutter farm research facilities and food safety lab draws Parliamentary rebuke
A Canadian parliamentary committee has urged Ottawa to pause closures affecting farm research centres, the organic and regenerative farming program and a key food allergen lab.
Canada's federal agriculture committee has sharply criticized the Carney government's plan to shut down the country's only research program dedicated to organic and regenerative farming, close seven agricultural research centres and wind down Eastern Canada's only government laboratory that tests food for undeclared allergens. In a report released on Wednesday, the 10-member committee unanimously called for the decision to be paused immediately.
According to the report, about 665 jobs are set to be lost at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, while another 587 positions will be cut at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The committee said Ottawa should consult farmers, researchers, advocacy groups and industry organizations before moving ahead, so the scientific and economic consequences of the closures are properly assessed.
The cuts follow Prime Minister Mark Carney's earlier request that ministers produce ambitious savings plans in order to reduce government spending by 15 per cent by 2029. But days after the closures were announced in late January, an internal email obtained by the publication showed officials themselves did not yet know how the move would affect Canada's capacity to conduct agricultural research.
The committee said the agriculture ministry should find savings without firing scientists, publish a clear cost-benefit analysis of the closures, reconsider plans to end the 19-year organic and regenerative research program in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and ensure affected federal staff can speak freely in the public interest. Groups including the National Farmers Union, SeedChange and the Agriculture Union said the planned cuts were short-sighted and could cause irreversible damage to research pipelines, data sets and rural communities.
The Swift Current program was highlighted as especially important. Supporters say it serves not only Canada's roughly C$11 billion organic sector but also conventional farms, because its work helps reduce emissions, improve soil health and cut pesticide and fertilizer use. Researchers also argued that private industry is unlikely to replace this kind of public research, since corporate funding is generally tied to products companies want to sell, such as proprietary seeds, pesticides and fertilizers.
Ottawa has already partially stepped back on one part of the plan: last month the food inspection agency said it would pause the closure of its Longueuil, Quebec, lab until 2028. But Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada had previously said it was not reconsidering the wider farm research cuts. With the growing season about to begin, sector representatives warned that a delay is urgent because research plots still need to be maintained and long-running field trials could lose continuity if staff are removed now.