The House of Commons Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee met to study the closure of seven Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research and development centres, hearing from provincial government, municipal, industry, academic, and research organization witnesses.
Alberta Minister Richard J. Sigurdson testified that the closure of the Lacombe research centre would disrupt over $2.5 million in provincially funded research projects and eliminate the only federal research abattoir in Alberta, which is essential for carcass evaluation and food safety studies. He urged the committee to reconsider the closure, conduct a transparent impact assessment, and formally engage with provincial governments, and he also raised the separate issue of the federal denial of an emergency use application for strychnine to control Richardson's ground squirrels, stating that damages have increased tenfold and that all risks had been mitigated.
Mayor Steven Cole of Indian Head stated that the closure of the local research farm would cost approximately 30 full-time jobs and devastate the small rural community, while also sacrificing an estimated $400 million in lost innovation from delays to the seed increase unit. He argued that private industry cannot replace public research because it prioritizes profit over broad public benefits like environmental sustainability and soil health.
Tyler Groeneveld, CEO of Protein Industries Canada, said that innovation is the foundation of Canada's food production sector and that the country is in a global race for investment, noting that Canada now ranks fifth in global food innovation. He recommended sustained investment in research across all players—industry, government, and academia—and warned that withdrawing public research at this time would undermine Canada's ability to create more value-added ingredients and economic opportunities.
David Gehl, retired officer in charge of the seed increase unit at Indian Head, explained that the unit is a bridge between science and commercial farming, producing basic breeder seed for distribution to pedigreed seed growers. He stated that delaying the release of improved crop varieties due to the closure would result in an annual loss to farmers, as genetic gains in yield and disease resistance have accelerated in recent years.
Carole Lafrenière, retired professor from Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, described how the closure of the Kapuskasing Research Farm in 2013 wiped out years of collaborative research on grass-fed beef and forage crops in the region. She noted that it took over a decade to rebuild a team of five professors and that the latest cuts to the Quebec City and Nappan research centres now threaten this fragile expertise, making resilience very difficult to maintain.
Vincent Poirier, professor of soil science at UQAT, stated that the closure of research centres is a scientific disaster that will set back soil and forage research by decades, as long-term field studies and expertise in perennial forage plants will be lost. He argued that greenhouse studies cannot replace field research because soil and climate conditions cannot be recreated in a lab, and he called for significant investment in university infrastructure and research staff focused on soils and forage crops.
Jean-Pierre Charuest, chair of the Centre d'innovation agricole, proposed that the federal government transfer forage plant expertise from the closing Quebec City research centre to the Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre, which has space and infrastructure. He recommended creating a national centre of excellence in the Eastern Townships to strengthen links between forage production and livestock, and he noted that without research, his organization has nothing left to transfer to producers.
Nancy Tout, interim CEO of the Global Institute for Food Security, acknowledged the need for tough decisions but urged the committee to properly steward and transfer leadership of valuable land and data assets from the closing stations. She recommended building a highly coordinated, national innovation framework with stable funding and integrated governance, and strengthening public-private-producer partnerships to focus on commercialization and scaling innovation.
The committee debated extending the study by one or two additional meetings, with some members arguing that the issue is urgent and that more witnesses should be heard, while others preferred to conclude the study quickly to produce a report and recommendations before the summer. The committee ultimately agreed to provide instructions to analysts by Thursday so that a draft report can be prepared over the spring break.
AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.