REGINA, Sask. — The province may have stepped in to rescue two federally funded research farms from closure in Saskatchewan, but the federal Conservatives are not giving up the fight at the national level.
Saskatchewan Conservative MPs, as well as federal leader Pierre Poilievre, say they will continue their efforts on research farm funding into the fall session of Parliament when it resumes.
The federal decision to close research farms at Indian Head and Scott was a major shock to Saskatchewan’s agriculture community when it was announced. At a news conference Monday morning in Regina, Poilievre indicated other parts of the country have been hit by closure announcements as well.
“I was just at a research farm in Nova Scotia a month ago where I joined the local member of the Legislative Assembly to condemn the Liberal decision to close a research farm that had consistent genetics on livestock, cattle, that go back to before Confederation,” Poilievre said.
“They have livestock whose genetic records go back to, I think, 1850. And the Liberals are not only shutting down the farm, but they're culling the cattle.”
Steven Bonk, MP for Souris-Moose Mountain, said the closure of the research farms is “something that we as Conservatives have been fighting against since it was announced.”
“We brought it up consistently at the Agriculture Committee, and at least we see that the research centres will be transitioned to some of the provincial governments, which is a step in the right direction. But we've had producer groups from across the country come and be witnesses at the Agriculture Committee. Not one of them are in favour of this. So it's something that, as Conservatives, you're going to hear a lot more from us on.”
Speaking to reporters afterward, Bonk said the “importance of these research stations can't be overstated.”
“About 60% of the crop varieties that are used now in Saskatchewan have been developed at these research centres. So if we were to lose that genetic information and that innovation that's driven from these research centres, it's gone forever. And it's very difficult for private industry to do that by themselves.”
Bonk pointed to the Indian Head facility producing one of the biggest innovations to come out of Canadian agriculture in the last 100 years: zero-till.
“It's spread all over the world. That was pioneered and developed and the research was done at Indian Head Research Centre. So what that has done for global agriculture, coming out of Indian Head, and now the Liberal government's closing it without any justification at all, it makes no sense at all and farmers are rightly very upset.”
Earlier this year, the Government of Saskatchewan signed a memorandum of understanding with the federal government on July 16, in which both the provincial and federal governments agreed they would explore interim arrangements to keep the research farms open.
Andrew Scheer, MP for Regina-Qu’Appelle, where the Indian Head research farm is located, welcomed that MOU and the province’s involvement. But he said it was “really frustrating that the province had to backfill the Liberal government abandoning this site.”
“To me it shows that Mark Carney is no different than Justin Trudeau when it comes to Western Canada and to agriculture.”
Scheer said he had met with people at the Indian Head farm “many times over the years, but especially in the last few months, and the community has really come together to support the research centre.”
“As Steven said in his remarks earlier, there's not one stakeholder that thinks this is a good idea. There's not one scientist that thinks this is a good idea. And we're starting to learn a bit of a story about how the government was concocting the numbers for the justification, attributing some of the research that's done at the centre to other sites, when really it was done at the centre. So we're going to keep fighting. For now, it looks like there's a partial save with the province stepping in, but the provincial government shouldn't have to carry that burden on behalf of the Feds.”
