By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Jennifer Johnson has made a late-stage appeal to the federal government to save an iconic Prairies institution, reiterating its importance to her riding and agriculture.
Johnson noted that the feds have gone against recommendations from a House of Commons standing committee by failing to halt the closure of the 119-year-old Lacombe Research and Development Centre.
“For central Alberta this is about jobs, expertise and research institutions that have served our agricultural community for generations,” Johnson told her colleagues in the legislature last week.
“For Alberta it’s about continuing to invest in the science and innovation our producers need to remain competitive, resilient and productive,” she said.
“When Alberta agriculture succeeds, our province and our country succeed. That is why this decision matters and why I would urge the federal government to recognize its value and reconsider this decision.”
In a May report, the agriculture and agri-food standing committee called on the federal government to “pause and reverse” the decision made to close the Lacombe centre and several other centres and satellite farms.
The government needs to consult the Office of the Chief Science Advisor and a list of stakeholders “to better understand the scientific and economic impact of the proposed closures,” the committee reported.
The government has been phasing out the jobs of more than 100 researchers and others at the Lacombe centre, with an eye for closure early next year.
The decision announced in January followed federal government statements that it would cut about 40,000 jobs from the national public service, streamline operations and increase efficiencies.
Research farms in Indian Head and Scott, Sask., Portage la Prairie, Man., and Nappan, N.S., are on the closure list, along with research and development centres in Guelph, Ont., and Quebec City, Que.
The standing committee challenged whether savings predictions have properly considered the actual long-term economic and food-security costs of dismantling entrenched research hubs.
It pointed to facilities like Lacombe’s specialized research abattoir and meat labs as irreplaceable, saying that relocating them would cause major scientific loss.
But Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said a pause and reversal aren’t economically practical this late in the closure plan.
Important assets and knowledge can be transferred to other institutions, the department maintained. And consolidated and modernized federal hubs will preserve and continue to advance research.
Johnson acknowledged that transfer talks are happening.
Members of a local task force have met with provincial officials to discuss the future of agricultural research in Lacombe. Ideas include potential partnerships with organizations like the University of Alberta, Western Crop Innovations and Results Driven Agriculture Research.
“While these conversations are encouraging, they also underscore the importance of protecting the expertise and research capacity that generations have worked to build,” Johnson said.
Founded in 1907 by the Lacombe Board of Trade, the research centre began its life as an experimental farm to promote the town and attract settlers.
The station soon became renowned for its pioneering research, helping the community 30 kilometres north of Red Deer grow into a major rural hub for one of the most arable and agriculturally productive areas of the province.
The station led the way on gene function discoveries in cattle and swine, introducing innovative livestock breeding and modern carcass evaluation techniques.
In the 1950s researchers Howard Fredeen and J.G. Stothart codeveloped Canada’s first domestic livestock breed. In the Lacombe hog’s heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the fifth most popular breed in Canada and heavily exported.
Over recent years the centre has hosted more than $5 million in applied research projects focused on things like improving livestock production, developing disease-resistant and drought-tolerant crops, optimizing soil and forage management, and supporting sustainable farming practices.
