Salute to Brooks: Features on the “City of 100 Hellos”…
The Alberta provincial government has been talking about cuts to the civil service for a while and it has now hit agriculture.
The Lethbridge Research Centre which is the district office for Alberta Agriculture and the Crop Diversification Centre South (CDCS) had an undisclosed number of employees lose their jobs Oct. 21. The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees announced that the government was eliminating 930 public service jobs and word came out later this included some agriculture workers in both centres.
The move looks to coincide with a mid-October announcement as part of a $2 million agreement, the Lethbridge College took over the management of the Alberta Irrigation Technology Centre (Lethbridge) and the greenhouse at the CDCS. There is a move for the provincial government to get out of the research portion of agriculture and give that to post secondary institutions.
There is no confirmed number about the number of Alberta Agriculture positions eliminated but Justin Laurence, press secretary for Ag and Forestry minister Devin Dreeshen released this statement: “Agriculture and Forestry takes program delivery transformation seriously. After careful consideration, difficult decisions were made. Adjustments will not negatively impact our core businesses and legislative responsibilities for food safety, animal disease, animal health, investment attraction activities, or trade access for commodities. Ensuring that programs are sustainable, now and in the future, will protect our world-leading agriculture and forestry sectors. Due to confidentiality reasons, we are unable to share the number of positions impacted at these locations.”
One of the people affected by the layoff notices was saddened by the news. The person, who the
Prairie Post is not identifying, said a lot of beneficial work was done by researchers at both centres. The person reflected on the contributions to the horticulture industry by Crop Diversification Centre South (The Provincial Horticulture Station) from over the row blueberry harvesters, which enabled the commercial saskatoon industry to become established. Prairie hardy landscape trees and shrubs for yards, fruit trees like Brookcot apricot, Rosybrook Apple, and the Brooks series of poplar that can trace their lineage back to collections made by A. Griffin along banks of Red Deer River. They assisted greenhouse growers with disease and insect management and new growing techniques like injection of CO2 into greenhouses to make the plants be more efficient. Many different areas of contribution seems like a distant memory.
“I am not sure if the farming community knows what was lost on Wednesday (Oct. 21). With the firings of the research part of Alberta Agriculture, we have lost the ability to do research that could change farming practices, deal with animal health issues, develop and test new varieties or add value to the farm gate product,” explains the worker. “Our researchers had links with other researchers outside of Alberta Agriculture from across the province, country, indeed the world. Why is this important? To adapt a practice from other jurisdictions and take a team approach to a problem.
“Unfortunately this loss will not be felt for 2 or 5 or even 10 years. And our research was “farmerled” as farmer groups funded the work, and we developed projects that answered questions that farmers were asking us. It is indeed a sad time.”
Plant pathologist Ron Howard, who is co-owner of RJH Research Solutions Ltd. based in Brooks, says while he is deeply saddened by the news, he wasn’t surprised it happened. The writing was on the wall for provincial research stations. Howard had spent 39 years in Brooks at a variety of levels and roles including director for a few years. He says the current government doesn’t see the value in paying for research projects. The government launched an initiative called the Result Driven Agriculture Research. He says a 12-person committee was given a year to come up with a strategy and a new mandate. They didn’t waste much time in going in and eliminating positions.
“It is so sad to see such a proud institution crumbling away and being eroded away by staff abolishment,” explains Howard who still keep s tabs on the CDCS even ought he has been retired since 2014. “They telegraphed there were going to be reductions in staff and programs. We didn’t know how quick it would be extensive it would be, that was surprising how extensive it was. The government was signalling for a year or more that the research model for agriculture…particularly involved in ministry was broken. The government had partnered with crop and livestock organizations with different research projects. The current government and the minister seemed to have the idea that Alberta Agriculture should not be leading research direction. That should come from producers and that even though for a number of years the research model was operated on the basis we would work on industry priority…the minister felt that Alberta Agriculture was driving things too much and scientists were working on things that they thought were important and we have been detached to what the ministry priorities were and the government was putting too much money into research and facilities and staff and a better model would be to decide what priorities were and then farm out projects to the institutions like the university and colleges…private industries.”
Jessica Surgenor, Economic Development Officer, Brooks Region, was caught off guard with the announcement.
“We were not aware, nor have we been informed of the loss of jobs at the Crop Diversification Centre South. So we do not know if there were two jobs or ten jobs that have been eliminated at the research station,” explains Surgenor. “As we learn more we will be able to digest the news and information. Regardless, the facility is an asset for the entire Region and Agriculture Industry as it is not only an impressive research facility, it has employed and continues to employ some of the most experienced scientists in Canada. If local jobs are cut, that would be devastating news as any job losses are hard on a community and the families it affects.”
Surgenor added the city and region are looking to attract more agriculture-related industry,
“We just today (Oct. 22) met with an agriculturerelated investor who is interested in the Brooks region and we continually meet with producers and manufacturers who see the benefits of doing business in the region,” Surgenor explained. “Our abundance of water, workforce and landscape make the Region an attractive and competitive market. We are always working to attract agriculture businesses especially because we have one of the largest beef companies. Agriculture is also one of our key industries and contributes vastly to our economy. The Region is also home to some of the most profitable farms in Alberta and our producers are the best. (More information can be found on our BrooksRegion.ca website if you’re looking for statistical data.)”