AAFC cuts - eating the goose that lays the golden eggs

The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) is raising serious concern over Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) decision to close seven research sites, including key facilities in Saskatchewan located at Scott and Indian Head, and eliminate 665 positions across Canada.

These closures eliminate critical public research infrastructure that has been foundational for Canadian farmers' competitiveness for decades and contradict AAFC’s stated mission to "drive innovation" and "create conditions for long-term profitability." This critical public research infrastructure embodies a public good that delivers widespread benefits to the public.

“To claim these cuts are aligned with a ‘core mandate’ of innovation misleads the agricultural sector,” said APAS President Bill Prybylski. “Closing these sites is the opposite of progress. You cannot claim global leadership in sustainable agriculture while bulldozing the very farms and labs required for discovery and adaptation. It’s like eating the goose that lays the golden eggs—sacrificing a steady, long-term benefit for a single, short-term gain.”

The impacted prairie facilities include research farms at Scott and Indian Head in Saskatchewan, which provide producers with essential agronomic data tailored to local growing conditions. Additionally, the Lacombe Research and Development Centre in Alberta, a leading hub for forage and meat science, and the facility at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, are also affected.

“The federal government is trading long-term benefits for a short-term rounding error in budget savings,” Prybylski cautioned. “You cannot be a world leader in sustainable agriculture while eliminating the research needed for sustainability and adaptation. This will create an innovation vacuum that the private sector isn’t stepping in to fill. By the time producers feel the full impact of these decisions, it will be too late to reverse the damage.”

APAS is especially troubled by the timing of these cuts. The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP) places significant emphasis on adaptation and resiliency as core objectives, yet these closures directly undermine those goals. Farmers are being asked to adopt climate-smart practices that require targeted research support—research that will no longer exist if these facilities are shut down.

In response, APAS is urging the federal government and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to release an immediate impact assessment outlining how it plans to achieve its innovation and adaptation goals considering these widespread closures. Producers deserve transparency about how these research reductions will affect them—and answers about how the government intends to safeguard the long-term growth of Canadian agriculture.