Kamloops This Week
Although two years ago she called it a fantastic facility, Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Cathy McLeod said she understands why the federal agriculture research centre in Kamloops must be shut down.
The centre, a fixture in the city's agriculture sector for almost eight decades, will be closed in the fall and the 14 staff there have been laid off.
Bob Jackson, regional executive vice-president with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents nine of the 14 staff, said the likelihood of finding another federal-sector job in Kamloops is unlikely.
McLeod, who praised the facility in 2011 when it was also facing closure, but refocused and renamed the Grassland Applied Technology Centre, said the building and its labs are first-rate and might find another use.
When asked if that meant the building could be sold, McLeod said an intensive analysis would be done, other stakeholders consulted and a decision will be made.
The Conservative backbencher said she is disappointed at the decision, one of many layoffs and closures announced nationally this week, but said the Growing Forward 2 program will help fill the gap.
KTW sent an email to Agriculture and Agrifood Canada (AAFC), asking why the centre was being closed.
Its explanation:
"We are consolidating our national science capacity in key locations in line with our efforts to concentrate expertise and use our resources more effectively to generate the science and knowledge needed to advance the industry.
"AAFC will continue to support the beef sector along the innovation continuum. AAFC performs the science at the early stages of the development cycle that industry will build upon through research collaborations with academia and the private sector using GF2 federal investments."
Jackson said the federal government wants out of doing scientific research,
"They don't believe in it," he said.
"It's a sad tragedy, it really is."
Jackson said a national health and safety conference his union held last month showed the percentage of public-sector workers now accessing mental-health counselling through programs "has gone through the roof."
He said a similar federal workforce reduction in the 1990s was equally challenging, but caused less stress because options and choices were different and people were not, for example, being told to take a "reasonable job on the other side of the country."
McLeod said she was told no research has been undertaken at the centre since 2011; however, Lauchlan Fraser, a science professor at Thompson Rivers University, said TRU has worked in partnership with the researchers at the centre for some time.
"It's a shame," Fraser said. "We have such a long history of excellent research coming out of that station."