Mackenzie County leases facility from the federal government and hopes to buy it in the future
One of Canada’s oldest agricultural research centres has received a one-year reprieve from the auction block.
Mackenzie County officials signed a one-year rental agreement with the federal government to keep Canada’s most northerly research station, at Fort Vermilion, Alta., open and not for sale.
County officials and farmers believe the research station is key to agriculture in northern Alberta, especially after the provincial government recently sold 136,000 acres of undeveloped bush land in Mackenzie County to be converted to agricultural land.
The county paid the federal government $50,000 to lease the research station this year.
Read Also
Message to provincial agriculture ministers: focus on international trade
International trade stakeholders said securing markets in the face of increasing protectionism should be the key priority for Canada’s agriculture ministers.
“I personally think that’s unfair, but that’s what we had to do,” said Dicky Driedger, a farmer and Mackenzie County councillor who hopes to save the research station.
Driedger said the race is on for the Mackenzie Applied Research Association to line up research partners to offset the cost of the facility.
The county has contributed $35,000 a year to the association since it was formed in 2005.
Before that, it paid $30,000 a year to the North Peace Applied Research Association, MARA’s predecessor. The money is used to carry out research at the centre.
Driedger said he hopes the county can continue to negotiate with the federal government to buy the facility and allow the research association to plan long-term research projects. Few agricultural companies are willing to spend money on projects that may last only one year, he added.
Bill Kostiw, director of infrastructure development and government relations with Mackenzie County, said officials are optimistic the federal government will sell the county the 400 acre facility, which was established in 1907.
“We’re comfortable they will make a deal, or we wouldn’t have put up the grant,” said Kostiw.
Patrick Girard, communications official with Agriculture Canada, said the department’s approach to the “disposition of the facility” is underway.
“In the meantime, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is negotiating an interim lease agreement, which would allow the continued use of the property for research activities undertaken by Mackenzie Applied Research Association until a divestiture plan can be implemented,” he said.
“There is an interest in continuing applied research based on local farmer priorities.”
Driedger is confident the federal government will work with the county to save the centre.
During a question session at FarmTech 2013 earlier this year, Driedger asked federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz why the government was closing the centre.
“Well, up until now governments have had a scatter gun approach all across the country, a little bit of expertise in a lot of different areas, and what we’re doing is amalgamating that so we can have that good backstop,” said Ritz.
“We want to partner with people in that particular facility in northern Alberta and others across Canada and work with academia and work with industry and work with the provinces to make sure that we can still make use of those types of facilities moving forward.”
While Ritz’s answer never mentions Fort Vermilion, Driedger believes his comments mean Ritz is willing to work with the county to save the facility.
“If you listen to what Ritz is saying, it sounds like he wants to work with us, but it sure doesn’t look like it the way they’re treating us now,” he said.
“They’re not spending one dime on that research station this year.”
Greg Newman, a Fort Vermilion farmer, said he was not surprised when the final funding was yanked from the centre. For the past six years the centre has operated with only one full-time field technician and assorted summer staff paid by agricultural organizations.
No maintenance had been done on the buildings in years and few scientists came there anymore.
“It wasn’t totally unexpected,” said Newman.
“We don’t look at it as a setback but as an opportunity to maintain research and have more local decisions.”
He said climate change will open up more agricultural opportunities in northern Canada.
“Because of the unique micro climate, there is a need for a local research facility.”
Newman said there is a history of good research at the centre. It was one of the first facilities to research direct seeding in the 1980s. It also did varietal trials for more than 50 years and worked extensively with leafcutter bees and bison.
Activity at the centre peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, was stable until the late 1980s and then saw a notable decline in staff and funding.
“I am a firm believer in supporting local agricultural research. It would be a real shame to dispose of the facility,” said Newman.
