TORONTO – Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz says he won’t double investment in basic agronomic research over the next decade.
Grain Growers of Canada has led a campaign to argue for the restoration of basic government-funded research that has lagged since dramatic cuts by the Liberals in their anti-deficit budget of 1995.
Ritz said in a Feb. 5 interview it is a proposal to go back to the bad old days when government invested in research with no precise goals.
“I want to continue to see a focused funding for research that actually benefits the farmgate,” he said after a federal-provincial ministers’ meeting. “If they think we are going to go back to this blanket situation where we just dump money in and research is done that doesn’t benefit the farmgate, that’s not going to happen. If they want that, they’re going to have to vote someone else in.”
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A recent letter to the minister from a farm coalition led by GGC said lack of government investment means the number of experienced researchers is dropping and many research facilities need repairs.
Last autumn, GGC executive director Richard Phillips told MPs on the House of Commons agriculture committee that government investment has never recovered from the 1995 cuts.
He said Ottawa should add $28 million per year to Agriculture Canada’s A-base research budget over the next 10 years to restore research spending levels for basic research that existed in the mid-1990s.
The plea was for basic research funding that creates a scientific core rather than targeted funding aimed at short-term market results.
Ritz suggested general funding in core research without a specific industry goal is inefficient. The Conservative view is research must be targeted to short-term industry goals.
