OTTAWA (Staff) – Federal budget cuts will have the side effect of making it more difficult for Agriculture Canada to compete with private companies in the search for scientists, says the head of the department’s research branch.
“There are all sorts of really good people out there,” said assistant deputy agriculture minister Brian Morrissey.
“It is not difficult to get really good scientists. What is difficult is to get money to hire them.”
Morrissey spoke after appearing before MPs on the Commons agriculture committee to defend and explain the implications of a government decision to cut 20 percent, $55 million, out of agriculture research during the next three years.
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
The department also will shed more than 900 research branch positions, many of them scientists.
Best talent goes private
Morrissey said this will make it difficult to replace researchers who are retiring, and it will be hard to compete in the marketplace where the best new graduates are hired.
“There will be very little money left to hire new scientists. That’s worrisome in my mind.”
He said there will be few public research jobs available anywhere for the new crop of university-trained scientists.
The National Research Council, universities and most other publicly funded establishments are feeling the squeeze.
Morrissey said he has talked to many scientists in their mid-30s “who have never had a permanent job. They just go from one contract to another.”
