Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald is justifying his announcement that seven federal agriculture research stations will be closed because they cost too much money to maintain.
He said in some cases 45 per cent of the station budget goes into maintaining facilities, leaving only 55 per cent for research.
“The operational cost of these facilities is something that our government of the past, the opposition government of the past, really let get out of hand,” he said during testimony at the House of Commons agriculture committee earlier this month.
“We have almost $700 million in deferred maintenance sitting on the books. Now you’re getting close to $1 billion.”
The food research center at Guelph that was opened in 1997 and employs 16 PhD researchers is scheduled for closure.
Its research mainly deals with food safety and food ingredients that improve health.
I wonder if MacDonald understands that centre's research is and how he justifies that closure.
