Thank you, Mr. Chair, honourable members, and fellow guests.
I will be sharing my time with Sheri, who's sitting next to me.
My name is Richard Phillips. I am a farmer and I'm with the Grain Growers of Canada. With me today, from one of the member organizations of Grain Growers of Canada, is Sheri Strydhorst. She's also a farmer and is with the Alberta Pulse Growers.
If there is one thing that unites the 80,000 farmers of the Grain Growers of Canada from coast to coast, it's the issue of more funding for public research. In Canada, approximately three-quarters of the farmland is planted with crops developed by public sector plant breeders. The private sector does invest in corn, soybeans, and canola, but for five of Canada's six largest crops, 98% of the research is publicly funded.
In the last 15 years, federal contributions to Agriculture Canada's research branch have been largely stagnant, with no increases for inflation. In 2009 dollars, it means that funding has dropped from $458 million to $280 million today—nearly a 50% cut. The number of front-line scientists has dropped by more than 10% in just the last couple of years.
Our request to you today is twofold. First, we are asking for a doubling of A-base funding to Agriculture Canada. This would cost $280 million, phased in over 10 years—or approximately $28 million per year. This would allow Agriculture Canada to upgrade labs and equipment, to bring in new staff, and it would help to ensure proper succession plans for the continuity of corporate memory. For example, if a plant pathologist who's been studying crop diseases is retiring, it's really critical that there be some overlaps with the new person coming in, so there is a transfer of knowledge from what the former staff person has been working on.
Sheri.