Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have an opportunity to follow up on a question I raised on May 10 regarding the dismissal of 100 or so workers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, including many lab employees. According to the most recent union data, 700 employees at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada received work force adjustment notices, meaning that they were told that their services may no longer be required.
Most of the job cuts are at the science and technology branch and the market and industry services branch. Notice was given to 79 scientists, 29 engineers and 14 biologists. Clearly, these cuts will have a significant impact on the department's scientific work. As the union president said, these cuts threaten our international competitiveness and directly impact one of Canada's key economic activities: food production.
In 2012, 150 members of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada received a work force adjustment notice. Last year, nine experimental farms in Canada had to shut down because of the Conservatives' irrational budget cuts.
One particular example comes to mind, and that is the disastrous closure of the experimental farm in Frelighsburg, Quebec. That institution had been in existence for more than 40 years. It worked on important research on plant diseases, insects and genetic improvement of apple trees.
This example shows that, contrary to what the Conservatives claim, cutting funding for science does have repercussions. In the case of the Frelighsburg farm, permanent jobs and a number of student jobs were eliminated, but most importantly, we lost 40 years of scientific data and we are compromising the future of an important agricultural sector. The Conservatives do not understand this.
These massive cuts began in 2012, and it is now obvious that scientists are being targeted. A simple calculation is proof enough. The government announced that it would eliminate a total of 19,200 positions, or 7% of public service jobs. When the cuts were announced, the Professional Institute of the Public Service represented 17,000 scientists. Of these, 11% received layoff notices. As we can see, scientific positions are overrepresented in the layoffs. It is obvious that the Conservative government is using the cuts as an excuse to get rid of researchers.
We know that these ideological cuts to science stem from the Conservatives' sheer ignorance of and contempt for research. I would just like to share an anecdote that perfectly illustrates this contempt.
Last week, the Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec was visiting the Quebec Metallurgy Centre and said: “Instead of funding researchers who discover nothing, I prefer to fund discoverers.” That is ridiculous.
According to the minister's logic, were Agriculture and Agri-food Canada scientists let go because they discover nothing? Do NRC researchers doing basic research not deserve funding because their research does not have immediate industrial applications? The minister's logic is ridiculous.
I am waiting for this government's response. When will this government admit that its short-term vision is compromising our future?