This took us in the ag community by complete surprise. This even left partnership projects with private funders hanging and/or cancelled with multiple years left. It was really weird.
90% of wheat grown on the Prairies is from strains developed at these research centers. In an age where we're trying to keep Canada competitive on the world stage, to remove the research we need to do that is insane. And completely without discussion from stakeholders.
Canola, a huge international source of agrifood ingredients and biofuels was out of the prairie stations and is grown worldwide now, but during the 70s and 80s became known as "the mortgage lifter" and saved many farms across the country during years of expensive fertilizer and fuels when interest rates were 18% or higher.
If Ottawa wanted to send the message to farmers that they don't give a fuck about a market sector that contributes $149B to GDP, they couldn't have made it clearer.