Forty-one per cent of Agriculture Canada jobs are in Ottawa

WINNIPEG – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving some employees to America’s heartland to ensure that its staff are “closer to the ground.”

In April, the USDA announced it would be re-locating staff from Washington, D,C., to Kansas City and St. Louis.

“At USDA, we are putting farmers first,” agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said last month.

“This reorganization ensures our research, data and innovation efforts are focused where they matter most. By streamlining operations and moving resources closer to the ground, we are making USDA more responsive, more efficientand better equipped to support American agriculture.”

The USDA will move some Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture staff from Washington to Kansas City, and National Agricultural Statistics Service jobs will be relocated to St. Louis.

The moves are about improving services to the agricultural economy, Rollins said.

But what about Canada?

Would Agriculture Canada ever shift jobs out of Ottawa to the agricultural heartland on the Prairies?

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Ottawa is a long, long way from the Prairie provinces — 2,600 km from Regina. Given the distance, some Agriculture Canada employees in the Ottawa region may be unfamiliar with Prairie agriculture, the scale of farming in Western Canada and the needs of producers in the region.

In March 2025, Agriculture Canada had 5,690 employees.

A large chunk of them worked in the National Capital Region, which had 2,266 Agriculture Canada employees.

That means 41 per cent of the department’s workforce are in Ottawa and Gatineau, Que., which isn’t a shock, considering Ottawa/Gatineau is home to tens of thousands of federal employees.

Agriculture Canada just went through a process to find savings and cut its budget. In late January, the feds released a plan to close agricultural research centres and farms across the country, including the Lacombe centre in Alberta.

You can follow all our coverage of the Agriculture and Agri-Food job cuts here.

The announced closures remain controversial, and farm groups have tried for months to convince the government to reverse its decision.

The cutbacks will result in 665 fewer jobs at Agriculture Canada over the next three years.

“Like other federal departments, (Agriculture Canada) was asked to identify savings to reduce costs over three years, not to relocate positions,” said a department spokesperson.

“(Agriculture Canada) will continue to have a strong national footprint.… (It’s) work is conducted all across the country, including in regional offices, research centres, scientific laboratories and on farms.”

As of March 2025, the department employed about 1,050 people in Saskatchewan and Alberta, which represents around 18 per cent of its workforce.

The 1,050 number will certainly decline after the government winds down operations at Lacombe, the research farm at Indian Head, Sask., and other locations in the two provinces.