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Mouse control technicians to lose their jobs

ANGUS, Ont. - At a government compound in rural Ontario, there are stockpiles of tree seeds, billions of them, all catalogued and tested and waiting to be planted. The threat inherent for this factory and its pine cones, acorns, fruit and seed is the vermin. So the provincial government has employed two cats.

Pepper and Sammy are paid by the taxpayers of Ontario in room, board and veterinary care. These “mice-control technicians,” as one bureaucrat called them, are the reason there is no rodent problem at the Ontario Tree Seed Plant in Angus, Ont., about 120 kilometres north of Toronto. 

The cats are soon to be fired, however. The government will shutter the plant next September. 

The chorus of critics attacking the decision is not so much about the cats as the future viability of native species of Ontario trees. Since the 1920s, the Tree Seed Plant has taken in various kinds of seed, each needing a specialized machine. Certain types of pine cones are tumbled in spinning kilns – like big clothes dryers – to shake out the seeds tucked inside. Cherries need to be macerated. The seed needs to be cleaned and tested to determine its germination rate and stored cold, in different fridges at different temperatures, depending on the species. The plant processes the seeds and sells them. It provides the same service to clients who bring in their own seeds.

The ministry says the plant is losing roughly $1 million a year, with losses projected to soon reach $2 million when aging infrastructure and equipment is considered. Operations have apparently declined since the mid-90s, which the ministry traces to the Progressive Conservative government, under premier Mike Harris, which privatized nurseries that purchased seed. The private sector has also started to encroach on the seed-extraction business.

“It no longer makes sense to operate such a large facility,” Natural Resources Minister Kathryn McGarry said during question period at Queen’s Park in October. 

The government plans to open a “Genetic Seed Archive” instead. It will store seeds for native species, each collected from different parts of the province, but only 100,000 to  200,000 of each, not enough to provide to the forest industry for planting.

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