A government fund to upgrade federal lab facilities across Canada will kick in almost $7 million for renovation work at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Ottawa-area facilities.
The lab at Fallowfield, just southwest of Ottawa, is a reference centre for the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) for rabies and brucellosis, and a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating centre on rabies.
The government said the CFIA lab “carries out testing vital for assessing risks to human, animal and plant health in Canada.”
“This investment will go a long way towards updating and enhancing this facility,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a release Tuesday.
“Jobs in construction will be created in the short term while laboratory staff will continue to have a safe and up-to-date work environment to carry out the important work they do in the long term.”
The funding for the upgrades will come from the government’s $250 million, two-year Modernizing Federal Laboratories Initiative, which it describes as a “job-creating” investment to provide economic stimulus across Canada.
