Health Canada lab in Winnipeg closing due to budget cuts

Employees at a Health Canada laboratory in Winnipeg are shocked to hear their workplace is being shut down amid the federal government's massive round of budget cuts.

Health Canada is closing its Drug Analysis Service lab in Winnipeg and transferring the work to its labs in Toronto, Longueuil, Que., and Burnaby, B.C.

'We've really became a tight-knit communitywe wanted to have our careers there.' Monica Geerie

Twenty-five jobs from the Lagimodiere Boulevard facility will be cut, but 20 employees will be allowed to transfer to the other laboratories, according to federal officials.

"The Winnipeg lab had the lowest amount of workload, and that can be spread across the other three labs and done at the exact same level," Steve Outhouse, a spokesman for federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, told CBC News.

The Drug Analysis Service studies suspected illegal drugs that have been seized by police forces and border officials across the country.

The service's labs receive more than 110,000 samples a year. Staff confirm the identity and purity of those samples, and their analyses are often used as evidence in court, according to Health Canada's website.

Monica Geerie, a chemist at the Winnipeg lab, said she and her colleagues are reeling by news the facility is being shut down.

"It's a family, it's a community of people. I mean, a lot of us have bought houses close to this building," Geerie said.

"We've really became a tight-knit communitywe wanted to have our careers there."

Police work won't be affected

Outhouse said closing the Winnipeg lab will not impact the work of police forces that have relied on it.

"Everyone who's sending these materials in are shipping them from wherever they are," he explained.

"So whether they ship them to one location or another, that workload can be spread out over the other labs."

While most of the Winnipeg employees will be offered work at the Drug Analysis Service's other labs across Canada, Geerie said it's unlikely everyone can take up that offer.

"Some of those places, it's really tough to find affordable housing, and a lot of times our spouses have jobs in Winnipeg and it's really difficult to make that move," she said.

Geerie added that it will likely be difficult to find work at other federal laboratories because they are suffering from budget cuts as well.

Health Canada is also closing down a Winnipeg-based laboratory that studies food samples.