Government appoints new board for Canadian Polar Commission

After more than two years without a board of directors, the federal government made 10 new appointments to the Canadian Polar Commission (CPC), ending a tense period of speculation over the organization's future. The appointments come as the agency prepares to host a major conference in Montreal April 22-27/11 to conclude the research initiated during International Polar Year in 2007.

The new board will be chaired by Bernard Funston, an Ottawa-based consultant with extensive experience in northern issues. The vice chairperson is Nellie Cournoyea, chair and CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp.

"I'm absolutely delighted. I was beginning to think it would never happen, that the commission had been mothballed," says Tom Hutchinson, the CPC's last board chair and professor emeritus at Trent Univ's faculty of environmental and resource studies. "I'm also pleased with the new board. It's balanced and the members are knowledgeable and not loaded in any particular direction. Now I hope the government will provide the money required to run the commission."

Since its inception in 1991, the CPC has operated on $1 million annually — a sum that is now woefully inadequate for the size of the operation and the growing number of northern issues that require attention.

Canada's northern research stations were significant beneficiaries of the government's Knowledge Infrastructure program, netting $89 million to complete badly needed refurbishment of several key stations. Hutchinson says what's required now is funding for personnel to operate them.

The CPC was a leading player in Canada's hosting of IPY, particularly in engaging northern communities in the research initiatives. Tasks that were outstanding when the board was allowed to lapse include a research program for human health in the north and research involving the social sciences and humanities. Hutchinson is also concerned that a series of six northern research chairs will be allowed to lapse. "They've been amazingly successful, training graduates and post docs," he says.

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