Laboratory repairs welcome but concern remains over stable operational funding

Budget 2009 — Arctic research

The federal Budget has responded to a call for the maintenance and repair of Canada's Arctic research facilities. But it is silent on programs planned under the government's Canadian Arctic Research Initiative and recommended in a recent report from the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA).

The Budget provides $85 million over the next two fiscal years ($35 million in FY09-10 and $50 million in FY10-11) to "invest in maintaining or upgrading key existing Arctic research facilities". Funds are to be allocated on a competitive basis with projects to be completed by the end of FY10-11. Budget documents state that the expenditure is aimed at providing "near-term economic stimulus" as well as establishing a foundation for Arctic research capacity in support of government priorities.

The funding responds directly to observations and conclusions of an expert panel assembled last year by the CCA to solicit international opinion on the CARI, which was unveiled in the 2007 Speech from the Throne. The panel noted that much of the existing Canadian Arctic research infrastructure is in a state of serious deterioration and in need of "urgent repairs and revitalization".

"This is going to help the scientific community up to a point. The $85 million is very very welcome … Upgrading is fine but what about running the facilities? There is a large cost to running these facilities," says Dr Dawn Conway, executive director of the sunsetting Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS). "The Budget provides nothing for this … It's the same concern I have for the money for the Canada Foundation for Innovation. There's nothing in the Budget for the researchers and students and others who are using these research facilities."

details pending

Conway says there's little information on how the money for refurbishment will be used but she hopes it will allow work to be done on the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) at the Eureka station near Nunavut and the Univ of Calgary's Arctic Institute of North America.

The decision to fit Arctic research into an infrastructure-dominated stimulus package for use in the near term is being cautiously applauded. Like the rest of the S&T measures in the Budget, however, concern is being expressed over the lack of operational funding and research support.

The CCA panel makes clear that operational funding is urgently required to reverse the trend of top-flight researchers avoiding Arctic research because of poor career prospects and to bridge the multi-year gap between the end of funding associated with International Polar Year and the opening of a new Arctic research station.

Further development of a new research was provided with $2 million to conduct a feasibility study over the next two years. There's a wide range of opinion on what the research station should look like. The CCA study is advocating a two-hub model to include a logistical hub in a central location and a scientific hub in an "attractive and scientifically interesting area". Another study by the Canadian Polar Commission calls for a network of 12 major research stations stretching from the Yukon to Labrador.

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