Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources
Issue 18 - Evidence - November 6, 2014
OTTAWA, Thursday, November 6, 2014
The Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources met this day at 8:02 a.m. to examine the subject matter of those elements contained in Divisions 3, 28, and 29 of Part 4 of Bill C-43, A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures.
Senator Richard Neufeld (Chair) in the chair.
[English]
The Chair: Welcome to this meeting of the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources. My name is Richard Neufeld. I represent the province of British Columbia in the Senate, and I am chair of the committee.
I would like to welcome honourable senators and any members of the public who are in the room as well as viewers from across the country who are watching on television. As a reminder to those watching, these committee hearings are open to the public and are also available via webcast on the sen.parl.gc.ca website. You may also find more information on the schedule of witnesses on the website under ''Senate Committees.'' I would now like to ask senators around the table to introduce themselves.
Senator Patterson: Dennis Patterson, Nunavut.
Senator Mitchell: Grant Mitchell, Alberta.
Senator Wallace: John Wallace, New Brunswick.
Senator Black: Douglas Black, Alberta.
Senator Seidman: Judith Seidman, Quebec.
[Translation]
Senator Boisvenu: Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu from La Salle, Quebec.
[English]
The Chair: I would like to introduce our staff, beginning with the clerk, Lynn Gordon, and our two Library of Parliament analysts, Sam Banks and Marc LeBlanc.
Today is our second meeting on Bill C-43, the second budget implementation act, which was introduced in the House of Commons on October 23, 2014.
As you are likely aware, we are one of five committees in the Senate, in addition to the Senate Finance Committee, which were separately authorized on October 30 to examine the subject matter of the particular elements of Bill C-43. We will report our findings back to the Senate no later than November 27, 2014. For our committee, these particular elements are Divisions 3, 28 and 29 of Part 4 of the bill.
In the first segment of our meeting, to brief us on Division 3 of the bill, which deals with the Canadian High Arctic Research Station act, I am pleased to welcome, representing the Canadian Polar Commission, Dr. David J. Scott, Executive Director, who is appearing by video conference from Yellowknife; and Dr. David Hik, Board member, who is appearing by video conferences from Edmonton. Doctors Scott and Hik, I want to thank you for being with us by video conference from your separate locations. I understand that you have a joint presentation. I want to tell people that you were at your video conference site at 5:45 this morning. Those who think that we got up early in Ottawa, you just have to think about what these gentlemen did so they could be with us. The floor is yours, sirs. Go ahead.
David J. Scott, Executive Director, Canadian Polar Commission: Thank you very much, senators. It is an honour and a pleasure to be with you today, albeit remotely. Thanks to the miracle of video technology, we are able to be in two places at once.
In terms of introductory comments, Dr. Hik and I will keep this relatively brief so that we have ample time for your questions. We want to do two things today. First of all, we want to introduce you to the Canadian Polar Commission and some of our current functions. As we move forward, this will be a core functionality of the new organization. Secondly, we want to emphasize that with this piece of legislation and the new organization that will stem from it, we have a fantastic opportunity to create a new polar knowledge organization that is going to be greater than the sum of its parts.
We are trying to leverage and maximize everything that we do, so that the spirit and the intent of this legislation can come to life. This is so we can serve northerners, Canadians and the world by creating the knowledge that is required about the polar regions.
On slide 2, the commission is Canada's national institution for furthering polar knowledge and awareness. Through an act of Parliament, we have been around since 1991. Our strategic goal that we strive for every day is that increased polar knowledge — and that's traditional and scientific knowledge — is transformed into action. It is important that this knowledge be practical and serve purposes that serve people, primarily northerners and then all Canadians.
The second point is that this merger of the commission with the High Arctic research station research program and the station that is currently booming along under construction at Cambridge Bay gives Canada an opportunity to strengthen its leadership position and really move knowledge creation ahead in the North.
On slide 3, the commission functions as a knowledge broker. We link producers or creators of knowledge with those who need to consume it. We work in both polar regions, North and South. Today, we will focus on the northern knowledge creation ecosystem. That's a network of local, national and international folks who are creating all sorts of knowledge about the region and those who need it for decision making.
There are four sub-points I would like to raise about delivering that knowledge-broker function. We do it through liaising with the current knowledge creators and users. These range from federal government departments running science programs; territorial governments, who increasingly are becoming knowledge creators; Aboriginal people and organizations in the North, who have knowledge and are creating new knowledge; and academics from across Canada and around the world. All are creating knowledge.
Our function is to strengthen and build partnerships among these folks, work with the networks and the infrastructure that exist in order to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. All of these organizations are independently funded. We try to bring it all together. We are trying to enhance Canada's international profile as a circumpolar nation and assert that leadership in a global context. Canada derives knowledge from our northern region that the rest of the world needs.
We make information about the polar regions readily available to Canadians via a number of channels, including through social media — Facebook and Twitter. We have a regular blog with Canadian Geographic. Every two weeks we post a new story of interest and importance on their website and in the pages of the Canadian Geographic magazine that 3.5 million Canadians read. We also have the Polar Knowledge app that functions as a directory and a first point of contact for identifying experts, projects and programs in the circumpolar world. We are really reaching out to translate this knowledge to Canadians.
Finally, we provide analyses and promote northern perspectives to inform and influence new investments, such as CHARS, and to focus knowledge creation into the highest-priority areas from the perspective of northerners.
The starting point is that Canada's polar knowledge creation ecosystem is really thriving. There's a lot happening, but it is not yet coordinated or optimized for efficiencies. Additional partnerships can be created, and additional research capacity is actually required on the national, local and international scale.
A lot is happening, but more could be done. Therein lies the opportunity that lies before us with the development and implementation of the new organization.
If we skip ahead, then, to slide 4 in the deck, the investments in the new S&T program — and you've heard from Dr. Raillard how it is coming to life and have seen the images of the station under construction at Cambridge Bay — need to be leveraged into the existing knowledge-creation ecosystem that is out there. This is a huge new investment, a real shot in the arm for creating new knowledge, but it needs to find its place in the existing ecosystem and assist in creating that whole that's greater than the sum of the parts. Through the proposed merger with the commission, the new organization needs to enhance knowledge creation by working with and building on current successes, efforts like the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment, which is a multi-partner, multi-layer knowledge-creation exercise in the Beaufort Sea and Delta area; ArcticNet, a world-class network of researchers funded by the national Networks of Centres of Excellence program; the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals program that Natural Resources Canada runs; and local capacity, like the Cold Climate Innovation centre at Yukon College. All of these pieces of the puzzle are parts of that solution.
Increasing awareness of the key knowledge gaps is another major function, working towards identifying that common ground so that we can focus on the most important gaps of knowledge and create opportunities for collaborative solutions, stimulating partnerships among all of the players, in Canada and abroad, among our domestic institutions that are already creating that knowledge and between Canadian and international players. There's a huge appetite in the international polar research community to come to Canada, to work on the key problems that the world needs solutions to and to do that with Canadian researchers.
Finally, as to catalyzing and leveraging additional investments to bring to the table, the funding that has already been allocated for the Canadian High Arctic Research Station and its program, as well as the commission, comes together, but that's a starting point. We need to do more to leverage additional intellectual partnerships that come along, often with financing. We need to work with the Canadian funders, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the granting councils and the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program, which will facilitate much international participation in Canada.
If we jump ahead to the next slide, number 5, I will turn over to my board member, David Hik, to put some ideas on the table, and then we can certainly entertain your questions.
David Hik, Board Member, Canadian Polar Commission: Thank you very much and good morning. It is a great opportunity to be able to meet with you this morning and discuss some of the outcomes of conversations we have had in the last few weeks with the Canadian Polar Commission board of directors.
As you know, for the last four years the board has really worked hard to enable the activities that Dr. Scott just described, and we are pretty excited by the new legislation and the opportunity to play a role in the next stage of the development of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station.
I would like to address three points that came up in our discussions over the last three weeks and that, perhaps, are of interest to the committee and certainly might help to strengthen the proposed legislation.
The first of those is that although we understand that there are different ways of reporting to Parliament than are described in the current Canadian Polar Commission Act, we really do see an opportunity here for CHARS to play an active role in facilitating interdepartmental reporting of annual activities in the Arctic, including how funds are allocated. We address this in the context of being as efficient as possible with resources that are already in place, not just the requirement for future, new resources.
In some years in the past, there's been a federal or national activity report that tracks the investments and the outcome of those investments in the whole-of-government activity in Arctic research.
Over the last few years, we have worked quite closely with our partners in the United States, in the United States Arctic Research Commission. In fact, they have a very explicit provision in the U.S. Arctic Research and Policy Act that provides for inter-agency reporting of activities on an annual basis. We have certainly observed that, for the U.S., this has been a very effective mechanism to better coordinate whole-of-government Arctic research activities.
That leads to our second point of discussion, which is the opportunity to strengthen organizations' mandates to create a more integrated, whole-of-government approach to Arctic S&T programs.
There's a sense that, as currently proposed, the legislation falls a little short of achieving this objective — a whole-of- government approach — recognizing that there are many departments and agencies that are very active in a wide variety of Arctic S&T activities. The opportunity to integrate both scientifically across disciplines — particularly in different approaches to gathering knowledge, synthesizing knowledge and sharing knowledge — and also at the national level, recognizing that territorial governments, Inuit and First Nation organizations, the business community and, of course, international partners are very active in the Canadian Arctic in gathering knowledge that is of great use for a wide variety of users. This integration doesn't require creating a new organization or dismantling organizations but finding ways to network all of the activities more closely.
As Dr. Scott already mentioned, Canada is a leader in this type of coordination, through organizations like the ArcticNet Network of Centres of Excellence of Canada.
The final point I'd like to make is that as this legislation comes into force, as the new organization starts to take shape, as the roles of CHARS and the Canadian Polar Commission are merged, there's an opportunity to be very clear about the scope of those programs.
We will have the best research station in the world. In fact, we will have the best network of research stations in the Arctic, anywhere in the world. We want to make sure we have the best governance and legislation to guide those activities in the coming decades.
There certainly has been some question as to whether CHARS is the best branding for the new organization, recognizing its broad mandate and its role in Antarctic research. This is one of the questions that we have had. I think that there's not a specific solution, but we certainly want to make sure that CHARS, as it comes into force, has the broadest opportunity to deliver on its mandate.
It is a very exciting opportunity, and the board, as it rolls into its new responsibilities for the governance of CHARS, is very excited about the possibilities.
The Chair: If that's the end of the presentation, then we will go to questions. I will begin with Senator Black.
Senator Black: Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you very much for what you both do. The work that you have described to us is obviously very important to Canada.
I have two questions. First, perhaps you can share with us and those who will be watching this program, or are watching it now, some of the projects that you are currently working on. Give us a flavour.
Mr. Scott: Thank you very much, senator. I will start with that. The Polar Commission is currently working to complete — in addition to its recent report The State of Northern Knowledge in Canada, which was an in-depth analysis of northerners' perspectives on knowledge progress post-IPY, International Polar Year — a state on monitoring infrastructure in the North, monitoring programs. Again, there's a lot already happening. Much of it is independently operated. It is not particularly well coordinated.
We are completing a report in collaboration with the CHARS S&T program to provide a basis for decision making going forward. That's a key piece.
We are also looking at perhaps organizing another get-together or conference on traditional knowledge. We were successful earlier in September, working in partnership with organizations in the Northwest Territories, having a traditional knowledge workshop in Yellowknife. We are looking forward to doing something for the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, or traditional knowledge in Iqaluit, as an example of bridging the ways of knowing. Those are two small examples of activities we're currently working on as the commission.
Senator Black: I hear that what you are currently doing is inventorying the knowledge that exists and who is doing what in the field. You are doing a survey at this point in time. Would that be accurate?
Mr. Scott: Yes, that's quite correct. Making the underlying data public so new users can discover monitoring activities where they might wish to access the data, or potentially partnering and gathering new data at the same site. We are trying to build synergies and make the existing investments more effective.
Senator Black: Will you folks do research at some point? Will you define an energy project, for example, and decide that you want to look at it through your resources? Is that how you work?
Mr. Scott: At this point, we're not resourced to actually undertake primary research and create new knowledge in the field, if you will. Rather, we do meta-research. We analyze the research that's going on. We can make recommendations where we identify gaps.
Senator Black: My second question relates to the issue of sovereignty. The context of my question would be that the North is obviously extremely important to Canada. I'm looking at it specifically through an energy lens, the potential resources that exist in the North and Canada's natural desire to be able to lay claim to those resources.
Now, let's role play for a second and we will pretend that I'm a judge at some international arbitration commission at some point in the future where I'm determining whether or not the High Arctic resources are Canada's or Russia's or Denmark's or Greenland's or whomever's. What will your organization be able to do in terms of an evidentiary benefit to Canada? Have I made that clear?
Mr. Scott: Yes, sir, abundantly. There are a number of angles here. The first is that conducting research that follows Canadian regulations for land use, for research licensing, all of the activities that go on on the Canadian land mass and in the waters in between the land mass in the High Arctic are clearly under the jurisdiction of Canada, and I don't think there's any dispute domestically or internationally that Canada is very much in charge of and is simply exerting its sovereignty in that part of the world.
As a geologist, I can reassure senators that through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, there is a very orderly and fact-based approach to defining that area beyond the 200-nautical-mile limit where Canada will exert additional sovereign rights over resources. That is a very orderly process. The rules of the game include understanding the geological makeup of the extension of a continental crust beyond 200 nautical miles from the shoreline of the continent. Nuts and bolts symmetry data allows us to understand the shape, and there is a very clear set of rules that can be interpreted to demonstrate how a country such as Canada has natural prolongations of its continental land mass out beyond 200 nautical miles.
All of the countries around the world, not just in the Arctic, are in the process of defining these extensions of their continental land mass, and because it is a very fact-based, evidence-based approach, Canada has, with great efforts, gathered the data that are required to make submissions to the commission.
We have made one on the East Coast and signalled a partial submission in the Arctic. I understand the data gathering is ongoing, interpretation will follow and a fact-based argument will be placed on the table for the commission in due course.
Senator Black: I would decide in his favour.
Mr. Hik: One addition to this, in terms of the role of the commission, is that we play a very active role internationally in engaging with our international research partners in other countries. By making them aware of Canadian activities that address your concerns and interests of Canada in securing sovereign rights in the Arctic, it filters down through their national polar organizations into their governments and, in a sense, dissipates any potential for misunderstanding and future advancing of claims that really have no grounding. The science community is advising not just governments but industries as well as to what the opportunities are.
Senator Seidman: Thank you very much, Dr. Scott and Dr. Hik. You have both demonstrated your enthusiasm for the opportunity that lies ahead in the creation of CHARS. You talk about the opportunity as one that will improve coordination and optimize for efficiencies, including partnerships, additional research capacity, et cetera.
In response to Senator Black's question, you talked about the meta-research role that you are going to play, and I would like to pursue that just a bit. As you do this meta-research, which is bringing together all the studies, looking at findings and perhaps making recommendations, how would you do the knowledge transfer? Would you see yourself in a role of knowledge transfer from that meta-research that you are going to do?
Mr. Scott: Thank you for the question and the opportunity to elaborate. Based on our recent example of our report The State of Northern Knowledge in Canada, which we released to the public in April of this year, we're now in what we call the engagement phase where rather than simply posting it on our website and hoping people find it, we have been very proactive in ensuring people become aware of the report. In addition to its being on our website, it is available through our Polar Knowledge app. We are now at the stage of drilling down deeper and securing opportunities to brief decision makers. We have presented this to a couple of committees in Ottawa, assistant deputy ministers of federal departments dealing with Arctic issues, the Arctic S&T ADMs, as well as their policy coordination committee to make these decision makers aware that it exists, brief them on its content and help them understand how it is relevant to their own departmental mandates.
We do this internationally as well. We have had a number of engagement opportunities where we have been able to put this report into the hands of other polar nations who have research capacities to explain Canadian perspectives and northern Canadian perspectives specifically on what the knowledge gaps are. Many of these gaps are quite common to other countries as well, preparing for resource development so that local people can benefit, coping with community sustainability in Arctic regions as the climate changes. What we have always taken as the normal begins to change.
The issues of dealing with wellness and community resilience are common in Canada's North and, although slightly different, also in other parts of the North. There are always other countries who are interested in helping to work together to address these issues. We see them as Canadian challenges. We have colleagues in other countries with expertise. Solutions are emerging elsewhere, so by engaging with and raising awareness of these meta-analyses, we are able to leverage additional participation. Now there's interest in coming to Canada to help solve these problems and find polar applications for them in other countries.
Senator Seidman: You made reference to your State of Northern Knowledge in Canada report that was released in March 2014. On the inside cover of that report it states that ICARP will provide a road map to guide research-focused planning and delivery over the next decade.
Following from your responses and your further explanation about how you're going to do knowledge transfer, I'd like to know if you will have a role in identifying and prioritizing areas of research based on your work and your analysis of the state of affairs in the North.
Mr. Scott: I'll turn to Dr. Hik, who is leading the ICARP III process on behalf of the international polar science community.
Mr. Hik: Yes, thank you. The State of Northern Knowledge in Canada report was one of the very first international contributions made to the ICARP process. In many ways, it caught the attention of other countries in that they recognized what type of opportunity existed through this year-long initiative to identify what types of issues, what types of approaches and what types of solutions could be addressed in the future.
We really took the initiative on setting the agenda for ICARP. I think many of the issues that are identified in the report will emerge. This won't be a long shopping list of 100 things we'd like to do. It's going to be a very strategic consensus among the international community and research organizations, including northerners, through the Arctic Council and other organizations. It will cover what the issues are that we need to address most urgently. We think that the contribution from the commission and through the state of polar knowledge report has already shaped much of the discussion that's taking place. That will all culminate in a conference in Toyama, Japan, in April of next year. It will be fed into the Arctic Council ministerial process that Canada will be hosting at the same time.
Senator Seidman: You mentioned that northerners were involved and will be involved in developing priorities. Is there some way to build that in? How do you ensure that the northerners have some influence in what priorities are set?
Mr. Hik: That's a good question. It's always a challenge. In the North, the distance, the capacity and all the other pressing issues sometimes divert attention away from thinking about research priorities or those next steps.
We work very closely through Arctic Council with all six of the permanent participant organizations. Canada hosts three of those organizations. From the very beginning, they've all been actively involved in ICARP. Domestically, we work closely with the First Nation and Inuit organizations, directly through board members, through the board and the commission as a whole, and through the northern colleges and research institutes. In each of those cases, we have mechanisms to seek their input, advice and direction on what the future research challenges and priorities should be.
A large part of the effort of many board members is directed towards capacity building in the North, through educational activities — whether it's through the colleges or other land-based initiatives. We're really paying a lot of attention to making sure there's a new generation of researchers, particularly northerners, who are contributing not just to the identification of those priorities, but also that they will be the leaders of those projects in the future.
Senator Seidman: Thank you very much.
Senator Mitchell: Thank you, gentlemen.
Dr. Scott, one of the points you made was that the organization will be identifying important gaps in knowledge. Could you give us some idea of what some of those gaps might be?
Mr. Scott: Thank you, senator. Yes, I can. For example, if we focus on the Canadian Arctic region, one of the big challenges is how to mitigate the impacts and maximize the benefits of large-scale resource development. There are natural market drivers. There are companies actively exploring. From a policy perspective, we want to ensure that as those activities occur, negative consequences are minimized. Obviously, there will be disruptions to landscapes. We also need the benefits to be maximized. How do we start to prepare northerners to become engaged with and prepared for the opportunities that the advent of a new mine brings to their region? How do we transition folks who haven't been in the wage economy into a not quite nine-to-five but into a two weeks-in, two weeks-out rotation? That's a major change. How do we begin to prepare people, so that they're ready to benefit from those new opportunities?
Another big factor is addressing wellness, in general, in a very holistic way. How do the factors that exist in communities play into mental wellness and attitudes that sometimes express themselves in suicide? There are some very challenging and complex problems. Our hope is to identify what is known, take the next step and focus on those areas where new knowledge is required to better understand how solutions might be developed and implemented that would directly benefit northerners.
In many cases, there are critical pieces of information or knowledge that are missing. Addressing those helps moves the yardsticks ahead. It helps those who develop and implement programs in the federal government or territorial governments who want to have an evidence-based approach before they implement a strategy. By assessing what exists, identifying the gaps and rallying efforts to address those gaps, it creates the new knowledge that can underpin policy that starts to address those challenges.
Senator Mitchell: Thank you. Earlier this week, witness testimony alluded to this: Do you see climate change and renewable energy as gaps that your organization would be addressing?
Mr. Scott: The very short answers are yes and yes. It's undeniable that across the country and the planet our climate is actually changing. In the North, it is a particularly acute issue. Much of the infrastructure of the North was literally built on an assumption that the ground would be permanently frozen. That assumption is breaking down in many places. All kinds of new knowledge is required to assess what parts of the landscape are most vulnerable to built infrastructure — whether it's the foundation for a building or the runway at the airport that is your only link to the outside world for nine months of the year. We need knowledge of the vulnerabilities. Knowledge needs to be created about innovative solutions that are affordable and sustainable.
As the climate changes, many direct impacts need to be addressed.
Senator Mitchell: Thank you. Dr. Hik, in your presentation, you mentioned that the proposed legislation could include a requirement for CHARS to facilitate interdepartmental reporting of all Arctic research activities. Does that ''could'' mean ''should''? Do we need to add something to the legislation to make that possible? Or does that ''could'' mean ''can and will''?
Mr. Hik: The opportunity exist within the organization to play that role. I've had an interest in this for some time. We've been in a position of needing to better track and understand what types of investments are being made. Because they are so dispersed across many organizations, sometimes finding that information is a challenge. It is important in an operational context where we're dealing with having to put people in the field — far away from centres — and having to organize the logistics, transportation and infrastructure to support that.
My observation is simply that in countries where that type of inter-agency coordination exists as a requirement, there tends to be a more effective way of gathering that information. It seems as if there's an opportunity. If that was a requirement, it might just give a little bit more leverage to a whole-of-government approach, without really changing anything, but allowing for that information to be made as widely available as possible and allow organizations that are actively involved in a wide variety of Arctic S&T activities to have a better way of cooperating, coordinating and making more efficient the investments that they've already undertaken.
It's not a large change, but there are some advantages, as you can appreciate, of having that as a requirement rather than something that is simply decided on an administrative basis. There's a little bit more leverage in a requirement like that, and that's our observation from seeing how some other countries, like the United States, have organized themselves.
Senator Patterson: Good morning, gentlemen. This is really a merger of the Polar Commission with this new creature, CHARS, and I'd like to ask you about operational changes you might face in the newly merged organization.
Specifically, will there be staff requirements and capacity issues should the president of the staff, and staff of the newly merged organization, be located in Cambridge Bay, or should an Ottawa presence be maintained?
I'll leave it at that. Maybe Dr. Scott could address those.
Mr. Scott: Thank you very much, Senator Patterson. Yes, I'll attempt to do that. For the first question, the Polar Commission with its existing resources is now transitioning away from deciding, in order to just be practical with the capacity we've got. We deprioritized a couple of things to free up some staff to help on the transition itself. Going forward on April 1 and beyond, I think we have much of the capability we need, but not necessarily all of the human capacity that we need.
In the short term, we may need to bring on some additional staff that could assist with some of the analyses that are required, again understanding the knowledge creation that's out there and our meta-analysis of that type of thing. We are okay from a competencies perspective, but we will need to bring on some additional human capacity to do this.
There's enough to start with, and the S&T team that Dr. Raillard leads is beginning to grow, so there will be a gradual progression, but there will be a bit of a challenge to get ready for April 1. I think we can meet it, but it will take some additional effort.
As we bring things together, the legislation clearly states that the headquarters will be Cambridge Bay, and I think that is fantastic. We will need to make sure that as we bring on board additional staff members, Cambridge Bay is the home of this organization. Once the research station is up and running and when there's housing available for the new staff — housing markets are always tight in northern communities — and office space ahead of the final station becoming available, we will absolutely start to populate positions in Cambridge Bay. It allows us to stay connected to our northern constituents and create all of the opportunities you've heard quite a bit about, the station itself, how it will benefit the community.
With respect to the president of the organization, he or she will need to be in quite a few places at once leading the people of the organization, and most of them will be based in Cambridge Bay. That person will need to spend time there to be the leader, the presence that brings energy and drives it forward. However, as the deputy head of a federal organization, there will be responsibilities to be in Ottawa, sometimes by video, sometimes in person. And to continue to position Canada as a polar leader, that individual will also need to have a fairly frequent international presence at some of the major meetings and gatherings that take place, the International Arctic Science Committee and the corresponding Antarctic group called the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, to ensure that Canadian needs, ideas and capabilities are present internationally and that international capabilities can be leveraged back into Canada.
That person will be fairly busy and in several places at once most of the time, but I think it's very clear in the legislation that Cambridge Bay will be the headquarters. That's a reasonable decision to make, and through time and as capacity is built locally, more and more of the positions will be staffed in Cambridge Bay and fewer of them will need to be elsewhere.
The commission currently has a northern office here in Yellowknife in the Greenstone Building, and we have a northern coordinator here, David Miller. It's quite possible that in the interim perhaps the office in Yellowknife might be used to grow northern capacity prior to the infrastructure in Cambridge Bay being ready for CHARS staff to be in that community. At least it would be closer — it's in the North, closer to northern constituents.
Senator Patterson: Thank you, Dr. Scott. You mentioned the International Arctic Science Committee. I take it that the Polar Commission will continue its current role as Canada's adhering body to that committee. You mentioned Antarctica. You also have a mandate for Antarctica. Of course, CHARS has an Arctic focus, so do you see the new body continuing your current mandate for Antarctica? Another question: Will the new body continue to administer the Northern Scientific Training Program as the Polar Commission currently does?
Mr. Scott: Thank you, Senator Patterson. I'll deal with the second one first. It's very brief. The answer is yes, the commission will continue to administer the Northern Scientific Training Program that provides funding to students conducting research in the North each year, and we deliver more than $1 million worth of support to almost 400 students each year to help them do their research in the North.
With respect to the first part of your question, yes, the commission's function will carry forward to the new organization to represent Canada at the two polar organizations. With respect to Antarctica, it's important to keep in mind the global-scale questions that the scientific community is working on, on behalf of the population of the world and northerners in particular.
With respect to the global-scale changes that are occurring in our climate as ocean circulation starts to change, heat budgets are moving around. All of that global-scale science needs coordination. Canada is a major player. It's through these two science coordination bodies that that work gets pulled together and synthesized. It gives us an opportunity to import additional expertise into the new organization by staying in touch with the leaders of other polar knowledge organizations.
In fact, to make CHARS successful, we're looking at leveraging as many international polar experts and their resources as possible. Many of those people are Antarctic experts looking for the corollary or the other side of the equation in the North. We believe this will create opportunities for Canadian researchers to continue to work with those partners in the southern part of the planet and grow Canadian capacities into a formal Antarctic research program, which is actually a requirement of the Antarctic Treaty to which Canada is a signatory, and we don't yet have an Antarctic research program.
We're very confident that, through leveraging, the Canadian High Arctic Research Station and its program will provide the opportunity as it attracts international polar experts, and will additionally create the opportunity for Canadians to finally stand up an Antarctic program in partnership with those same researchers who would come to CHARS. We think with no new spending on an Antarctic program, we can leverage other countries' programs there as we leverage them into our program in the North.
Senator Patterson: I believe that six members of the current Polar Commission board's terms are expiring next year. Are there any particular qualifications you would look for in the new board members that will need to be appointed, given this merger?
Mr. Scott: Yes, on April 1, six current CPC board members will still be in good standing, but three of those individuals have terms that will expire, as currently written, in the next fiscal year. So there will certainly be a number of opportunities for new appointments to the board.
First and foremost, board members — and it's made quite clear in the legislation — need to have knowledge of the North and its knowledge issues. We always want to see a diversity of constituencies represented — folks resident in the North, of course; folks who have an Aboriginal background, First Nations or Inuit; people with expertise as academics or leaders of industries that operate in the North. So we're looking for a number of qualifications that are quite clearly stated in the legislation. I think there's still a very broad population base that meets those criteria, so we really should have no difficulty identifying well-rounded individuals who bring those perspectives — and often more than one in the same individual — to maintain a strong and robust governance board. That, in my two and a half years of experience with the Polar Commission, has been key to the success of the turnaround and strengthening of its capacities. To have that guidance from the board and the decision-making ability of the board has been fundamental, and I'm very optimistic that that can be continued in the new organization. Perhaps I'll defer to my colleague, board member David Hik.
Mr. Hik: I think new membership is a real opportunity for the new board. The current board works very well together, and the fact that we have our own networks and are able to leverage into those and look for synergies, sort of different layers of cooperation, has been very useful for the work that we have been doing over the last few years.
I think Dr. Scott's right, there's a large pool of potential board members, and I think we need to look at geographic representation, expertise and other interests that people might bring to the new board. But it will be a broader mandate, and so I think we need to think about that carefully as those new appointments become available.
Senator Wallace: Dr. Scott, as I understand it, the government's overall objective is for Canada to become a leading, if not the leading, leader in international research capability and performance in the Arctic. If this bill is passed and with the creation of the unified CHARS organization and the enhanced research station that exists in Cambridge Bay, how would Canada compare to other polar nations with that capacity? Will we truly become an international leader?
Mr. Scott: Thank you, senator. I think the short answer to that is yes, we very much will. Canada is seen as a leader. We're not the largest player, but, conceptually, we are at the leading edge in many technical domains — climate change, resource development, human health and wellness. We'll never be as large as some other countries, such as our colleagues to the south and west in the U.S. — Alaska and the mainland.
Relative to many other polar nations, we are very productive in terms of outputs of scientific research, journal papers that are widely read and consumed. Conceptually, we are leaders. The way we interact with our indigenous populations in the North through the land claims is unique on the planet. It guides how we conduct research and gather information. We are world leaders in working well with our indigenous and northern populations. Other countries are looking to us for that, so we are very much seen as innovators through our co-management boards that come out of the land claims. For example, we have different and perhaps better ways of gathering knowledge that is applicable in the Western scientific tradition, but also in local ''how do we simply manage the caribou'' sorts of questions.
So Canada is innovative. It is seen widely, already, as a leader. The advent of the new organization and the new S&T program, as it grows, give us a further opportunity to demonstrate that leadership. There's literally a lineup at the door of international researchers looking to partner with Canadians. We're having a workshop, in about a month's time, at the Arctic Change Conference in Ottawa, where we'll spend a day presenting Canadian perspectives and then hearing from more than a dozen international countries that are keen to establish real partnerships here in Canada to create new knowledge that's applicable on the global scale.
So by engaging and using our existing best practices, we will increase the volume of work that gets done and, I think, increase our influence accordingly. We'll never be the biggest. We're seen as one of the best. We are very much poised to demonstrably be the best, the most innovative, creative and effective as we create new knowledge.
It's a huge opportunity, and the advent of CHARS gives us that shot in the arm, the additional resources to go out and leverage in the rest of the world and really demonstrate that we're walking the walk.
Senator Wallace: You've just answered what was to have been my last question, so thank you.
The Chair: All right, thank you. That ends the questions. Gentlemen, I just have one question, and it's on page 10 of your presentation. It's a little hard to make out, but I see an awful lot of little red dots on a map that says the Canadian Network of Northern Research Operators.
I'm not exactly sure what that really means. I don't think we have the time for you to explain all of that, but could you maybe give us some sense of what that means and maybe provide to the clerk a description, more or less, of what all those little red dots actually mean?
Mr. Hik: I think those red dots are all of the capacity that we already have in Northern Canada, not including ships that are floating around in the ocean, although maybe they are there as well. Even in the absence of CHARS, as Dr. Scott just indicated, we have a capacity to conduct leading, world-class research in the Arctic. What CHARS will bring is that coordinated, new focus to all of those activities.
So you could attach a name to each of those red dots, organizations that have been conducting research at those places, in some cases for decades. That's the wealth of knowledge. That's the foundation we have. The Canadian North is a huge place. We can't just have one facility in Cambridge Bay that will cover all of the activities and interests and needs that we have. So we can provide that information. This is simply a representation of how dispersed and well- covered we have the research capacity in the North.
The Chair: Thank you very much. That answers my question very well. It does demonstrate that we have a good presence in all of Northern Canada to develop that information that's needed to take us forward.
Thank you, Dr. Scott and Dr. Hik, for your presentations, for getting up so early this morning to come and present to us. I think we had a very good presentation and some good questions and very good answers. So thank you.
We are continuing our pre-study hearings on Bill C-43, the second budget implementation act, Divisions 3, 28 and 29 of Part 4.
Here to speak to us regarding Division 3 of the bill, which deals with the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, I am pleased to welcome in person Elizabeth Kingston, General Manager, Northwest Territories and Nunavut Chamber of Mines; and from Cambridge Bay, Her Worship Jeannie Ehaloak, Mayor of Cambridge Bay, by video conference.
We may experience a little trouble with the video conference from Cambridge Bay; that's a long way away, but we're happy to see you here, mayor. I believe you have a presentation to make to us.
Jeannie Ehaloak, Mayor, Municipality of Cambridge Bay: Good morning, everyone. On behalf of the hamlet council staff and residents of Cambridge Bay, I would like to thank the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources for providing me this opportunity to meet with you this morning.
I would like to begin by providing some insight on community input and participation in the Canadian High Arctic Research Station project to date.
Community engagement in this project actually began during the CHARS feasibility study, when Cambridge Bay was selected as a possible location for CHARS. At that time, a steering committee was established within the community consisting of hamlet staff, council members and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. The primary goal of this committee was to ensure that Cambridge Bay would be the future home of CHARS.
After the Prime Minister's announcement in August 2010 that CHARS would be located in Cambridge Bay, this steering committee grew to include various Government of Nunavut departments, Nunavut Arctic College representatives, non-profit organizations, local businesses and members from AANDC working on this project. The focus of the committee shifted towards maximizing integration of CHARS within the community, sharing knowledge and generating discussion on everything from the design of the facility, local participation and delivery of the science and technology program.
This committee has been instrumental in identifying and establishing partnership opportunities for pilot projects already under way in Cambridge Bay. This would include projects such as the ACS-150 alternative energy project, the community energy audit, a study on heat recovery ventilation systems, HRV, and an undersea observatory project.
As you can see, community input and participation thus far has been significant, and we look forward to continuing to build on this relationship with CHARS.
Although I have not had the opportunity to review the full transcript of the evidence provided during the November 4 discussion, I would like to take this opportunity to address a couple of the questions raised by senators at that time.
Senator Seidman had a question regarding how the North and northerners will benefit from CHARS. I believe the HRV study is an early example of northerners benefiting from CHARS. The goal of this project is to design a better heat recovery ventilation system, ultimately becoming a system developed in the North for the North. Additionally, as part of this project, instructors were brought to Cambridge Bay to deliver training to Nunavut Housing Corporation staff on installation and maintenance of HRV systems. This training provided 19 Nunavut Housing Corporation staff from across the Kitikmeot region with HRV certification and has increased capacity in the region.
I would like to add a community perspective to Senator Wallace's question as to what the Canadian High Arctic Research Station would resemble. After Cambridge Bay was selected as a location for CHARS, many local residents had the same question. Numerous community consultations were held with CHARS staff and the architects to discuss location and design of the facility. After all, this facility will be a part of our community for a long time to come. There is no doubt that CHARS is a beautiful facility architecturally. With that being said, I would like to commend the AANDC staff working on this project for their inclusive approach to the design of CHARS. The community of Cambridge Bay truly feels that their collective voice has been heard.
In closing, the recently adopted vision of the municipality states that Cambridge Bay is a healthy, culturally vibrant, environmentally friendly community with a thriving economy, serving as a regional centre for the Kitikmeot region and as a hub of the transportation. We believe that working with CHARS we will be able to achieve this vision.
The Chair: Thank you very much. We will go to Ms. Kingston for her remarks and then we will go to questions and answers.
Elizabeth Kingston, General Manager, Northwest Territories and Nunavut Chamber of Mines: On behalf of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, thank you for the invitation to come and speak to you today in relation to Bill C-43. We are pleased to provide the submission for consideration regarding provisions to the economic action plan act.
As requested, my comments will focus on Division 3, Part 4, the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, or CHARS. We very much appreciate this opportunity given CHARS could potentially have an important impact on a number of exploration and mining projects in the territories.
The chamber of mines is the industry association and leading advocate for responsible and sustainable mineral development and exploration in the NWT and Nunavut. As mentioned, I'm Elizabeth Kingston, General Manager for Nunavut, and my office is located in Iqaluit.
In a letter dated September 30, we were advised by Minister Valcourt that the Government of Canada is proposing to establish CHARS as a new federal organization and to merge the existing Canadian Polar Commission into that new organization as described in the transitional provisions of the draft act.
Our understanding is that the purpose of this new organization would be to promote the development and dissemination of knowledge in respect of the polar regions; advance knowledge of the Canadian Arctic in order to improve economic opportunities, environmental stewardship and the quality of life for northerners and all Canadians; strengthen Canada's leadership on Arctic issues; and provide a focal research presence in the Canadian Arctic.
The chamber supports the combination of these two organizations as an appropriate efficiency measure that will assist in achieving the goals of the Northern Strategy. We are eager to do our part to support this institution and to help shape Canada's future through the advancement of Arctic science.
The chamber could be a helpful broker in identifying those of our members who might be interested in partnering with the science and technology program of CHARS to advance new knowledge creation in areas of mutual priority.
We have been a member of the CHARS advisory panel since 2011, and we're pleased to participate in the development of the science and technology blueprint.
During the development of the S&T blueprint, we recommended that CHARS' research priorities focus on three key areas that are of interest and impact to our industry.
The first is marine shipping. Virtually all new mines in the Arctic regions of Nunavut and the NWT will rely on marine shipping. We believe that new research in this area will show that responsible marine shipping is not harmful to the environment.
We hope that CHARS' work will help to remove barriers to mining development, the goal being that, years from now, we will have determined that marine shipping to support mining is not environmentally significant. In fact, we would like to think that our industry helped Canada set a leadership role in Arctic shipping back in the 1970s, when Canada joined with industry to support Arctic mining and marine shipping development. At that time, the federal government took an 18 per cent ownership share in the Nanisivik mine, supplying transportation and community infrastructure for the most northerly mining operation in Canadian history.
It was that government that invested in the technological creation of the world's most advanced icebreaking cargo ship, the MV Arctic, to service the Nanisivik and Polaris mines. It is that MV Arctic technology that was the foundation of the latest advancement in Canadian Arctic marine shipping, the much larger and more sophisticated MV Nunavik, which recently successfully took a load of mineral resource concentrate from Arctic Quebec through the Northwest Passage to China.
We have great opportunity to expand our expertise in the area of marine shipping, and CHARS could have a role in all of this.
Our second key area of interest is improved community health. Mining contributes to community health. We would like to see research with appropriate indicators that provide scientific evidence to support mining's contributions to healthier communities.
Industry can use these research opportunities to ensure its activity is making a positive difference in the communities. For example, several mining companies in the Kitikmeot region have been involved in discussions around a potential survey of seasonal workers on their views of food security and housing. If CHARS is planning to do something similar, this would be a good opportunity to work together on applicable research and avoid duplication.
Training and capacity building that have arisen from the CHARS project, in and of itself, support resource development. Another example is that the Nunavut Arctic College has developed an environmental technologies foundations program, primarily to develop technicians to work at CHARS. However, some of those potential future graduates might decide that they prefer an environmental management position with one of the mining companies.
Merging the Polar Commission with CHARS, maintaining its head office in Cambridge Bay and hosting board meetings each year in that head office, as referenced in section 26(2), would likely attract more employment positions north, and we agree that that's a good thing.
Science literacy amongst the public is another mutual objective. With active research programs under way in the North involving community partnership and participation, it is more likely that the general public will have a greater knowledge of scientific methods and will be better able to understand the assessment and monitoring results of mining projects.
Our industry already provides powerful tools to make a difference in communities, and we look forward to the new and improved CHARS being a significant catalyst in helping us to use those tools.
A third key research priority for our industry involves improving baseline wildlife data for environmental assessment. Mineral exploration in Northern Canada is helping to advance potential mines, but there are large gaps in baseline environmental data. Filling knowledge gaps on marine and terrestrial wildlife, particularly caribou and whales, will assist resource development companies in completing environmental studies.
CHARS has an important role in supporting all of this by understanding our current knowledge base from the development perspective and by ensuring that it is proactively filling in those knowledge gaps ahead of investment so that we do not unnecessarily slow down or stop projects that our industry has worked so hard to attract.
The chamber is hopeful that an amalgamated CHARS organization will bring an even more encompassing focus on priorities for the North and will maintain its emphasis on broad-sweeping research that can fill knowledge gaps that would support our northern mining projects.
To conclude, we are pleased with the number of legislative changes proposed in Bill C-43, Division 3, Part 4, and expect that they will be an incentive for increased mineral investment in the North. The chamber looks forward to future dialogue with the federal government as the CHARS institute is established.
We appreciate this opportunity to comment on the proposed amendments. Passage of the CHARS act will help the Government of Canada advance its knowledge of the Arctic and strengthen Canadian leadership on polar issues, which, in our view, is an ambitious initiative to complete the Northern Strategy. That concludes my presentation. Thank you.
The Chair: Thank you very much, Ms. Kingston. We will now go to questions.
Senator Patterson: [Editor's Note: Senator Patterson spoke in Inuktitut].
Mayor Ehaloak, great to see you from so far away. I want to briefly pay my respects to the hamlet of Cambridge Bay for the tremendous lobbying effort that was made to promote Cambridge Bay as the location of CHARS. There was some competition for that honour in Nunavut, and the hamlet did a superb job of explaining why it would welcome and support this new initiative. I see the continued involvement of the hamlet in the steering committee and in making sure that CHARS is linked with the community and the people and, through your community, with the people of Nunavut.
Congratulations to you on that.
We have heard that CHARS is going to attract people to study the Arctic and to actually live in the Arctic, which is a great thing. This is a very practical question, madam mayor: We know about the housing shortage in every community in the North. Are you keeping an eye on the provision of housing for the employees? Do you have any comments on that need? Is that being addressed through the steering committee?
Without housing, it is not going to be possible for people like the staff of the Polar Commission. We just heard that mentioned as a challenge. Without housing, all the best intentions in the world of locating people in Cambridge Bay will not materialize.
Would you comment on that please, mayor?
Ms. Ehaloak: Thank you, Senator Patterson. To your question about housing, from the very beginning of CHARS, housing was committed to, and for the staff it is all new housing. It was committed by AANDC that housing would be built for their staff so that CHARS employees would not take up existing public or government housing.
Senator Patterson: If I may, where is the construction at the moment? I saw a picture of the steel this fall. Is that building closed in yet? Winter has set in in Cambridge Bay, I'm sure. Can you tell us how it is looking?
Ms. Ehaloak: The facility right now has three buildings that are going up. One is the storage facility, and I'm sorry to say no, it hasn't been closed in yet, but they are still working on it.
My house is right beside the CHARS facility, and they're working 12 hours a day. The two other units that are currently being built are the residences, and those are almost closed in and ready to be constructed from the inside.
Senator Seidman: Thank you, mayor, for being with us this morning and for responding to my question earlier on in our study of this piece of legislation about how the North and northerners will benefit from CHARS. I, too, would like to congratulate you on pursuing CHARS for Cambridge Bay and also pursuing the relevance of the project for northerners.
I would like to ask you a little more about how you do that and will continue to pursue the relevance of CHARS for northerners and their continued participation, and ensuring that the work will not only help them in their future development but will be sustainable and their communities will be able to integrate what happens from CHARS.
You talked about your steering committee and how that has played a fairly significant role in moving this project forward and maximizing the integration of all the work that is going on. You also said, in your presentation to us, that you look forward to continuing to build on this relationship with CHARS. I would like to know how that steering committee will continue to be involved with CHARS.
Ms. Ehaloak: The steering committee meets regularly to discuss items regarding the site itself and the future projects within the CHARS site.
Senator Seidman: That steering committee will continue its work because obviously it has been very instrumental, as you said, in identifying and establishing partnership opportunities for pilot projects already under way in Cambridge Bay.
That steering committee has been very instrumental in getting to the point we're at. You are saying it will continue its work. Is that correct?
Ms. Ehaloak: Yes, definitely. It is a very strong committee, and the businesses and organizations that are in the steering committee ensure that they are a part of any projects or activities that are happening at the CHARS site.
There are different businesses working at the CHARS site to ensure that everyone benefits from this project, and it is working really well.
Senator Seidman: If you think in a larger picture about CHARS and its importance, what would you say are the main ways that CHARS is going to benefit the North and northerners?
Ms. Ehaloak: One, I would say, is employment. One day I went to a high school, Grades 11 and 12, and I did a presentation on being a leader within the community. One of the questions the students asked was, ''What about CHARS? What can I do to make sure that I have a science and technology job with CHARS once I'm done university?'' A lot of students asked. Employment within Cambridge Bay is basically government or the mining industry.
One student said, ''So basically, I can become a wildlife biologist if I want so I can have employment with CHARS.'' I said definitely, of course. They were all excited to hear that it is not only industrial or management or government jobs that they will be able to train for; it is other science and technology programs. They were really excited.
Some of them have already gone. I told them that in 2017, CHARS will open, and some of the students said, ''Yes, I have four years to go to school.'' So when they come back they can have a science and technology job that they want, have been dreaming about, and have it right at home. They can stay home and be employed in those science and technology programs.
CHARS is benefiting the northerners all across Nunavut and Canada.
Senator Seidman: I see the same enthusiasm and hope and joy in your face as we saw earlier from the executive director and board member of the Canadian Polar Commission. Thank you very much. We look forward to future news of this grand project.
Senator Mitchell: Thank you to both of you. My first question would be to Mayor Ehaloak. I wonder if you could give us an indication of what would be one or two of the research priorities your community would like to see CHARS address.
Ms. Ehaloak: Two of the items we would like to see are a healthy community and sustainable environment. Those are the two items that are important to us.
Senator Mitchell: When you talk about sustainable environment, are you talking about climate change?
Ms. Ehaloak: Yes, climate change. Right now the hamlet of Cambridge Bay is working towards starting our recycling program. This is the third year that I have been mayor and we have been working towards trying to start a recycling program in Cambridge Bay. One of the things we have done so far is our dump has been cleaned up. Our metal dump has been cleaned up. We're just in the process now of introducing our communication strategy with the community. We have all our recycling bins, so it is just a matter of communicating to the community regarding our recycling program, and that's what we're working towards for an environmentally friendly community.
Senator Mitchell: Fantastic.
Ms. Kingston, you are on the mining side. You have listed your priorities, and those are obviously significant and powerful. Would you see the mining industry, specific companies, putting up money and partnering with CHARS in certain research projects? Or is it more you would advise them on the kinds of priorities that you would like to see them research?
Ms. Kingston: There are excellent opportunities for our industry and individual companies to partner with CHARS.
I can't speak specifically to how those partnerships would shape themselves. However, as an example, one of the key advanced projects that we have, the Doris North gold project, is only about 100 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay. One of the possible partnership opportunities, if I can go out on a limb and speak on behalf of that company, is that if there was research that needed to be conducted and CHARS needed a test site, it would have a potential test site nearby. Doris North is an active site that has various activities going on. If a group of scientists or researchers wanted to come on-site at Doris North, then that facility could likely be made available.
In terms of other partnering, there are a number of companies going through environmental assessment. Currently, they're conducting research projects on their own, whether it's around caribou management, caribou range plans, or the impacts on other types of wildlife. If there's a way that we can partner and share research, then it doesn't have to continually be done over and over again. Each project would not have to complete another caribou range plan, for example, for the same herd that's coming through that region. If one plan can be approved and accepted by all the projects, by the communities and by the scientists, then it would scale down and help to streamline those environmental review processes.
A variety of partnering opportunities are available, and they would take a variety of shapes.
Senator Mitchell: Thanks.
The Chair: I don't have any other questions for either of you. I want to thank both of you very much. Ms. Kingston, thank you for appearing again. I appreciate it. Thank you, Your Worship, for a very good presentation from the community of Cambridge Bay.
I just have one question for you. How cold is it there today? What's the temperature in Cambridge Bay?
Ms. Ehaloak: It's actually really warm this morning. There's snow falling. There's absolutely no wind, but we have a blizzard warning for tomorrow.
The Chair: Okay. Well, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate that. We will adjourn the meeting.
(The committee adjourned.)