A version of this appeared in the Letters to the Editor section of The Lethbridge Herald, SUNDAY, 02 SEPTEMBER 2012
I must confess I have mixed feelings about the well-publicized Canadian project to try to find the lost Franklin expedition ships (Herald, Aug. 23).
On the one hand, there's the adventure of solving a 150-year-old mystery with the added benefit of affirming Canada's Arctic sovereignty claim, but the money spent stands in stark contrast to Harper's cuts to funding for Arctic research.
At the head of the list is the elimination of funding for PEARL (the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory) located on Ellesmere Island. PEARL made key measurements in the winter of 2010-2011 that were used to detect and analyze the largest ozone hole ever detected over the Arctic. PEARL ceased year-round operations on April 30, 2012 and its equipment was removed. The building will remain available only for intermittent, short-term projects. Also lost is funding for a research station in the Yukon near Kluane National Park.
Research is urgently needed on Arctic climate, ecology, permafrost, etc. And, although Harper announced a new Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) during his trip, the facility won't open until 2017 and it's 1,300 kilometres to the South of PEARL, so it won't be suitable to take over PEARL's atmospheric research. Meantime the scientists doing this type of research are under-funded or not funded at all. As one scientist (John England, a geoscientist at the University of Alberta) put it, "Who's going to go up to CHARS eight years from now if you undermine the current population of Arctic researchers?"
As Michael Healey, from UBC, said in a letter to the Globe and Mail (Aug. 28), "Canada needs a vigorous Arctic research program, but it's hard not to see the current initiative, from a government that has done more than any other to emasculate Canada's research capability, as a cynical ploy for a couple of prime ministerial photo-ops."
Each summer Harper makes a big deal of his trip to the Arctic. He makes many promises, but, as they say around here, he's all hat and no cattle (Article about Harper's broken promises in The National Post.
Mark Sandilands
Lethbridge
