Fisheries Committee on Feb. 15th, 2011

[Raynald Blais, Bloc, Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC]

And if you didn't have that partnership—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Lawrence MacAulay]

Thank you very much, Mr. Blais.

Mr. Donnelly.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to welcome you to the committee as well. Thank you for coming and providing the information up front, in advance. Hopefully we can get a copy of your presentation sent to us so that we can take a look at it.

But continuing in that same line of questioning concerning the funding, could you explain just what your annual operating budget is and where that funding comes from—what percentage is from government, what percentage is from corporate or other donations or fees? Could you explain that?

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

Yes. For ArcticNet overall, our annual budget from federal sources, from the NCE program, in 2009 and 2010, which are the years when we had partnerships with the oil industry, was $6.4 million.

We do leverage about triple that amount every year. I would say that in 2009 and 2010 one-third of the overall budget of about $20 million came from the partnerships with the oil and gas. I say one-third, and you're going to say it is $11 million and you have a budget of $20 million.

In fact, in 2009, if we dissect all the numbers, we delivered a value of about $5 million or $6 million for research services for the partnerships with the oil and gas, including the charter of the ship.

Then there was a margin, as Mr. Blais said, on top of that, which is the fair share that the industry has to pay for the depreciation of the equipment but also for the investment by the taxpayer money that went into the ship to prepare and mobilize her for research. This money is then under the supervision of the board of the Amundsen and the board of ArcticNet. It was decided in 2009, for example, to use about half of it, that is, $1.2 million, to recapitalize the equipment of the Amundsen, and another one point something million dollars for the development of new research programs as part of ArcticNet. The call for proposal was all about Inuit health and education.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Do you have other partnerships with the non-profit or non-government world?

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

With the non-profit organizations, no. We have several collaboration partnerships with international programs. For example, in 2009 one of the projects that was included in the schedule of the Amundsen was a project called Malina, which has been funded 100% by France. It is a France-Canada-United States collaboration that used the Amundsen under the aegis or the coordination of ArcticNet. That's one example.

Another example was the geotrace program, which was a leftover, if you will, a sequel of the International Polar Year in 2009.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

If you had to summarize in 30 seconds what your main research question is, what would you say is the main research question you're trying to answer with the ArcticNet program?

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

There are so many of them, but the main research question for ArcticNet is we have divided the maritime Arctic of Canada into four regions, and for each of these regions we're trying to project what the situation is going to be in 5, 10, 25 years and to assess the strategies that we need to develop and the decisions that need to be taken to minimize the impacts of climate change and modernization on each of these regions and to maximize the benefits of climate change or modernization in each of these regions. That's the main goal of ArcticNet.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

It may be too soon to tell, but could you give us an update as to where we stand now with the data collected? Do you have any results that you could share in terms of that research question of where we're at?

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

Do you mean, Mr. Donnelly, for the Beaufort Sea and the exploration wells?

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

No, the broader picture.

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

The broader picture is very easy. The Arctic world is changing dramatically, much faster than predicted by most models, for example those used by the IPCC to predict the future climate.

Also, the transformation of the Inuit world, independent of climate change, is extremely brutal, I would say. The health of the Inuit people is terrible. They have life expectations that are ten years shorter than we have. The economic situation is drastic. So we're addressing all those issues.

What we have discovered, and the Inuit are perfectly in agreement with us, is that the way for them to adapt to the modernization of their world is through education, then education, and then education again. So that's essentially where we are.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Lawrence MacAulay]

Thank you very much, Mr. Donnelly.

Mr. Weston.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Fortier, I'm a big supporter of Quebec City and its suburbs, as well as Laval University.

You know that this is probably the first time in a generation that the Canadian government has really been a champion of research and sovereignty in the Arctic. A lot of Canadians are very proud of this moment.

Our Prime Minister has visited the Arctic on many occasions. He discussed sovereignty, defence, research, respect for the environment, and economic development, all of those things working together.

In attempting to assist constituents who are trying to take steps in the Arctic, I've seen a myriad of different agencies, issues, and circumstances to deal with. There are many organizations or groups involved: Department of National Defence, Indian Affairs, Fisheries, the Prime Minister's Office, the Inuit, and others. So with that level of complexity, it seems to be, as you put it, un exemplaire. It's an exemplary thing that we have collaboration going on so that Canadians can truly explore the Arctic, protect the Arctic, and ensure that our grandchildren are beneficiaries of all the great things the Arctic has to offer.

Other countries do this. Asians collaborate notoriously, private and public sectors. I think we've heard from my colleagues on the other side some of the skepticism that some people have about business being involved with government, especially in sensitive environmental areas.

So with that background, I wonder if you could name three advantages from collaborating, from bringing the public and private sectors together, that could not be achieved in the absence of such collaboration.

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

For the Arctic?

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Yes.

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

We have the decisions of the National Energy Board to drill or not to drill, which will be based on the best scientific data possible.

The other advantage for Canadians is that we have learned a lot from this partnership with the economic world. Our group, ArcticNet, has learned a lot from our industrial partners in this region of the Beaufort Sea. New technologies have been brought to the partnership. There has been an influx of expertise about geophysics. It has strengthened our knowledge of this region tremendously, this tripartite collaboration. There are of course the universities, the industry itself, and the departments of the federal government. For example, in this case, all the aspects of geophysics that we studied in the Beaufort Sea with the industry have been done in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada, with the Geological Survey of Canada.

Another benefit is that by doing this in an integrated way that involves the private sector and academia and the other stakeholders, such as the Inuit, we can all talk about the same thing, and we can make sure that the local people, in this case the Inuit communities, get some benefits out of the potential development of this region.

So I think this this meshing of all the scientific interests from academia, from the departments, from the Inuit, from the private sector allows us to do something different in Canada, through ArcticNet. Several other countries are looking at what we're doing and the way we're doing it and they are paying attention. It has brought Canada to the leading pack of countries that are studying the changing Arctic.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

You mentioned that there was an international collaboration with France. Are there any others?

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

Yes, absolutely. For example, the Amundsen and ArcticNet provided an enormous amount of support for the Canadian program during the International Polar Year, from 2007 to 2008.

In particular, two programs were carried out by ArcticNet researchers. One was the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study. Nearly 120 foreign participants from some 15 countries contributed to the project, which is a huge affirmation of Canada's sovereignty over its Arctic territories due to the fact that foreigners come here and see that we are taking care of our Arctic territories. The other international program is the longitudinal study on the health of Inuit cohorts. That's an international program in collaboration with Denmark, in particular.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

That's marvellous.

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

Those are some of the many examples.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Mr. Chairman, I'm going to share my speaking time with my colleague.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Lawrence MacAulay]

You have four minutes.

Mr. Sopuck.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB]

Thank you.

I'm a little surprised at the anti-oil-industry tone that I'm hearing from members opposite, especially given how important the industry is to our country and how it's brought so many communities out of poverty.

In a previous life I did some work in the Mackenzie Valley, biological research, back in the early days of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, an environmental study, and did spend some time in those communities. It's been a long time since I've been there, but I don't think much has changed in Inuvik from even the seventies until now.

I'm really interested in the socio-economic research that you've done. You talked about it a few times. In your dealings with the communities, do you see a desire by them for increased economic development that both a hydrocarbon exploration industry and a hydrocarbon extraction industry would bring? How do the communities feel about that?

[Prof. Louis Fortier]

That's an excellent question.

The response of the communities varies from one end of the Canadian Arctic to the other. In the Inuvialuit region the people are extremely interested in sustainable economic development and reaping some of the benefits of that for their communities. They're very open to development.

If you go to the eastern Arctic, there is more of a balance between their eagerness to preserve their traditional way of life, but also to improve their economic situation.