Environment committee  Well, there are discussions about exactly that kind of question, yes.

Environment committee  No.

Environment committee  I don't say there will be cuts. We're saying there are ongoing discussions with the scientists about how best to use the two different methods dispersed across Canada for measuring ozone.

Environment committee  Could you handle that, Charles?

Environment committee  We do, and it's not a department-specific policy, but a Government of Canada communications policy. No public servant, no matter what their classification, no matter what their level, is free to speak to the media at will or in response.... There is a communications policy in p

Environment committee  Most of the time, as with all other public servants, if there is an expectation that scientists will be responding to media questions, they are given some very basic media training. It helps them to become more comfortable in their dealings with the media. Again, one of the key

Environment committee  The way the policy works now is that it goes up the whole chain in a one-off situation.

Environment committee  In the spring, a paper by one of our scientists made the cover of Nature. As soon as we found out, we knew there was going to be interest in it. In that situation we worked out ahead of time that this scientist, who is an author, who has media training, would be available to resp

Environment committee  I do have the specific numbers, if we're talking about scientists and requests for interviews. I'm not going to take the time to check in the book. Around 270 requests for interviews were made and the response rate was that over 90% were approved.

Environment committee  That was done for quite a variety of reasons. Some of our scientists have not yet had media training and do not feel comfortable talking to the media and say that they don't feel comfortable talking to the media. At other times, it will be a set of circumstances and the decision

Environment committee  What I can say, certainly, is that this is one of those circumstances where what Dr. Tarasick had published was about the ozone hole in the Arctic. It was very clear from a lot of media questions that the questions were going to be about ozone monitoring and what we're doing, whi

Environment committee  Maybe one of the things I will discuss—and ask Charles if he has more to elaborate on—is that ozone in the upper atmosphere is not something that's specific to Toronto, Vancouver, or Edmonton. It is a large layer and covers lots of geography. It is the ozone that's really at grou

Environment committee  I will come back to the success of the Montreal Protocol. This is what the scientists know, that the depletion of ozone was caused by ozone-depleting substances. The goal of the Montreal Protocol was to ban the production and use of ozone-depleting substances. It has been very

Environment committee  One of the wonderful things about science is that it's always evolving. We've been very clear that both methods are needed, that both methods will continue, but you can't say forever in the future. One of our recent publications--

Environment committee  No, I'm saying ozonesondes are critical. I think I've been very clear that both methods will continue to be used. One of the things that has changed since May is that we've had different scientists, including at conference proceedings just last week, I believe, talking about a ne