Science and Research committee  Yes, resolute, for sure, but I would say there are other communities. Igloolik already has a base of operations for wildlife researchers and other researchers there. There are many places across the Arctic. Where I'm working right now is sort of subarctic, out of the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, which is an excellent facility but very underfunded.

Science and Research committee  One of the challenges with CHARS—I was involved in some of the earlier consultations about this—is that most of us did not advocate for a single location in the Canadian Arctic. The scale is just too large. We accepted that a hub was useful. Most of us actually recommended Resolute for the hub because it existed with the polar continental shelf based there.

Science and Research committee  In brief, there are 19 populations across the circumpolar Arctic, of which 13 are wholly or partly in Canada. The status of these populations varies dramatically depending on where you're looking. The one in the southern Beaufort Sea, north of the Yukon and NWT, has declined by up to 50%.

Science and Research committee  The polar shelf is an agency that I've been working with since the mid-1980s. A lot of the logistics support that it provides is almost impossible for your average Canadian researcher to establish on their own. Of course, there are cost efficiencies by bringing in a large agency to set the procedures in place.

Science and Research committee  Good day. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. I have conducted research across the Arctic—in the Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, northern Manitoba and northern Norway—for over 40 years. I primarily study polar bears but have also worked on Arctic grizzly bears, Arctic seals, caribou, northern mountain sheep and wolves.