A local representative of the Council of Canadians is cautiously optimistic about news research will continue this year at the Experimental Lakes Area.
Ruth Cook said she’s pleased the federal government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Winnipeg’s International Institute for Sustainable Development to become the third-party operator of the ELA, a 58-lake site that scientists have been using for the past 45 years.
“We do have some concerns, I think, because this is just temporary. This guarantees that the ELA will be open and functioning for 2013, but we don’t have any knowledge of what will happen in the future after that,” Cook said Thursday afternoon.
“We will be monitoring the negotiations as they go on to hope that we see a positive outcome for the future of the site, because we’d like to think it will continue past 2013.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans will continue to seek a long-term solution for the facility.
Cook said the ELA may be the only functioning laboratory of its kind in the world that allows scientists to do whole-lake experiments.
“A lot of the science that up until now been produced out of the Experimental Lakes has been the basis for a lot of policy on the part of governments at all levels, and all around the world, which has benefited the citizens,” Cook said.
Had the ELA been permanently closed, as the federal Conservatives had sought, a lot of experimentation and research would have gone down the drain, she added.
“There are scientists working there that have been in the middle of an experiment that has been ongoing for two, three, five years, and they need another year or two or three to finish their experiment. All that work would have been wasted up until now and there is no other place in the world they can continue those experiments.”
Cook said the closure, which the government said was being done to save $2 million annually, could actually be a blessing in disguise now that IISD has agreed to take the reins.
“It’s kind of a good-news story because the federal government muzzles all the scientists that are working for them. They have fired a lot of scientists working for the federal government. And they have not allowed scientists to publish their research freely,” Cook said.
Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle, whose government announced last month would provide operational support to keep the ELA going, said he’s happy with Thursday’s announcement.
Gravelle said the MOU is an important first step.
“We’ll also be there to make sure this is sustained for many years to come,” Gravelle said, reached by phone in Toronto.
“The news today that a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the International Institute for Sustainable Development is great news. It means that now we indeed have somebody that will be operating the facility and an organization that certainly is an appropriate one to be doing this job.”
