Feds announce cash for Experimental Lakes Area

The Trudeau government is spending $1.7 million over the next two years on environmental research at the Experimental Lakes Area, the northwestern Ontario scientific facility once threatened with closure by the former Harper government.

KenoraLiberalMP Bob Naultannounced $850,000 in annual, short-term fundingfor the former federal facility, which Ottawa transferred in 2014 to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, aWinnipeg-based environmental policy think tank.

During the federal election campaign in 2015, the Liberals promised to "make new investments in Canada's world-leading IISD Experimental Lakes Area."

• Experimental Lakes Area breathes new life into scientific research

They followed up on that pledge, withNaultmakinganannouncement Tuesday in Kenora on behalf of Fisheries andOceans Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

"The Government of Canadaunderstands the role and value of science in everyday life," Nault said at a newsconference outside Kenora's Lake of the Woods Discovery Centre on Wednesday.

The additional $850,000 a year is on top of an existing Fisheries and Oceans Canada contribution of $250,000 toward the ELA's annual budget, which now stands at $3.6million.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, whose Liberalgovernment provides the ELA with $2 million worth of annual operating funds, reconfirmed that commitment through 2018. So didManitoba Premier Brian Pallister, whose Progressive Conservative government contributes$1 million in annual funds to the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

"These incredible financialcommitments form our provincial partners allow scientists to conductawide array of researchthat helps us better understandour freshwater resources," Nault said.

The ELA,located approximately 75 kilometres east of Kenora,obtains its remaining $450,000 in annual funding from private sources. Matt McCandless, executive director of IISD-ELA, said the diversity of funding sources places his organization on more stable financial footing.

Whole-ecosystem research

The ELA encompasses hundreds of lakes in arectangle of Crown land betweenOntario Highway 17 and Dryberry Lake as well as a field station on the north shore of Boundary Lake.

It is the only place in the world where scientists conduct whole-ecosystem experiments on near-pristine lakes in order to obtain results that can not be obtained via single-variable laboratory research.

Freshwater scientists have permission to manipulate58 of the ELA's lakes in order to conduct environmental research. In any given year, active experimentsare underway on two or three of the lakes, while several others are in recovery from previous experiments.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne on ELA funding

8 years ago

Duration 1:51

The Trudeau government is spending $1.7 million over the next two years on environmental research at the Experimental Lakes Area, the northwestern Ontario scientific facility once threatened with closure by the former Harper government.

Since the ELA was founded in 1968, research at the facility has led to a near-global ban on phosphate in detergent, regulations controlling acid rain,confirmation that birth-control drugs can disrupt fish reproduction and a demonstration of the need to control coal-plant emissions to prevent methylated mercury from winding up in aquatic ecosystems.

In 2012, the former Conservative government announced plans to shut down the field station and the research area, whichwas administered at the time by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

• Budget cuts claim famed freshwater research facility

While the closure would have shaved about $2 million off the Fisheries and Oceans budget, butalso would have triggered a cleanup job estimated at about $50 million. When the feds established the ELA, their initial deal with Ontario called for all the lakes within the area to be returned to their natural state.

• Scientists lobby to keep Experimental Lakes Area station

Outrage amid the scientific community was followed by negotiations that led Ottawa to transferthe ELA in 2014 to Ontario, which then flippedthe research area to the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

• Experimental Lakes Area to stay open with funding from Ontario, Manitoba

• Experimental Lakes Area research station officially saved

The transfer was in effect a merger, as ELA-IISDnow combines the practical research conducted at the ELA with the policy and communications work conducted by theIISD.

Ontario Premier Wynne, who paddled throughthe Experimental Lakes Area last summer with her partner, said she is pleased the Trudeau Liberals are funding freshwater science at ELA once more.

"I'm thrilled we have now a federal government that'sbackin the game," she said in a less-than-oblique reference to the Harper government.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister on government commitment to ELA

8 years ago

Duration 0:46

The Trudeau government is spending $1.7 million over the next two years on environmental research at the Experimental Lakes Area, the northwestern Ontario scientific facility once threatened with closure by the former Harper government.

Manitoba Premier Pallister, who once sat alongside former prime minister Stephen Harperas a Conservative MP, declined to criticize the federal Conservatives for the aborted effort to close the ELA.

"Every government has tomake difficult decisions. All of us here who are part of governmentsknow that and Ithink it's important to be respectful of the decisions others have made," Pallister said.

"We obviously have taken a different approach as a provincial partner in this exercise."