ARCHIVED - Environment Canada

• Rationale – is the rationale for SDTC still valid;
• SDTC Operations – are SDTC services delivered appropriately; and
• Short Term Results – do the results to date indicate that SDTC is making progress towards achieving its objectives.

The most important recommendations in the Interim Evaluation were that:

• SDTC should continue to pay close attention to relationship with government programs and departments;
• SDTC should continue to examine its contracting process, minimize time lags that are attributable to SDTC, and monitor potential delays; and
• Based on results to date, the report concluded that SDTC investments are on track to return positive benefits for Canadians.

• Energy and energy services;
• Water;
• Solid waste management;
• Sustainable transportation services and technologies;
• Sustainable community planning; and
• Integrated community projects.

• Strengthening CBT's role as the organization responsible for upholding the spirit and intent of the Biosphere Reserve;
• Enhancing the CBT Trust Fund;
• Enhancing the CBT Advisory Committees;
• Leading and Facilitating an Indicator Monitoring Program;
• Improving Outreach and Pursuing Targeted Initiatives and Partnerships; and
• Strengthen CBT's role as a leader in the national and international UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves Network.

• Tofino Botanical Gardens - Youth and the Biosphere Program;
• Ucluelet Secondary School - Outdoor Leadership Program; 'Portrait of Ahousaht' film project;
• Raincoast Education Society - Young Naturalists Program;
• Ucluelet Aquarium Society, Raincoast Education Society, Pacific Rim National Park - Intertidal Education Materials;
• Wickaninish Community School – Community Action Life Skills and Leadership (CALL) Program 2006;
• Ucluelet Chamber of Commerce - Outdoor Recreation and Sports Tourism;
• Tofino Business Association - Baseline Economic Data and Indicators;
• « British Columbia Environmental Youth Alliance » – l'étude de faisabilité « Fish Mort and Offal to Biofuel »;
• Hesquiaht First Nation – First Nation Cultural Digitizing Project;
• Central Region Nuu-chah-nulth Language Group - Nuu-chah-nulth Language Centre;
• Nism'a Project Society - Outdoor Education for Youth;
• West Coast Bear Aware Committee - Bear Aware Developers Package; Bear Aware Signage for the Wild Pacific Trail;
• University of Victoria - Canopy Study - Arboreal Biodiversity Across Spatial Scales; Department of Geography Ucluelet Harbour student projects;
• Pacific Rim National Park Reserve - Steller Sea Lion Study;
• Pacific Wildlife Foundation - Community participation in Whale Studies;
• Pacific Rim Hospice Society - Grief Support in Itatsoo; Training for Volunteers and Service Providers;
• Ucluelet Disaster Relief Society - Disaster Relief Training;
• Tofino Hospital Foundation - Coastal Health Care Committee;
• First Nation Environment Network - Atlantic Salmon Study;
• Tofino Streamkeepers - Streamkeeper Education Material; and
• Raincoast Education Society - Root Garden Project.

The Foundation has also hosted or co-hosted a number of workshops and symposia, including a February 2007 briefing on the Working Group One report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) dealing with the Physical Science Basis of Climate Change; CFCAS has also provided partial support to two international project offices in Canada.

International Polar Year has provided an excellent opportunity to focus world attention on, and to learn more about, the vast and vital polar regions. Over the last few years, CFCAS has focused approximately $28 million, or over a quarter of its total research investment, on supporting projects and major research networks related to the north and/or the cryosphere.

CFCAS has signed a partnership agreement with the National Research Council of Canada to serve as the Canadian National Committee for the World Climate Research Program (WCRP); this arrangement will serve to stimulate Canadian involvement in WCRP initiatives, ensure Canadian interests are represented and report on Canadian involvement.

Results of CFCAS funded research are relevant to policy and operations in areas such as climate change, weather and environmental prediction, public security, human health, and natural resource management. A few of the many accomplishments in 2006-2007 were as follows:

Air Quality

• A research project on the production of toxic compounds in the atmosphere has provided new insights into the compounds, nature and effects of particulate air pollution. It has stimulated collaboration between atmospheric chemists at Simon Fraser University and medical researchers at St. Paul's Hospital at the University of British Columbia. The collaboration is generating new information on how atmospheric chemistry affects respiratory and cardiovascular disease processes. The work is shedding light on what particle types cause the most injury to human lung cells. This information will be extremely helpful in development and application of controls to restrict the emission of the particles that cause the most damage to human health.
• The size of particles (aerosols) in the air affects the optical properties and scattering of solar radiation. AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network), managed by NASA, is a global network of sun photometers measuring this radiation. A CFCAS-funded project on aerosols produced an algorithm (numerical approach) that has now been integrated into the standard AERONET procedure. Through AERONET, the Canadian work is also contributing an important element to General Circulation Models, which are key tools in predicting future climate.

Marine Environmental Prediction

• Researchers with the Lunenburg Bay Coastal Observatory have set up an instrument network and analysis center — much like a weather forecasting system on land — that has allowed them to perform advanced science right in Lunenburg. The Marine Environmental Prediction System (MEPS-Bay) Observatory, which uses advanced instrumentation to measure environmental conditions in the ocean and atmosphere, is giving a near-real time picture of conditions in the Bay, on line. The data is incorporated into models that are providing the most accurate, reliable ocean forecasts possible today.

Weather, Climate and Climate Modelling

• A Quebec researcher has succeeded in obtaining a nine-metre sediment core from the bottom of a pristine lake in an ancient meteorite crater in Nunavik in Northern Quebec. The core will provide information regarding climate change dating to the last interglacial period 120,000 years ago. It will provide new information to complement clues about the Earth's past climate, from ice cores or the ocean floor. The meteorite crater is 1.3 million years-old and constitutes a unique natural archive of climatic and environmental history.
• Manitoba Hydro is working closely with researchers in the Drought Research Initiative. The collaboration will help extend work under the network to provide Manitoba Hydro with better baseline data. This data will help the company plan new hydro facilities and understand drought factors in the drainage area most important for its power generation.
• The Canadian Meteorological Centre of Environment Canada is now issuing weather forecasts based on a protocol developed in, and models tested by, the Canadian Climate Variability (CLIVAR) Network. The work of CLIVAR has helped Environment Canada's Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis (CCCma) to provide a 'next generation' model for seasonal forecasting. The research not only benefits Canada, but represents a Canadian contribution to a major international initiative on climate variability.
• A CFCAS-funded study is using satellites to study climate variability in sub-Arctic and boreal regions. It has resulted in development of a new method for estimating the length of the growing season in northern areas. The study has also improved mapping of large ecosystems and monitoring of different types of vegetation over time and space. A new method of retrieving information on summer ground surface temperatures has been produced, as well as new databases on snow cover and water surfaces. These are valuable tools for validation of climate models and for analyses of climate change.
• Work on ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) conditions is now providing more accurate ENSO predictions. These are particularly important to British Columbia. The value of the salmon fishery in the Fraser River is $600 million annually: changing fish routes at times of above-normal sea surface temperatures has serious economic impacts on the fishery. In British Columbia forests, warmer El Niño conditions have favoured mountain pine beetle epidemics and increased fire risk. The more accurate ENSO predictions that are being developed will help in the management of Canada's natural resources, provide guidelines for decisions on the management of water resources, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, power utilities and other climate sensitive-sectors of the economy, and allow improved planning of emergency responses to severe weather events.
• The CFCAS-funded network on Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting has resulted in significant collaboration between university scientists and Environment Canada. Faster numerical algorithms developed in the network have led to optimizations that are now used in the operations of the Canadian Meteorological Centre. Better resolution in the regional operational weather model has resulted in more accurate forecasts, to the benefit of Canadians.

Greenhouse Gases

• Startling results have emerged from a CFCAS-funded study on the impact of a major input of carbon on the atmosphere. Analysis using two climate models has revealed that approximately 75% of atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions will stay in the atmosphere for an average of 1,800 years; a good part of the emissions will last over 5,000 years. The results of the simulations - that higher levels of carbon dioxide than previously estimated will remain in the atmosphere - have important implications for climate policy.