Nobody from Environment Canada is allowed to say so, but big cuts to the ozone monitoring program are “bad news for the region" and even worse news for how we look at the planet.
That’s the word from Thomas Duck, a scientist at Dalhousie University's Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science. He says there's nothing left to cut in ozone monitoring.
"When the assistant deputy minister [Karen Dodds] talks about needing to bring systems together and optimize, I mean, that's already been done," he says.
Ozone is monitored two ways: with ozonesondes, and Brewer ozone spectrophotometers. An ozonesonde is essentially a balloon with a small chemistry lab tied to it that "tastes" the atmosphere at various altitudes. The "Brewer" measures the ozone layer's total thickness.
"These two systems go hand in hand, and they were chosen because of that," Duck says. In Nova Scotia, ozonesondes are launched from only two places — Yarmouth and Sable Island — but Duck says that is going to stop. "This is bad news for the region."
Among those Environment Canada employees not being allowed to give interviews is David Tarasick, a scientist who played a large role in discovering the giant hole in the ozone layer over the Arctic.
"[There's been] concern about an Arctic ozone hole circulating in the scientific community for a while … but the Arctic ozone loss has never been this extensive," says James Birch, a student researcher at the University of Toronto who works for an Environment Canada employee, Dr. Brad Bass, in the Adaptations and Impacts Research Section.
"It's very hard for people to talk about this right now, because of the fact that people are being told, 'You can't even mention this to your colleagues,'" Birch says. “[Bass] can't even go to the public about the cuts. I feel like there really is an attempt to make sure that no one knows about the cuts."
Birch, who is not an Environment Canada employee, faces no such restrictions. Last month he released an open letter decrying the cutback plan.
When asked for comment, Bass asked that we contact media relations at Environment Canada.
Along with 775 of his colleagues at Environment Canada, Bass recently received a letter letting him know his job is in jeopardy. His lab focuses on adapting to climate change, with projects that work to convert waste into energy.
Also earmarked for cuts are radiation monitoring, aircraft measurements, and air toxics analysis. Birch and Duck are both quick to point out that these cuts don't just affect Canada, but international programs as well. Oil sands monitoring will also be affected, Duck says.
"A lot of these programs were featured in the government's recently released integrated oil sands environment monitoring plan. That plan was to have depended heavily on ozonesondes, and on aircraft and also deposition networks, and yet, here we are eliminating those kind of capabilities."
If the government goes ahead with the cuts, Duck says, we're going to lose money in the long run. A recent study echoes this, stating that ignoring climate change will end up costing many billions over the years.
For its part, Environment Canada insists: "The environment remains a priority for the Government of Canada, even in times of fiscal restraint." Department spokesman Mark Johnson says only 300 employees will be let go although 776 employees were notified that their jobs could be cut. "Attrition will also cover many of these positions since, in recent years, an average of 520 employees have left Environment Canada every year."
Duck takes issue with this "disingenuous" interpretetation, pointing out that after 300 people are let go, the remaining 476 will be reassigned. "They're not going to be doing the job they're currently doing … such as running important ozone programs, running important aircraft programs, running the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network."
Halifax MP Megan Leslie, the New Democrats' environment critic, is blunt in her assessment: "I think this is an attempt by the Conservative government to whittle down Environment Canada to the barest of bones so that it fails."
When the downsizing was announced, Leslie says, Environment Minister Peter Kent said no programs would be cut.
"It's shocking to me that with the ozone program, the minister could be caught off guard, not having any idea that we're actually losing programs. Instead of figuring that out, he's got his deputy minister making phone calls trying to go on a witch hunt to find scientists that are squealing.
"Why isn't his deputy minister phoning around to find out what the actual impact of the cuts will be? It's a bit depressing."
Birch says, "It almost seems like [the government] wanted to keep it entirely hush-hush and expected that the shutting down of all these top laboratories in the country would go unnoticed."
It's unclear when the cuts will be finalized. Duck is trying to look on the bright side: "My hope is that because it hasn't happened yet, that they're giving it a sober second thought."
First of two parts. Next: Cuts at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans
