2011 : MP Greg Rickford - centre - proudly announces funding for fish lab at Experimental Lakes Area, calling it “Canada’s most innovative freshwater research centre.” The 58-lake globally renowned research facility in his Kenora riding was responsible for the research behind the Canada-US acid rain treaty,
May 2012 : The DFO announces it is dumping ELA to save $2M per year, even though it will cost $50M to shut it down.
After months of hiding from his constituents and outraged scientists, Rickford emerged to explain:
"Our mandate has moved to a smaller-scale research that reflects what priorities are today."
Exactly how small those Con priorities are Rickford doesn't say, but on March 20 this year, he voted along with all the other Cons against the following motion in the House of Commons :
That, in the opinion of the House:
(a) public science, basic research and the free and open exchange of scientific information are essential to evidence-based policy-making;
(b) federal government scientists must be enabled to discuss openly their findings with their colleagues and the public; and
(c) the federal government should maintain support for its basic scientific capacity across Canada, including immediately extending funding, until a new operator is found, to the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area Research Facility to pursue its unique research program
How'd he do in his previous stint as ParlSec on Aboriginal Affairs?
Two months before 16-year-old Chelsea Edwards of Attawapiskat First Nation traveled to Geneva Switzerland in Feb 2012 to speak to the UN on behalf of students in her community whose school had closed 12 years earlier due to toxic contamination, Greg Rickford, then Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Aboriginal and Northern Development, stood in the House of Commons in Dec. 2011 and said :
Mr. Speaker, the government works with First Nations to deliver real results for their priorities. We have invested heavily in First Nation schools, including in Attawapiskat, and in water and waste water infrastructure, health and housing, and we have done this all in full partnership with First Nations.
Sunday update : unmuzzledscience : Greg Rickford? Really?
July 24 update : G&M : Time running out for ELA transfer deal
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#3 in a series on Steve's recent cabinet shuffle appointments. See also :
Pierre Poilievre, Minister for Democratic Reform and
Dr. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour
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July 24 update : G&M : Time running out for ELA transfer deal
.
#3 in a series on Steve's recent cabinet shuffle appointments. See also :
Pierre Poilievre, Minister for Democratic Reform and
Dr. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour
.
