July 6, 2015 – Churchill, Manitoba
Today, Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages and Minister responsible for Manitoba, and Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger visited Churchill to announce an investment of $22.1 million to build a highly innovative research facility to be located in the Port of Churchill, Canada's only Arctic deepwater port.
The Churchill Marine Observatory will be a multidisciplinary research facility where researchers will study the detection, impact and mitigation of oil spills in sea ice and investigate issues facing Arctic marine transportation. The research will help address technological, scientific and economic issues pertaining to Arctic marine transportation and oil and gas exploration and development throughout the Arctic and position Canada and Churchill as global leaders in protecting the fragile northern ecosystem.
This unique facility will bring together researchers from the universities of Manitoba, Calgary, Victoria, Laval, Dalhousie and Washington and from federal government departments. One of its key features will be two saltwater subpools designed to simultaneously accommodate various scenarios of oil spills in sea ice. Scientists will be able to study oil in actual Arctic seawater and sea ice. An environmental observing system will also be built on the Churchill estuary along the main shipping channel across Hudson Bay and Strait, providing a state-of-the-art monitoring system that will strengthen Canada's technological capacity to protect the Arctic environment.
Scott French
Director of Communications and Parliamentary Affairs
Office of the Minister of State (Science and Technology)
343-291-2700
Media Relations
Industry Canada
343-291-1777
media-relations@ic.gc.ca
Michael Bhardwaj
Media relations specialist
Canada Foundation for Innovation
613-943-5346 (office)
613-222-1910 (mobile)
Michael.bhardwaj@innovation.ca
Marisa Monnin
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages
819-997-7788
Media Relations
Canadian Heritage
819-994-9101
1-866-569-6155
media@pch.gc.ca