The order puts a stop to efforts by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, which is shutting down as its government funding ends, to transfer its website to a think-tank based at the University of Ottawa. The think-tank, Sustainable Prosperity, had offered to keep the government-funded research accessible to the public.

Kent’s spokesman Rob Taylor said the government still planned to continue giving Canadians access to the panel’s “full body of work.” He said Environment Canada would assume ownership of the website and redirect users to the web page of Library and Archives Canada, which would store the public records.

But the order also prevents the panel from posting a farewell message that includes praise from its former leaders, including Gov. Gen. David Johnston, who was its founding chairman.

The panel, created by former prime minister Brian Mulroney’s government in 1988, is shutting down in a few days in response to a 2012 federal budget decision to end its annual $5 million in funding.

“The rights to the domain name nrtee-trnee.ca will not be assigned or otherwise transferred to any outside entity, but will be transferred to Her Majesty the Queen, in right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of the Environment,” wrote Kent in the letter, dated March 22, to the panel’s vice-chairman, Robert Slater.

“Further the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) will upload no further content to its external website, as of the date on which this direction is signed.”

Kent’s letter also said the Harper government would continue to make the panel’s research available through existing federal policies on access to publications.

The panel was previously an arm’s-length organization, independent of the government, but changes adopted in budget implementation legislation last July gave Kent powers to control its public messages.

Kent suggested last year that the round table was no longer necessary since governments and industry could rely on research from the Internet and other sources.

Several statements prepared by former leaders from the round table suggested the contrary.

In his own personal message, Johnston wrote that the panel’s greatest achievement was developing a clear and comprehensive definition of sustainable development with supporting legislation adopted in Parliament.

“The Round Table’s mission was rooted in a clear-eyed understanding that our desire for a modern economy and our duty to a sustainable environment are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually reinforcing,” Johnston wrote for the document that is now not going to be posted. “Another of the real achievements of the Round Table was to establish a broad network of interested parties from senior levels of government, the environmental sector, the business community, and academia. It was unique to have Cabinet Ministers in the same room as people from other sectors on a regular basis.”

Slater, who is also a professor of environmental policy at Carleton University, says the government was aware of its efforts to transfer its website to Sustainable Prosperity, but only informed him of its objection in Kent’s letter last week.

The round table’s former chair, Bob Page, said he spent the past few months writing an essay about the organization’s record and achievements, and was upset to hear the government was preventing its publication.

“When I see the desire to try and get rid of documents which (analyze and debate evidence for policies) then I see that as a comment on democracy,” said Page, who directs a sustainability centre at the University of Calgary’s business school. “I see it as a comment on the ability of Canada as a democracy to have a vigorous public policy discussion.”

Meantime, the round table also sent copies of its research reports and files to more than three dozen recipients across the country, including libraries, government agencies or representatives, non-government organizations and other think-tanks.

He said the files include 120 formal reports and hundreds of research papers from its 25-year history.

Liberal MP David McGuinty, a president of the panel from 1996 to 2004, said that the minister’s actions suggest the government wants to censor access to information that shows its environmental and economic policies are on the wrong track.

“Minister Kent’s involvement at this level of detail is automatically a signal for me that they are trying to control information,” said McGuinty. “They really want to extinguish even the name of the organization. It’s Orwellian … It’s like burning books, burning the names, (or pretending) it never happened. And that’s just ridiculous.”

Related articles

• Peter Kent defends budget cuts in Environment Department and Parks Canada (o.canada.com)
• Federal government ‘very close’ to finalizing oil and gas climate regulations, says Environment Minister Peter Kent (o.canada.com)
• Fisheries Department dismantling summer cabins of scientists at water research facility (o.canada.com)
• Federal government sent mixed messages to industry, First Nations about environmental reforms (o.canada.com)
• Harper government’s green credentials on display in response to Obama challenge: Analysis (vancouversun.com)

According to an internal memorandum, Harper and former environment minister Jim Prentice were instrumental in securing the deal that will land the pandas, Da Mao and Er Shun, in Canada for a 10-year stay at the Toronto and Calgary zoos.

“Attempts to strike a deal on pandas have been floated for more than a decade, but only began to progress quickly when Prime Minister Harper personally raised the matter with Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the National People’s Congress, in Beijing in December 2009, and former Minister Prentice signed a letter of support on behalf of the Government of Canada,” said the memo, prepared for the office of Environment Minister Peter Kent.

The memo was released through access to information legislation, but only following an investigation by the office of Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault. The investigation concluded that Environment Canada had inappropriately responded to a 2012 request for the memo from Postmedia News, by denying access to sections that mentioned Harper as well as other details about the loan of the bears.

Environment Canada also attempted to redact the word “loan” from the memo’s title – “Giant panda loan for Canadian zoos” – and other references to the “loan” throughout the document. It revised these redactions following the investigation.

The newly released version of the memo, dated Oct. 25, 2011, suggested that the Chinese government wanted Harper to personally make a trip to China to announce the panda deal, which will also require the two zoos to collectively pay about $10 million over the next decade for panda conservation efforts.

“While the date for the announcement of the giant panda loan has not yet been confirmed, it is expected that it will be made jointly by Prime Minister Harper and Chinese Premier Wen during the Prime Minister’s proposed visit to China in December (2011),” said the memo, signed by Environment Canada’s associate deputy minister Andrea Lyon.

“Although the approval has been granted, China has advised that a public announcement should wait for a suitable occasion (i.e. a senior level visit). As China has already granted approval for the loan, the risk of a change in this arrangement is low and the loan process is expected to proceed without incident.”

The trip in which Harper announced the deal occurred in February 2012. His office declined comment about whether China wanted him to be there in person to announce the panda deal, or whether that affected the timing of the trip in any way.

“The Prime Minister was pleased to be able to visit China in 2012 and make a number of significant announcements, including the announcement that two pandas would be loaned to Canada,” said Harper’s spokeswoman Julie Vaux in an email. “The arrival of the pandas is a signal of the strong relationship between Canada and China and we’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish.”

The Chinese government’s embassy in Ottawa did not respond to questions.

The prime minister ended 2012 by saying on his social media Internet accounts that his favourite picture of the year was a shot of him sitting with his wife, Laureen, holding a baby panda at the Chongqing zoo in February.

Related articles

• Zoo on ‘countdown’ ahead of pandas’ arrival in Toronto (cbc.ca)

What has happened since then?

I looked at Nunavut stations with Normals (anomalies) calculated by Environment Canada that have data for the last 3 years. (Most recent Nunavut Data Here. I’m looking at stations with data in column D)

Temperature is falling. From -8C to -12C per decade. Amazing.

Sure. Only 3 years. But did anyone else tell you this news? (Click to make bigger)

• 1.6 per cent GDP growth, down from 2.4 per cent expected in 2013 in last year’s budget.

• $1.25 billion over five years to build affordable housing.

• $71 million for policing and $52 million for health in aboriginal communities.

• $1.1 billion to support business development in southern Ontario, including $920 million over five years for the regional federal economic development agencies and $200 million for manufacturers who create new or innovative products or production methods.

• $23 million on advertising for an International Education Strategy in an effort to lure more international students.

• $25 million over three years to advance the Windsor-Detroit International Crossing project.

• $19 million in 2013-14 for improvements to highways and associated bridges within Canada’s national parks.

• $165 million to support genome research.

• $18 million over two years for the Canadian Youth Business Foundation to help young entrepreneurs grow their firms.

• $50 million over seven years to support economic diversification for communities in Quebec heavily focused on the chrysotile asbestos industry.

• $110 million over four years for the creation of an Aerospace Technology Demonstration program.

• $248 million over five years to Environment Canada to improve weather-forecasting services.

• $5 million to build a visitor’s center at Vimy Ridge as part of Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations.

Aside from the fact that greening is probably a good thing and that greening may be caused by more CO2 (a plant food) and not necessarily warming I also thought I would take a look at some Environment Canada weather stations in the north.

One of the stations with a long data record is Cambridge Bay Airport in Nunavut. The temperature anomalies are in relation to the 1971 – 2000 average.

The temperature in the boxes is the 5 year average. While it is true the temperature is 2.5C or so warmer than around 1980, it is also true it is only 1.2C warmer than around 1940. And who knows if the 20s or 30s were warmer or colder? Not enough data.

Do note that around 1965 it was 1.8C colder than the 1930s/40s.

Click to enlarge.

Since the latest data is from February, I thought I would show the warmest and coldest February’s for Cambridge Bay Airport.

Notice that 1931 was 4th warmest. 1941 and 1940 and 1929 made the top 11. etc/

Top 25 Warmest February’s

February 2013 was 3.1C below the 1971-2000 average. And 17th coldest.

Top 25 Coldest February’s

Wednesday may have been the first official day of the season, but you wouldn’t have known it from the weather, with flurries and frigid conditions that felt like — 10 C with the wind chill, according to Environment Canada.

Thursday morning isn’t expected to be any better, with the Weather Network forecasting a low of — 6 that should feel like — 13 with the wind chill.

It’s hard to imagine that on the first day of spring in 2012, the region was basking in a record-breaking high of 27.

“What a difference a year makes,” said Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips.

However, Phillips pointed out that this week’s weather is closer to normal than the glorious warmth we experienced 365 days ago.

On average, the first day of spring in Windsor-Essex has a high of 7.3 and a low of — 1.7.

The coldest it’s ever been here on March 20 was in 1986, when the thermometer dipped to — 10.7.

And, historically speaking, there’s been a 45 per cent chance of precipitation on this date in this region.

“Last year was an aberration,” Phillips said. “One of the most incredible anomalies we’ve ever seen in March. And it wasn’t just a one-day wonder — we went for nine or 10 days where the temperature got above 20 C.”

That may have been an enjoyable time for the general public, but Phillips said it created big problems for agriculture: apple and grape growers especially found that their plants were tricked into blossoming prematurely, only to be hit with frost in April.

The truth, Phillips said, is that nature doesn’t much care about the first day of spring. “More often than not, you’re counting snowflakes in April,” he said — noting that five more centimetres of snow fall on Windsor-Essex over the next month on average.

Phillips believes that a gradual warmup, as is expected this spring, is for the best: “You don’t want a sudden wall of warmth that can create issues, where you’re blessing it now but cursing it later.”

But if this past winter has felt longer and more cruel than usual, you’re only half imagining it. Phillips said there was about 15 per cent more snow this year than typical (130 centimetres in all), but the overall temperature was about one degree above average.

Phillips suggested that the reason people may have found this winter to be more wearisome is because the season had a “slow beginning” — December and January were warmer than normal, but February and March have been colder than normal.

“The back end was tougher than the front end,” Phillips said. “Almost half of the snow this winter fell in February.”

dchen@windsorstar.com

Follow me on Twitter: @WinStarChen

Crocus flowers reach for the sun amid snow at a South Windsor home on Mar. 20, 2013. (Jason Kryk / The Windsor Star)

A pile of snow in downtown Windsor, Ont. on Mar. 20, 2013 – the first day of spring for the year. (Dalson Chen / The Windsor Star)

Oh, what a difference a year makes…

Justing Johnston (L) and Austin Thornton (R) play basketball at Hugh Beaton Public School in Windsor, Ont. on Mar. 13, 2012. (Dax Melmer / The Windsor Star)

Jacqueline Surgent-Nantais (L) and Terry Hayward (R) rollerblade at Dieppe Park on Mar. 14, 2012. (Nick Brancaccio / The Windsor Star)

Ashley Foster (L) and Trevor Martynse (R) take a walk in Windsor, Ont. on Mar. 14, 2012. (Nick Brancaccio / The Windsor Star)

A crowd enjoys pleasant spring weather on Windsor’s downtown riverfront on Mar. 18, 2012. (Dax Melmer / The Windsor Star)

A daffodil blooms on Windsor’s riverfront on Mar. 20, 2012. (Tyler Brownbridge / The Windsor Star)

City parks worker Chris Lundy cuts grass in Windsor, Ont. in this Mar. 21, 2012 file photo. (Dan Janisse / The Windsor Star)

Kaydence Pedreira blows bubbles in downtown Windsor, Ont. in this Mar. 22, 2012 file photo. (Dan Janisse / The Windsor Star)

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• Watch a Video from our Developer on this “NEW” Feature - Screencast on snow moving in on Kimberley

“As much as people want me to say we’ll have warm weather by the middle of next week, that doesn’t seem to be what the models are indicating,” Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson said Wednesday.

“Last March set the record for the warmest March ever,” Coulson said. Toronto hit an average of 6.7 degrees, substantially higher than the long-term average of -0.4 degrees.

This year, on the other hand, the city has a running average of -1.1 degrees.

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“It’s a really noticeable difference from the record-breaking temperatures last year and the weather we’ve been experiencing this year,” Coulson said.

“As we go forward, we’ll see one-day wonders. Temperatures will go to double digits. We’ll see highs of 15 or 16 degrees in the day.”

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The warm “wonders” will come with cold ones too, however.

“There’s still a chance for some messy precipitation into next week,” Coulson said. “Right now the forecast is indicating some flurry activity for Monday and Tuesday next week.”

It’s a really noticeable difference from the record-breaking temperatures last year and the weather we’ve been experiencing this year

It’s not all cold news though. Coulson says northern Ontario and the Prairies may be in for warmer than normal weather, based on the latest forecast — though maybe not cold enough to stop the snow in the next few weeks.

“Keep a close eye from day-to-day and week-to-week because this time of year we can see changes happening from warm air masses from the south and cold ones asserting asserting themselves from the north,” Coulson said.

“We’re getting into May before the warmer air masses are here to stay.”

Snowfall is in cm. About 2.5cm to the inch for the non-metric.

Many of these stations are new and only 2 or 4 years of data. Foldens Ont does have 49 years of data and broke the old record by 19.2cm.

New Snowfall Records for February 2013  = Most Average Snow in February

Top 10 Snowfall (all time) in February in Canada

Snowfall is in cm. About 2.5cm to the inch for the non-metric.

Top 100 Snowfall Stations for February 2013 – Stations Without Calculated Normals show NA for %.

Top 50 Snowfall Stations With Calculated Normals (anomalies)

Courtesy Accuweather.com

This could be the first significant snowfall this month with as much as 20 cm expected.

A developing low pressure system south of Long Island, New York is tracking northeast and is expected to reach Southwest New Brunswick by this evening and then spread throughout the province overnight.

Will it be the last blast of winter?

Forecasters say another system may bring more snow by the end of the week.

unmuzzledscience - reports from an anonymous Canadian government scientist.
Rick Mercer rants on the topic of muzzling Canadian scientists.
Elizabreth May, “Tightening the grip, muzzling of scientists ramps up“.
Dr. Kristi Miller, prohibited from speaking with media about salmon aquaculture viruses, and John Baird prohibits Environment Canada personnel from speaking with the media.
Aljazeera, “Canada’s war on science”.
CBC Radio’s show As It Happens broadcast a pair of interviews titled “Arctic Research Secrecy” on Feb. 14. Finding the audio link on the page is a bit difficult, so here is a direct link.
Journal of Nature, editorial “Frozen Out”, Feb. 29, 2012.
Globe and Mail, Jan. 14, 2013. “Unshackle government scientists and let them do their jobs”.Yolande Grisé, president of the Royal Society of Canada.
Academic Freedom and International Collaborations , Feb. 7, 2013 by Arctic researcher Andreas Muenchow, University of Delaware, describing his experience trying to do collaborative research with Canadian Arctic scientists.

Reponding to a Postmedia report about internal emails exchanged between environmental enforcement officers across the country, Leslie said the correspondence calls into question the government’s capacity to maintain good air quality in Canada’s cities.

Enforcement officers wrote in the emails that they didn’t have adequate capacity to enforce existing or new regulations in the absence of a team of emissions research specialists that was dismantled by the government as part of budget cuts. The government has estimated it would save about $600,000 per year after dismantling the team.

Leslie said the apparent impacts of the cuts are ironic given that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government describes itself as a champion of clean air.

“I have wondered why the government refuses to lay out their plan for their cuts, but reading these emails, it’s clear to me that they don’t have a plan,” said Leslie, a Halifax MP who is also the NDP’s environment critic. “The government’s clean air mandate has clearly been compromised by their ideological hack-job of federal scientific capacity.”

Environment Minister Peter Kent has referred questions about the cuts to his department, saying through a spokeswoman that he has no role in the enforcement decision-making process.

Environment Canada has not yet responded to questions from Postmedia News last Friday about the concerns raised by its enforcement officers and potential impacts on emerging regulations expected to be introduced for the oil and gas sector.

Environmental enforcement officers also said in the emails that other government agencies, including the City of Montreal, relied on the team of specialists for many existing and emerging regulations.

“After the dismantlement of (the) group, I received calls from the representatives of the city of Montreal air emission control group voicing their concerns,” wrote an enforcement officer in one of the emails, exchanged on December 6, 2012.

A spokeswoman for the city said it has not yet made any formal request to Environment Canada, but confirmed that it has a division in charge of industrial waste that consulted the team of specialists.

“The expertise in monitoring atmospheric pollution is complimentary to our own in certain aspects and we hope to continue this cooperation,” said city of Montreal spokeswoman Valérie De Gagné.

Click on the grey icon below to hear the rundown on the stories we’re following for you today. And remember, you can listen to all of our podcasts at montrealgazette.com/montreal@themoment on iTunes  and follow us on Facebook.

With spring only two days away, Environment Canada is warning of a “wintry and messy mix” of precipitation headed into Southwestern Ontario, including London.

Ice pellets and freezing rain are expected to start Monday.  Precipitation is expected to change over to mainly rain this evening.

Snowfall will range from a coating near Lake Erie to two to five centimeters across the Toronto area to the Waterloo region and Stratford, according to a special weather statement.

“Colder air will blast in from the west on Tuesday in the wake of the disturbance, with flurries and colder than normal temperatures expected,” the statement says. “Winter will hang on and keep spring well to the south of the Great Lakes for the time being.”

A wintry mix of snow and ice pellets, along with the risk of freezing rain, will begin in Southwestern Ontario Monday morning.

Snowfall amounts with this low pressure system are not expected to be significant – with only 2-4 cm forecast throughout the day – but travelling conditions will worsen and may become hazardous after the snow arrives.

Accumulated snow on untreated roads and gusty winds may cause whiteout conditions and motorists are advised to drive carefully as visibility may be low. Environment Canada suggests motorists reduce speed and allow for extra time to reach their destination.

A cold front extending across Southern Ontario Tuesday morning will bring more flurries and a return to cooler temperatures.

One commenter told us about experiencing over 500 hours of sunshine in one month when he was up in Eureka Nunavut (it was NWT when he was there).

I thought I would post the top 50 sunniest months (total hours of bright sunshine) ever in Canada. Of course they are all in the far north of Canada.

The winner is Eureka. 667 hours of bright sunshine in May of 1987. Sadly Eureka no longer collects bright sunshine data (it stopped around May 2005)

The highest sunshine total for a weather station not in the north is VICTORIA GONZALES HTS. 425 hours of bright sunshine for July 1958. See table at bottom for non-northern stations.

Top 50 Non-Northern Bright Sunshine Stations

As the government continues consultations with the oil and gas industry on regulations to address rising heat-trapping greenhouse gases, the emails, exchanged between Environment Canada enforcement officers from various regions including Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver, said that the government was eliminating the only Canadian group capable of writing and supervising credible testing methods for new and existing rules to impose limits on pollution from smokestacks.

One officer from Montreal noted that some recently adopted regulations controlling the release of a chromium compound — that Environment Canada says is “known to cause cancer in humans” — could not be enforced without support from the group of scientists, which was disbanded by the federal government following Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s 2012 budget.

“Air pollution is not going to vanish and it is quite reasonable to believe that other substances released in the atmosphere might become regulated,” wrote environmental enforcement officer Vincent Pretty, in an email sent on Dec. 6, 2012. “Retaining the service of a trained stack test technician and an experienced air emission scientist is probably a very strategic choice for enforcement or for the department to make now given our current and future mandate to enforce clean air regulations.”

The emails were generated in response to questions raised by Environment Canada management about whether it should ask the government to save the team. When asked on Friday, Environment Canada said it couldn’t immediately comment on the correspondence. Environment Minister Peter Kent said through a spokeswoman Sunday that he didn’t “have a role in the enforcement decision-making process,” referring questions back to the department.

At the time of the cuts, Kent’s office estimated the government would save about $600,000 per year by eliminating the seven-member team and turning to other sources for support such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But Pretty also said that other government agencies, including an industrial waste monitoring division of the city of Montreal, had relied on Environment Canada’s expertise and called him after hearing about the cuts to voice their concerns.

Environment Canada’s enforcement officers would not do smokestack testing by themselves. Instead, they would invite the Environment Canada specialists to oversee testing by consultants or to review technical reports to ensure compliance.

Pretty wrote that the enforcement branch didn’t have the expertise to assess the quality of test reports on smokestacks from private consulting firms, now that the team has been disbanded.

“I don’t see our (officers) performing stack tests even if we had the equipment, unless the (officer) has significant background as (a) stack test technician,” he wrote. “This (reviewing reports) is something that would probably exceed our capacity to identify significant methodological non-compliance.”

In emails released through access to information legislation, other officers replied to Pretty, saying that they agreed with his “eloquent” assessment and that everyone was “on the same wavelength” on the issue.

Environment Canada has not yet announced a plan to replace the team. But one internal department proposal about its plans for the next few years has proposed to continue some of their functions within other positions. This has prompted a letter of complaint from the president of the Union of Environment Workers, who noted that each scientist had received a letter stating that their “functions” were no longer required.

“Who will be performing these functions after March 29th?” union president Todd Panas asked in a Feb. 11, 2013 letter to Environment Canada Deputy Minister Bob Hamilton. “Who will verify whether or not the work is credible or accurate?”

An Environment Canada spokesman declined to comment on the letter.

After reviewing the emails, Bill Van Heyst, an associate professor of engineering from the University of Guelph who specializes in air quality, said the correspondence shows that the government is overloading its enforcement branch.

“The problem is that the environmental officers and Environment Canada basically have a blind spot,” said Van Heyst, who has worked with the dismantled emissions research team. “You can have the best consultant give you a report and you have no idea whether it’s the best answer. There’s no technical ability that resides within Environment Canada to assess these stack testing protocols, the stack testing methodologies and more importantly the stack testing results and what they mean in terms of compliance.”

Liberal environment critic Kirsty Duncan said the comments in the emails also suggest the government doesn’t want to crack down on industrial pollution.

“This is an environment department that’s in crisis,” said Duncan. “The government is soft on polluters and tough on the environment.”

Related articles

• Peter Kent defends budget cuts in Environment Department and Parks Canada (o.canada.com)
• Federal government sent mixed messages to industry, First Nations about environmental reforms (o.canada.com)
• Stephen Harper’s government says “different context” explains mixed messages to First Nations and oil industry about environmental reforms (o.canada.com)
• Fisheries Department dismantling summer cabins of scientists at water research facility (o.canada.com)
• Oilsands tailings leaking into groundwater, Joe Oliver told in memo (o.canada.com)

Precipitation is in mm of rain equivalent. Some of it would be snow. About 25mm to the inch for the non-metric.

Boat Bluff’s 677mm is about 27 inches. In one month.  Toronto had 328% of normal. Triple.

Top 10 Wettest Stations in Canada by % of Normal. (Only stations with EC Normals)

Top 10 Wettest Stations by amount of precipitation.  Any station is eligible. NA means EC does not calculate normals.

Alas we are now down to 7 stations. In 3 provinces. And only 5 of the 7 are considered reliable enough or old enough to have “% of Normals” calculated.

February 2013 was pretty gloomy in BC where sunshine was around 60% of normal  (the 1971-2000 average).

Goose Airport in NFLD was 3% sunnier than normal. Wiarton Airport in Ontario was gloomiest at 54% of normal.

Update: Eureka Top 15 Sunshine Months From the Past (See comment)