Canadian Coast Guard welcomes delegates on board the CCGS Amundsen // Photo submitted by L.Candlish
Knowledge Exchange Workshop brings together Science, Policy and Indigenous groups
A Knowledge Exchange Workshop (KEW) was held in Churchill, Manitoba on July 2nd and 3rd, 2018. The workshop was organized by the Centre for Earth Observation Science and co-hosted by the Honourable Jim Carr, Minister of Natural Resources and Dr. Digvir Jayas, Vice President Research and International, the University of Manitoba.
The Knowledge Exchange Workshop was about communicating across the various stakeholders in the Arctic, to showcase the different perspectives from science, policy and Indigenous groups. Our intention for the event was to open up communication channels, and allow for greater understanding of both the challenges and opportunities that we are facing in the Arctic.
The workshop included discussions with researchers and students who work onboard the CCGS Amundsen which had just completed leg 1 of the 2018 summer cruise where they conducted the first ever Hudson Bay wide survey when sea ice was still present and freshwater input was at it’s spring maximum. The BaySys project seeks to understand the relative contributions of freshwater regulation versus that of climate change on freshwater-marine coupling in Hudson Bay.
Several keynote presentation were delivered both in the Town of Churchill and onboard the CCGS Amundsen. A discussion panel focused on the topic “Climate Change, Industrialization and Globalization: Are we prepared for both the challenges and opportunities?” The panel included representatives from the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the community of Chesterfield Inlet, the Canadian Coast Guard, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Manitoba. Many of the questions focused on how we can move forward to bring the knowledge gained from science and mobilize it into policy.
Although the workshop was only two days in length the impacts of it will be positive and long lasting:
“The several days you gave us all in Churchill were transformative. The Knowledge Exchange Workshop has been really helpful to me as our Senate Arctic Committee plans our September Arctic tour, ” said Senator Patricia Bovey.
“Thank you for the wonderful days spent in Churchill and aboard the Amundsen, and for the conversations and connections you catalyzed. It was a memorable trip for me, and a reminder of the reasons we do what we do at the CFI,” said Guy Levesque – Vice-President, Programs and Performance, Canada Foundation for Innovation.