Translation of "Panel for Scientific Assessment " (English → French) :

(Return tabled) Question No. 159 Mr. Sean Casey: With respect to the considered cuts to Environment Canada: (a) which specific departments and programs are affected, and what was the process taken to determine whether or not to make cuts to a specific department and program, (i) what, if any, Environment Canada Research Scientists were consulted regarding the considered cuts, (ii) what scientists outside of Environment Canada were consulted, (iii) for each department and program specified in (a), what is the number of current full-time, part-time, and contract scientific positions, (iv) the number of full-time, part-time, and contract sc ...[+++]ientists who have been given “workforce adjustment” letters, (v) the number of full-time, part-time, and contract scientists who are going to be moved out of their current “job function”, (vi) what, if any, consideration has been given to shutting-down the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network (IADN), and, if so, has the United States been consulted, as Canada has commitments under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, (vii) specify all programs run by a single scientist who has been given a “workforce adjustment” letter, and for each program identified, what, if any, concern was expressed regarding the ability of the program to continue, (viii) the process that will be taken to place scientists in appropriate research areas, (ix) what, if any, consideration has been given to the fact that many scientists are highly trained in very specialized fields, and that an appropriate replacement position may not be possible; (b) specify all national and international environmental commitments to which Canada is subject, including, but not limited to the Global Climate Observing System, the World Meteorological Organization/United Nations Environment Programme Scientific Assessments of Ozone Depletion, which are mandated by the Montreal Protocol to occur at least every four years, and hosting the World Ozone and UV Data Centre, (i) wha ...

3. In the light of relevant scientific information, the Commission shall, if appropriate, include in Part B of Annex II any substances that are not controlled substances but that are found by the Scientific Assessment Panel under the Protocol or another recognised authority of equivalent stature to have a significant ozone-depleting potential.

3. In the light of relevant scientific information, the Commission shall, if appropriate, include in Part B of Annex II any substances that are not controlled substances but that are found by the Scientific Assessment Panel under the Protocol or another recognised authority of equivalent stature to have a significant ozone-depleting potential.

One can always use anecdotal experiences to arrive at conclusions but to do an adequate scientific assessment on a particular issue, one has to look at a statistically significant population of individuals and do a rigorous scientific assessment of those individuals to determine whether the hypothesis is correct.

The Second Conference of Parties (CoP2), which was held in July 1996 in Geneva, accepted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest scientific assessment, which states that " the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate" .

The 1995 scientific assessment was one debated at great length, but in the end the conclusion of not only the scientists but of a massive review process done by countries and by groups.In the end, at a meeting of governments in late 1995—for which I had the privilege of being the Canadian delegate—all governments in the end agreed with the line-by-line assessment and conclusion in the consensus document of the intergovernmental panel.