Council of Canadian Academies gearing up to undertake first slate of expert assessments for government clients

After nearly a year of operation, the Council of Canadian Academies has received its first slate of three assessments from the federal government and is expecting at least two more in the near future. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is asking the Council to assemble panels to assess the commercial potential of gas hydrate energy and state of Canada's ground water resources. A third assessment from Health Canada on the potential health and environmental risk factors of nanotechnology has also been proposed.

The Council — which was created last year to provide expert assessments on critical S&T issues of importance to Canada — has already completed a massive S&T inventory entitled The State of Science and Technology in Canada. But the inventory report is atypical and the new requests for expert assessments are more suited for projects that the Council was established to perform. The Council is now selecting heads of the respective panels who will invite experts to conduct the assessments.

The issue of ground water has been the focus of considerable research. The Council will be tasked with assembling the best research on the subject and developing a focus relevant to the Canadian environment.

gas hydrates challenge

Gas hydrates are another matter altogether. Considered a huge potential energy resource of the future, gas hydrates are a complex subject with several countries including Japan, the US, India, and China all keen to discover the key to safe commercial extraction.

Gas hydrates are concentrated hydrocarbons trapped in high-pressure, low-temperature environments, typically in sea beds or deep within the Arctic permafrost. It's estimated that 164 cubic metres of clean-burning natural gas can be extracted from a single cubic meter of methane hydrate — a prospect that has drawn considerable private sector interest.

"The challenge is how to extract gas hydrates commercially. Safe extraction is the key as well as how concentrated the resource is," says Council president Dr Peter Nicholson. "If methane gas escapes, it's an extremely potent greenhouse gas at least 20 times more potent than CO2. There's a test well in the Northwest Territories that's been operating for a few years with the Japanese putting up most of the money."

The third assessment is from Health Canada and Environment Canada. They have proposed that the Council convene an expert panel to examine the potential risk factors of nanotechnology from a health and environmental perspective. Nanotechnology has been the focus of a huge amount of activity worldwide, but little has come from Canada. Nicholson says an assessment would allow Canada to begin catching up, with the view to ultimately being able to establish regulations based on sound principles.

"This would be the Canadian contribution to the global literature and an opportunity to define the issues in a Canadian context," he says.

Two other subjects for Council assessments are in fairly advanced stages, but Nicholson declined to describe them until the official requests are made. Industry Canada operates as a conduit for other government departments, sending the Council a letter on specific topics for its consideration.Topics are solicited through the committee of S&T ADMs, which issues calls for proposals that are then vetted by a sub-committee.

"The main thing we do is identify really good panels. We need access to senior people in various areas and so far it's working well," says Nicholson. "We're still feeling our way and learning a lot as we take on multiple assessments over the next year."

building capacity

The Council was given $30 million in funding to last 10 years and to establish capacity and an infrastructure to carry out five assessments annually for government clients. That necessitates the hiring of staff and Nicholson says he expects the Council to grow from its current complement of seven staff members to more than 20 in a few years. Once the Council builds the capacity to meet its obligations to undertake government assessments, consideration will be given to assessments from other organizations and institutions on a cost recovery basis.

"In the next year, we want to broaden our orbit of groups that propose assessments to include organizations like provincial governments, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and not for profit," says Nicholson. "We want to make sure we perfect our procedures and within a year we should have a lot more expertise under our belt."

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