Ottawa’s hiring wave to bolster federal science at sea

hunter-tootooThe federal government is about to do something it hasn’t done much of for years: hire scientists – a lot of them. At an event scheduled for Wednesday morning in Ottawa, Hunter Tootoo, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, is expected to announce that his department is looking to add 135 science-related personnel. The new hires would boost science staff at the department by about 15 per cent, its largest increase since the seventies and early eighties, when international agreements expanded Canada’s exclusive control of its ocean resources out to the 200-nautical-mile limit. “This level of hiring will almost certainly strengthen the capacity of ministry staff to provide high-quality science advice to decision-makers,” Jeff Hutchings, a fisheries scientist and professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said.Hang on Fishermen!  Read the rest here 14:16

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