"OTTAWA — Some federal scientists working at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans may soon gain new freedom to control their research and speak in public, under a tentative deal announced Thursday to transfer management of a world-renowned freshwater research facility that opened in 1968."

"The arrangement would transfer the management of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), a research site made up of dozens of lakes near Kenora in northwestern Ontario, to a Manitoba-based think tank, the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

The deal also allows scientists to continue ongoing experiments this summer that were in jeopardy because of a decision made last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government to cancel about $2 million in annual funding for the site. The dozens of lakes were used for decades to measure impacts of industrial pollution and climate change on natural ecosystems. The site’s research helped establish a historic North American treaty cracking down on pollution linked to acid rain and was also used to guide regulations restricting the use of phosphates in liquid detergents."

Mike De Souza reports for Postmedia News May 9, 2013. [2]