[Excerpts from Mar. 13 Environment Canada News Releases]
The Honourable David Anderson, Minister of the Environment, today announced an investment of $75 million over five years that will allow the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) to improve the quality of its forecasts and its service to Canadians in all regions.

According to the Minister, "We will now have forecasting and research staff working as integrated units in five offices across Canada - Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver. This approach is based on a highly successful pilot project initiated in Halifax in 1997. ... Today's announcement will also result in the recruitment and training of new technicians and meteorologists as well as a realignment of the responsibilities of individual MSC offices across the country in order to develop and deliver service improvements. All offices will remain open. Some employees will be relocated over a two-year period and there will be jobs for all employees."

There will be no office closure in Winnipeg. Some of the forecast production activities currently carried out in Winnipeg will become the responsibility of staff in the Edmonton office. The staff in Winnipeg will focus on forecasting for Manitoba and outreach activities.

Environment Canada currently has 130 employees in Winnipeg, 94 of whom are with the MSC. Seventy-two MSC staff will remain in Winnipeg to either carry out their current duties or to work closely with people in the community to ensure weather information provided by the MSC will continue to meet their needs. Over the next two years, 22 of the current MSC employees will be offered new jobs at another MSC office location.

Among the new suite of services offered across Canada, the citizens of Manitoba may be particularly interested in new research in hydrometeorology, which will lead to improvements in the timing and accuracy of flood forecasting.

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