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The Liberal government made much of the decision earlier this month to renew funding for the Polar Environmental Atmospheric Research Laboratory at Eureka, Nunavut, just 1,100km from the North Pole.

The government announced $1.6 million in what amounts to emergency funding, to keep the lights on at PEARL and allow the high Arctic lab to continue its research into the ozone layer and climate change.

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Scientists were seeking $1.5 million annually and a commitment for longer term support — the latest tranche of cash is really bridge funding, and no-one has any idea what it’s bridging to.

But the band-aid fix allows the government to boast of its on-going commitment to support science and evidence-based decision making in the North.

The problem is, the statistics don’t support that claim.

Canada ranks well down the list of countries investing in the North, even though we have more Arctic territory than any country except Russia.