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The Prime Minister’s Office says private shipwreck searchers didn’t tell the government for more than a week that they had found HMS Terror, the missing ship of the Franklin Expedition.

The privately funded Arctic Research Foundation found the 1840s Royal Navy vessel in the Arctic Ocean on Sept. 3. But it did not inform fellow searchers aboard a Parks Canada search ship nearby, leaving the Parks Canada vessel to continue a pointless search.

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The foundation has acknowledged not telling Parks Canada but told the Citizen it contacted the PMO promptly with the news, fulfilling its duty to the government.

It did make contact, the PMO now says — but this came only after the foundation had eight days to explore the wreck alone.

A PMO official emailed the Citizen on Tuesday afternoon to say that “on the morning of Sunday, Sept 11th, they (Arctic Research Foundation) were in touch with Mr. (Gerald) Butts and PMO. We informed our Minister’s office of this call that morning. This is over and above any formal notification process established with Parks Canada.”