Services Clients and Partners Directorate

Natural Resource Sector Services Branch

The Natural Resources Sector Services Branch is a new branch of the Services Clients and Partners Directorate of the Meteorological Service of Canada. Its main responsibility is for the national coordination of service programs, principally in support of other activities led by other federal departments and other levels of government in sectors such as forestry, agriculture, energy, health, and ground transportation. Its role also includes seeking and establishing opportunities for partnership with natural resource sector organizations. The creation of the Natural Resources Sector Services Branch, in May 2000, stemmed out of increased demands from these sectors for specialized weather information to render their operations safer, environmentally sustainable, and more efficient.

NRSSB Business

The Natural Resource Sector Services Branch is active in all of these sectors in support of MSC partners (OGD, OLGs, and the para-public and private sectors) programs:

1. Agricultural sector: the agricultural sector is interested in specific weather information for the day-to-day operations and in climate information for planning purposes. Weather information is used for all farming operations from seeding, to irrigation, to harvesting. More recently, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) models have been developed. These use accumulated current and forecast weather information to assess the stage of growth of crops and pests, bacteria and insects, and determine whether intervention is required, what type, and when. The goal is to make judicious use of weather information to help increase productivity, reduce costs, and minimize environmental impacts through reduced insecticide and pesticide applications. The Branch works to develop and maintain partnerships with stakeholders for effective delivery, through intermediaries, of all manner of weather and climate services to this sector.
2. Forestry sector: Weather has a marked influence on forest growth and management, and is especially important in dealing with forest fires. Canada has enormous forest resources which are extremely important for Canada's economy. The protection of many aboriginal communities is another important aspect. NRSS provides MSC representation on the Fire and Forest Meteorology Working Group (FFMWG) of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). The branch works with all forest agencies and MSC regions and directorates as well as other federal agencies such as the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada and Parks Canada to develop efficient national integrated approaches to meeting the meteorological support needs of the forest sector.
3. Ground Transportation : This includes both road and rail transportation modes. The requirements of these modes are identified, standards established, service options developed, and partnerships and business arrangements put in place to address the specific modal needs. On the road side, NRSS works with provincial and municipal road maintenance organizations, a host of transportation associations and societies, and Transport Canada. NRSS has championed the development of a Road Weather System for Canada (RWSC) proposal which seeks a shared-cost (with TC) national integrated network of road weather systems along the national highway system and a core road weather forecast service provided by the MSC. Municipal needs are being addressed through coordination efforts with the National Research Council and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. NRSS is also working with the private sector for the provision of pavement temperature and condition forecast services. In the rail mode, NRSS is working with Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways as well as the Rail Association and Transport Canada. The rail mode is susceptible to extremes of temperature and the hydrological impacts on rail bed bearing capacities. The hope is that the road network data and other MSC data sets such as radar could be used to assist the rail operators in better planning for these eventualities and better management of the rail traffic to avoid derailments.
4. Energy: The energy sector has two main components, the demand side and the supply side. The demand on energy is growing and it is characterized by critical periods of intense usage. A number of weather indices have been developed for energy suppliers to use in projecting demand. On the supply side, production is closely tied to available hydroelectric capacity. Hydrological considerations are extremely important considerations in production planning. NRSS works with MSC regions to determine potential, develop science and service capacity, and harmonize service offerings and pricing.
5. Health: NRSS serves as the interface between the Radiation Protection Bureau of Health Canada and the MSC. Agreements are maintained between Health Canada and the MSC regions relating to the large volume air samplers operated at many MSC and partner (Defense, NAVCANADA) sites and with the Canadian Meteorological Centre to monitor background radiation levels and to provide plume tracking and dispersion as well as fallout prediction assistance under the Federal Nuclear Emergency Plan and to met Canada's obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
6. International: NRSS represents Canada in a number of international fora. At the invitation of Transport Canada, the Director is the Canadian representative to Committee C-17, Winter Road Maintenance of the Permanent International Association of Road Commissions (PIARC). The Director is the MSC representative to the Standing International Road Weather Commission. Representation on the National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol - Environmental Sensor Station (NTCIP-ESS) working group is provided by one of the NRSS Sector Specialists. The Senior Sector Development Specialist for Agriculture represents MSC in various activities of the Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM), a commission of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Key Partners

The Green Lane^TM,
Environment Canada's World Wide Web Site.