Up-front multi-year funding

General information on up-front multi-year funding to Avalanche Canada
Recipient information Avalanche Canada
Start date July 3, 2019
End date Ongoing
Link to departmental result(s) Canada can effectively mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from all-hazards events
Link to department’s Program Inventory Emergency Prevention/Mitigation
Purpose and objectives of transfer payment program The goal of this project is to enable Avalanche Canada to expand services nationally to further ensure that more Canadians are better informed of the risks that avalanches pose, and how to be safe when participating in activities in back-country areas.
Total funding approved (dollars) $25,000,000
Total funding received (dollars) N/A
Planned funding in 2024 to 2025 (dollars) N/A
Planned funding in 2025 to 2026 (dollars) N/A
Planned funding in 2026 to 2027  (dollars) N/A
Summary of recipient’s annual plans

Avalanche Canada will be focusing on Stabilization and Expansion, along with some Special Projects. Stabilization will cover maintenance, adjustments and improvements in:

  • staffing;
  • the IT infrastructure, website and online tools;  and
  • the curriculum to support Avalanche Canada Training (ACT) programs.

This will support the ability of Avalanche Canada to maintain a stable and reliable level of service to the public.

Expansion will focus on:

  • adjusting the organizational structure and staffing for a total change from 28.83 FTE to 30.21;
  • renewed partnership with Simon Fraser University Avalanche Research Program (SARP) and refine a more accurate avalanche forecast in western Canada;
  • work with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to expand AvCan’s Mountain Weather Forecast to eastern Canada; and
  • continue working with partners to translate forecasts into French.

Expansion efforts will optimize the organizational structure, improve provision of early season information, including warnings, and develop the technical expertise that will power the next generation of avalanche forecasting, decision-making and information dissemination.

Some Special Projects include:

  • building automation into the avalanche forecasting process to improve forecasting efficiency;
  • building a Visual Snowpack tool to improve the ability of forecasters to track and communicate the state of the snowpack, especially weak layers, in all forecast regions; and
  • improve the Mountain Information Network (MIN), which is the system the public can use to submit observations.
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