APECS was happy to participate in the inaugural Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) management committee meeting at the end of April 2014 with Jennifer Provencher representing APECS Canada as the current chair of the APECS Canada board. The CHARS management committee consists of representatives from northern stakeholders including aboriginal groups, territorial governments, federal departments working in the north, industry, and APECS. The meeting laid out both the long term and short term (2014-2019) objectives for CHARS. Considerable discussion centered around these objectives with many groups feeling that the short term objectives need to be expanded in order to better reflect the priorities identified during the consultation process, specifically around healthy communities. Two task forces were set up by the committee to move projects along. One task force will be reviewing and approving the work plans for the coming year. A second task force has been established to outline the terms of reference and rules of procedure structures for the large management committee moving forward.
