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Feds respond to satellite concerns
Global Affairs mum on details; mayor raises issue with government

Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, July 6, 2017

INUVIK
Planet Labs, along with Kongsberg Satellite and New North Networks, has invested $10 million in the private ground station in Inuvik but it has not been able to get its license approved by Global Affairs Canada for more than a year.

NNSL photograph

Planet Labs Director of Launch Mike Safyan said the company still has not received approval to monitor its satellites from its Inuvik ground station facility. - NNSL file photo

The company hopes to use its Inuvik station to track a July launch of 48 satellites, but time is running short.

At town council last week, Mayor Jim McDonald said he has raised the concerns with MP Michael McLeod.

"There certainly are some major concerns there," said McDonald, adding it would have an impact on the community if Inuvik lost private investment in the industry.

Last week, the Inuvik Drum reported that Planet Labs threatened to pull out of Inuvik if it couldn't get its satellite license approved.

Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Jocelyn Sweet explained that the organization licenses remote sensing space systems under the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act.

"Companies often engage with us early in their project planning, so that regulatory issues can be considered throughout the planning process and so that application information is provided in a timely way," she stated in an e-mail.

"The licensing process for these complex systems is thorough, involves consultation among multiple government agencies and includes vital assessment of national security considerations as well as commercial issues."

Sweet wouldn't give a hard timeline of how long the licensing process takes.

"We work through the licensing processes as expeditiously as is feasible," she stated.

Sweet stated that Global Affairs is currently considering the results of an independent review of the act to determine how to best regulate the sector.

She would not elaborate on what "considering" means.

A 2017 review of the act from McGill University echoes many of the concerns.

"Although the objective of the act is to balance the public interests of Canada with the private interests of commercial remote sensing operators, the act leans more in favour of protecting Canadian national security interests at the expense of technological development and commercial interests," stated the review.

The act is also being used to regulate activities that are not remote sensing, the review continues, describing the Global Affairs Canada office in charge of implementing the act as "underfunded and under-staffed," and recommending that more resources are required, especially as applications increase. The review concluded that a "reinvigorated licensing office" is required to efficiently deal with remote sensing space systems.

McDonald has bigger, more time sensitive fish to fry however. He told council it was more important to get Planet's license through rather than change the legislation, at least in terms of timeliness and how long it takes to change federal laws.

"We're definitely working on it," he said.

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