Environment Canada's automated weather sensor system is subject to significant and well-known errors which have significantly compromised the integrity of data, according to a new Environment Canada report, 'Degradation in Environment Canada's Climate Network, Quality Control and Data Storage Practices: A Call to Repair the Damage. '

Canadian lighthouse keepers have reported long standing inconsistencies and failures in automated sensors that were first used in place of lightkeepers in 1997. Now the Alberta based Pembina Institute learned that sustained cuts to Environment Canada weather-service programs have compromised the government's ability to assess climate change and left it with a "profoundly disturbing" quality of information in its data network, says a newly released internal government report.

The stinging assessment, obtained through an access-to-information request, suggests that Canada's climate network infrastructure is getting progressively worse and no longer meets international guidelines.

"Environment Canada is on the road to junior partner status with respect to other agencies, both provincial and international, in the area of climate data gathering, quality control and archiving," said the report, released to the Pembina Institute, an environmental research group.

The analysis noted the lack of data on climate conditions can affect decisions on major infrastructure such as roads, buildings and sewers as well as a number of "real-life" decisions made by Canadians every day.

"The common assumption among users is that the data has been observed accurately, checked for mistakes and stored properly," said the report, printed in June 2008. "It is profoundly disturbing to discover the true state of our climate data network and the data we offer to ourselves and the real world."

The report said the cuts are part of a trend that began 10 to 15 years earlier when the former Liberal government was trying to eliminate the federal deficit, prompting a shift toward automated stations to replace people in the field. In one case, the report quoted an employee who had observed first hand, as an automated weather station was "fooled" into reporting drizzle on a hot sunny July day in Edmonton with temperatures approaching 30 C.

Jim Bruce, a climate scientist who previously worked at the World Meteorological Organization, and helped found an intergovernmental panel that assesses the science on global warming, said the budget cuts are preventing the government from making policies based on accurate data and science. For example, measurements of the intensity of rainfall would be essential to track changes in the climate, he explained.

"We aren't sinking the money into climatological networks or even water observations to make the kind of decisions that we need to make for managing greenhouse gases and managing the water of the country," said Bruce. "Without that data, you're flying by the seat of your pants."

But a senior Environment Canada meteorologist said the government was trying to focus its resources in order to meet the needs and make a difference in the lives of Canadians.

"If you're asking whether the weather monitoring program is perfect, no it's not perfect," said Dave Wartman, the director of atmospheric monitoring at the Meteorological Service of Canada.

"But we're striving to make improvements and we're on the path to do that."