On September 1 after preliminary discussions between representatives of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration and of the National Research Council and other Canadian agencies, the United States Embassy submitted for consideration a draft note and annex which would constitute an agreement respecting the establishment of a minitrack satellite tracking station near St. John's, Newfoundland. The draft note and annex are still under consideration by the departments and agencies concerned, but it does not appear that there will be any major difficulties. On the recommendation of the President of the National Research Council the project has been endorsed in principle by the Chairman of the Privy Council Committee on Scientific and Industrial Research. In my opinion, from the point of view of our general relations with the United States as well as the relations between the scientific agencies of the two countries the project is desirable, subject to agreement on satisfactory terms and conditions. The purpose of the present submission is to raise for consideration the question of Canadian participation in the financing of the station. The complete draft note and annex will be submitted to Cabinet in due course.

The proposed station would be one of four (the others being planned for Alaska, North Dakota, and Norway) to be added to the network of 11 established by the United States for the International Geophysical Year (located in Australia, the Union of South Africa, Chile (2), Peru, Ecuador, and the West Indies (2), as well as three in the United States). The purpose of the additional stations is to enlarge the capability for tracking satellites with more northerly orbits than those launched during the IGY. In this connection there would not appear to be a requirement for more than one station on Canadian territory.

The United States proposal envisages the construction of the station by Canadian contractors and its operation by Canadian personnel who might number 25 to 28 under a Canadian contractor which might be a university or an electronics or other corporation. The contracts would be let by the Canadian Commercial Corporation on behalf of NASA. NASA is prepared to pay for the entire project including the operation as well as construction and equipping.

Information provided by NASA on costs, based upon their experiences with other stations and not necessarily reliable for application to St. John's indicates that construction might run around $150,000, the provision of equipment around $250,000. The figure for annual operation would be for minimum salary and maintenance requirements and additional experiments might increase this by another $100,000.

There is some similarity between the present project and certain defence installations in regard to which it was decided that it would be desirable for Canada to assume operational responsibility. It is not, however, a defence project, although the Defence Research Board will have a requirement for tracking facilities about 1961 when the satellite they are to instrument is launched by the United States. Nor will the station be a self-contained unit: the raw data acquired by the St. John's station must be reduced to useful information. This will be done at the NASA Data Reduction Centre to which all tracking stations in their network are linked. While Canada could erect a station as a solely Canadian project, the data reduction would require scientific manpower on a scale which would not be justified by Canadian needs.

I share the view of the President of the National Research Council that it is desirable that Canada should be in a position to get up-to-date information on satellite activities by virtue of our own contribution rather than by dependence on the goodwill of the United States. I consider that our cooperation should go beyond the provision of land and administrative assistance in the initial arrangements and include the assumption of the responsibility for the operation of the station. I consider further that the costs involved should be regarded as a special additional obligation, rather than a charge against the regular budget for scientific activities.

I therefore have the honour to recommend:

That the agreement regarding the satellite tracking station at St. John's, Newfoundland be drafted so that the costs of construction and equipping of the station shall be the responsibility of the United States and the costs of operation shall be the responsibility of Canada.⁶⁰⁹

[H.C. GREEN]

⁶⁰⁹Approuvé par le Cabinet le 20 novembre 1959. Pour le texte de l'accord officiel, voir Canada, Recueil des traités, 1960, no 19.

Approved by Cabinet on November 20, 1959. For the text of the official agreement, see Canada, Treaty Series, 1960, No. 19.