44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 31, 2022 10:00AM
- May/31/22 10:42:11 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise in the House today to participate in the debate on the Bloc Québécois motion about science and research in Canada.
I would like to begin by stating my unequivocal agreement with the notion that science is foundational to our economic prosperity, to our well-being overall in Canada and to the quality of life for all Canadians. World-class research and scientific excellence are a critical foundation of Canada's social, health and economic well-being. The talented individuals include countless in my riding of Halifax doing their work at Dalhousie University, the University of King's College, St. Mary's University, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and so on. These researchers in Halifax and across the country are our primary engines of discovery, innovation and new knowledge to help us advance our country.
Science and research supply knowledge to develop new technologies, solve complex and persistent problems and generate innovations with real economic and social value for Canadians. Such research touches upon all aspects of our daily lives, including the challenges we face in protecting our environment, moving to clean growth, how we recover from major crises like COVID-19 and how Canada can be an effective player and role model in the shifting geopolitical context.
The federal government plays a very important role in providing the framework and funding that support and enhance Canada's performance in scientific research. Since day one, our government has put science and research front and centre and prioritized evidence-based decision-making in all that we do. After a decade of neglect under the Harper Conservatives, our government has brought science back. It is now at the forefront of our decision-making, and our scientific community looks a lot more like Canada does right now.
In keeping to our commitment to evidence-based decision-making, in 2016 we set up a blue ribbon panel of experts to advise on the ways to improve federal support of the Canadian science ecosystem so that our investments in the sector could be strategic and effective. I am proud to say that we responded to almost all of the recommendations in that report.
This approach has been buttressed by historic levels of funding. In fact, since 2016, our government has committed more than $13 billion to support research and science across Canada. Through budget 2018, for example, we announced nearly $4 billion in new funding to support Canadian research and researchers. This included the single largest investment in discovery research in Canadian history, at $1.7 billion over five years, as well as ongoing funding after that to support researchers through Canada's world-class granting agencies and research institutes.
Within this investment was funding to create the new frontiers in research fund, which supports research that is international, interdisciplinary, fast-breaking, higher risk and higher reward. This is an agile and responsive program that is unleashing some of our best minds to tackle important domestic and international challenges.
Budget 2018 also included significant new funding for the Canada research chairs program to better enable it to attract and retain younger, emerging research leaders in Canada while increasing the diversity of nominated researchers. This was done because the COVID-19 pandemic also brought home the importance of science and research to Canada and the world.
Canada's science and research community responded admirably to the challenges brought about by the pandemic, and Canadians can rightly be proud of our scientific and research community. Our scientists and researchers have shown profound resilience throughout these challenging times, playing a huge role in the unprecedented mobilization and ramping up of international collaboration. Indeed, if there is a silver lining to this pandemic, it is that the world has been reminded of the power and importance of scientific research.
The true value of our investments in science has indeed been brought into sharp focus. The enduring strength of Canada's science and research capacity meant that we could get to work straight away with Canadian businesses to develop vaccines and therapeutics, as well as to help produce ventilators and personal protective equipment. That strength also meant government and health authorities were able to connect with expert, evidence-based advice through bodies such as the vaccine and therapeutic task forces and the Industry Strategy Council.
As we begin to pivot from the pandemic to a postpandemic economic recovery, a made-in-Canada plan will help to anticipate the challenges and opportunities that may lie ahead for our country. Cutting-edge government investments in life science research and biotechnologies will be a key part of this.
Strength in these areas is not only critical to our health and safety. These are also emerging growth industries that support well-paying jobs and attract investment. Our government is taking steps to grow a vibrant domestic biomanufacturing and life sciences sector. This includes foundational investments to build and support Canada's talent pipeline and research systems, as well as to encourage the growth of Canadian life sciences firms.
That is why, through budget 2021, our government allocated $1 billion to the strategic innovation fund to support promising life science and biomanufacturing companies; $500 million to the Canada Foundation for Innovation for a new bioresearch infrastructure fund and support of infrastructure at post-secondary institutions and research hospitals; $250 million to increase clinical research capacity through a new Canadian Institutes of Health Research clinical trials fund; $250 million for a new Canada biomedical research fund; and investments in the stem cell network and regenerative medicine research, as well as in adMare Bioinnovations, to support company creation and scale up on training activities in the life sciences sector.
To continue, through budget 2022, we would continue to provide new funding to attract leading researchers, advance Canada's critical research priorities and strengthen the security of research institutions. This funding would include $38.3 million over four years and $12.7 million ongoing to add new Canada excellence research chairs to attract and retain top-tier global researchers; $40.9 million over five years and $9.7 million a year ongoing to support targeted scholarships and fellowships for promising Black researchers; $159.6 million over five years and $33.4 million ongoing to protect federally funded research from foreign threats; and $100 million over six years to support post-secondary research in developing technologies and crop varieties that will allow for net-zero emissions in agriculture.
I am very proud to represent a riding as diverse and as thriving as Halifax. Moreover, I am certain that my colleagues on all sides of this House would join me in recognizing that Canada is a tremendously diverse country and that this diversity is a source of strength, resilience, innovation, knowledge and growth. It is this diversity that drives our very success as a society. In that vein, the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion in supporting research-based innovation is well documented. Studies show that capturing diverse cultural and social perspectives contributes to scientific impact. They also show that highly diverse teams outperform in innovation, critical and creative thinking, problem solving, productivity, and ethical conduct, and a lack of diverse thinking is actually a barrier to innovation in the Canadian economy.
Despite this, many Canadians continue to face systemic barriers to full participation in our society and our economy, including in science and research. Our government has recognized the importance of inclusivity and diversity in science since the outset. Budget 2018 tied new funding to federal research granting agencies to establishing clear objectives and plans to achieve great equity and diversity in federally funded post-secondary research. Since then, government has continued to improve the representation of marginalized and under-represented communities in Canada's research ecosystem to address deeply entrenched systemic barriers and biases to enable all talented individuals to participate in research if they wish to.
To oversee this and other work, in 2017 we instituted the Canada Research Coordinating Committee with a mandate to improve the harmonization and coordination of the granting agencies as well as the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Under the direction of the committee, the agencies have launched a cohesive tri-agency equity, diversity and inclusion action plan that outlines measures to increase equitable and inclusive access to granting agency funding opportunities to address systemic barriers that limit participation of all talented individuals. It has instituted the Dimensions Canada pilot program, a made-in-Canada adaptation of the internationally recognized Athena Swan program, which aims to remove systemic barriers and improve equity, diversity and inclusion by providing a structure for universities and colleges to transform research culture. Further, it has provided capacity-building programs to post-secondary institutions to tackle challenges and barriers faced by under-represented groups in career advancement.
We have also taken a broader view with regard to realizing equity, diversity and inclusion across the economy and society. In budget 2021, we announced funding for academic research into systemic barriers that diverse groups face in our country.
Earlier this month our government announced an investment of $19.2 million to support 46 community-based and community-led research partnerships through the race, gender and diversity initiative. This initiative is led by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, or SSHRC, in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, or CIHR, and the investment is helping to fund projects that have a focus on health. These funded partnerships will draw on collaboration and mutual learning to foster the co-creation of new knowledge, capacity building and knowledge mobilization on issues related to systemic racism and discrimination of under-represented and disadvantaged groups.
In that same spirit, we have also instituted the 50-30 challenge, which challenges businesses and other organizations in Canada to increase the representation and inclusion of women and other equity-deserving groups in their workplaces.
Finally, the government provided new ongoing funding in 2019 for the granting agencies to offer extended paid parental leave for students and post-doctoral fellows, so these promising young workers can take the time they need to start families without having to worry about their career paths being adversely affected. We need these minds working for our country, and affording them this leave will help us to retain them here in Canada.
To close, I would like to speak to the importance of the Canada research chairs program to our country. Created in 2000, this program stands at the centre of a national strategy to make Canada one of the world’s top countries in research and development. Budget 2018 added 285 new positions to the program, so there are now over 2,000 chairs available, and provided researchers early in their careers with a new $20,000 annual stipend.
The program has its own equity, diversity and inclusion plan, which is yielding results with record proportions of women nominees in recent competitions and increases for members of other under-represented groups. In the most recent round, women accounted for 53.2% of nominations, while 29.8% of the nominations were racialized minorities, 5.9% were persons with disabilities and 2.7% were indigenous peoples.
A research ecosystem that looks more like Canada itself will deliver better results for Canada. This is our country’s flagship research program, and we must ensure that all talented individuals who wish to participate have a chance at obtaining these prestigious positions.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Science Policy Centre hosted a science meets Parliament event here on the Hill. MPs were paired with Canadian scientists from across the country, and I was lucky to be paired with a constituent of mine from Halifax, Dr. Rachel Chang, a Canadian research chair in atmospheric science and assistant professor at Dalhousie University. She, like all of the representatives who met with MPs of all parties, represents the best of what our country has to offer in research and discovery, and our government is committed to supporting their work. I want to take this opportunity to thank Rachel and all of the delegates who came to Ottawa to share with us their perspectives.
I would also like to thank the opposition member for his insightful question and assure him and all my parliamentary colleagues that the government continues to work hard to keep Canada a world leader in science and research, while making opportunities available to all qualified individuals in the interests of driving new knowledge and innovations to the benefit of all.
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- May/31/22 10:57:09 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, to begin with the Naylor report, I have read the Naylor report quite carefully, and I have had extensive discussions with researchers in my riding about it over a number of years since it was completed. In fact, they are often reminding me that one of the key findings and recommendations within the Naylor report is to improve diversity, equity and inclusion. That is what we are focused on doing.
On the point of researchers being left out, it is very clear from some of the studies I mentioned in my remarks that our ability to innovate and conduct world-leading research is improved when we have a much more diverse and inclusive research ecosystem in Canada. That is what the tri-council is focused on. That is what the Naylor report prescribed, and that is what our government is working hard to accomplish.
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- May/31/22 10:58:37 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member mentioned discrimination. Of course, the very intention around my speech and my response to the Bloc Québécois opposition day motion is to eliminate any kind of discrimination. As I have said, our work to innovate and face the greatest problems of our country in the world today is improved by the participation of equity-seeking groups, including women and people from all backgrounds and all nationalities. This is the strength of our ecosystem, and we are building on that strength to address the future.
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- May/31/22 11:00:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her remarkable advocacy for science and research in Canada and for her friendship as well.
The tri-councils themselves have a posture of seeking to improve the equity and diversity within their ranks. The federal government's role in this is to fund their work and offer support of direction. That is what we are doing. My answer to the member would be that we are working together with the tri-council to achieve mutual goals that will improve outcomes for all Canadians.
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- May/31/22 11:01:58 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I agree with the member that the ultimate goal is to get the best researchers possible in place and achieve the best possible outcomes. The notion of positive discrimination is a very tricky one. We are operating in a Canadian society that admittedly has systemic barriers to the advancement of people who do not look like me. Let me just say it that way. We need to change that, because it is the diversity of people from all backgrounds that will strengthen our research community, and it is incumbent upon us to create those pathways.
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- May/31/22 11:03:34 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the excellent question about youth.
I have mentioned a number of the fine research institutions in my riding, such as Dalhousie University, Saint Mary's, NSCAD University and King's College. I have spent a great deal of time at all of them, and in fact sometimes on the faculty of Dalhousie University, and one thing is absolutely clear: We have to be extremely intentional, open-hearted and open-armed about inviting young researchers and youth into those university programs. They are literally the future, and the ability to create a future for all young Canadians, including newcomers, is to be found in the work that we are doing with the tri-council around diversity and inclusion.
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