Science and Research committee  The first prerequisite for attracting investment from around the world is talent. We've been very fortunate, as I mentioned, and the federal government has provided incredible supports for helping the University of Calgary to create that talent. Companies have choices in where to go all over the world.

Science and Research committee  The great thing about these training awards through the tri-council is that those are opportunities available to students from all across the country, so it really is providing stimulus to enable students to train throughout the regions. I would hate to put a dollar value on it, but what would be good is to look at living wages and how they compare across the country, and then adjust the level of the associated scholarships.

Science and Research committee  At the University of Calgary, we've created a quite remarkable entrepreneurial structure. Ideas come up and are picked up by different organizations, and in large part our community, through CDL-Rockies and other supports, actually helps to drive company creation. As I mentioned, we're number one in the country right now in terms of company creation, with community support.

Science and Research committee  Thank you. I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak to this House of Commons committee this evening. Ms. Duncan, it's great to see you again. The University of Calgary is a place to start something—a new research project, a new business, a new movement to improve the world—but at the heart of anything new are the people who start it, our talent.

Industry committee  We offer a lot of online degree programs. One thing to emphasize, though, is that everybody recognizes that the Canadian experience is very, very important. Having students coming from the world to Canada and having students coming from different parts of Canada in order to experience all of Canada is really, really important as part of the Canadian experience.

Industry committee  We haven't experienced that so far. We have mechanisms in place that allow students to defer, even if they start the program, to make sure they can continue. One of the challenges that universities are facing is that they have to plan for all of these contingencies. We're planning for increased domestic enrolment; we're planning for decreased domestic enrolment, yet our costs are relatively fixed for that.

Industry committee  Yes, like my colleagues, we ramped up significantly right away the mental health supports, not only for our domestic students but also for the international students we had. We still have about 500 international students who decided to stay and maintain residence to complete their studies, so we wanted to make sure they had the services necessary.

Industry committee  As I mentioned earlier—I know Philip talked about it, as well as Universities Canada and U15—work-integrated learning opportunities right now would be incredibly helpful, as would be upskilling for individuals who want to develop, for example, micro credentials to actually transform their life journey or their work trajectory.

Industry committee  Maybe I can begin. As Philip mentioned, the ecosystem is really complex at all our institutions. At the University of Calgary, we have an inventor-owned IP policy, because that encourages innovation. What we try to do as a university is put those support mechanisms to enable individual scholars—whether it be students, faculty or staff who have ideas—to mobilize that as quickly as possible.

Industry committee  We have around 2,500 continuing international students, many of whom decided to stay to continue their studies during COVID-19 because they wanted to advance. I haven't heard about any specific cases coming to our office about hardship around international students in particular, but as Philip Landon mentioned, we have many different approaches at the University of Calgary to deal with students in need, including mental health supports, economic supports and so on.

Industry committee  That is a really good question. I mentioned that we pivoted very quickly during the winter term. That was done in a period of around four to five days. We allocated resources to faculty to help them pivot and get the courses online. We were also completely online during the spring/summer because of COVID-19.

Industry committee  The first piece is on, once again, dealing with the COVID-19 emergency and making sure the most needy in society were gaining access to resources. I think what we're going to find with COVID-19, and we're already seeing it, is that the changes in life are really going to have an impact on mental health, which we have really tried to invest significantly in to try to provide the supports necessary for the community.

Industry committee  First of all we've worked very closely with our students, both our undergraduates and our graduate students to ensure continuity for their programs. We have discussed tuition aspects with them. Our professors and our staff are delivering the same quality of materials in different formats, and in addition we're working closely with students to say if we're not offering this service, then those fees have been relaxed .

Industry committee  Thank you.

Industry committee  Thank you. Yes, undoubtedly COVID-19 and the impacts on industry throughout the world in all the different sectors that are prominent in Calgary, whether it be agriculture, energy, transportation and logistics or finance, combined to really create a very major storm. What the University of Calgary tried to do right from square one was to maintain business continuity as much as possible.