Industry Committee on May 30th, 2019

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Exactly. Actually, my Chris Bosh jersey from the old times is out, as well.

I do have a serious question, though, with regard to the National Basketball League of Canada. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the league, but it has been important in terms of bringing sport and science to inner cities such as mine, in Windsor, where we have the Windsor Express.

The connection today, ironically, is the Oshawa franchise moved to Mississauga, which later folded for the Raptors 905 NBA D-League, affiliated with the current Raptors.

There are franchises in Cape Breton, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Saint John, Kitchener, London, Sudbury and Windsor.

What is your government doing to partner with leagues such as the NBL? I haven't seen anything yet to deal with concussion in sport and other supports. They have grassroots teams that are professional but also have a tremendous amount of community outreach.

For example, I know our Windsor Express were out for the Mayor's Walk recently, and also running a clinic on the street.

Before, when I had a different job, I ran an inner city youth basketball and sand volleyball program where we got kids off the street and did a lot of stuff for nutrition and so forth.

Specifically, has the government done anything with the National Basketball League of Canada? What opportunities are there for organizations such as that to deal with education on everything from nutrition to sport and culture, and most importantly, concussions?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Brian, thank you for all the coaching you've done. I know you've been a long-time hockey coach. I didn't know about the basketball, so thank you.

Far too many children and athletes suffer from concussion. That's why we've worked with the health minister to develop new concussion guidelines that are being adopted by our national sport organizations. That's being done with the help of Parachute.

In this budget, we have invested $30 million for safe sport. I'm happy to talk about that if you would like. Part of that funding will be for protecting our children.

I'd also add that the House of Commons has undertaken a study on sport-related concussions. It's an all-party committee. I thank them for their work. The report will be tabled, and I'm really looking forward to their recommendations.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I'm going to move to another one, but I want to thank you. I'll leave it at that. It will be for another Parliament.

There have been some improvements with regard to science, and getting a profile here on the Hill. I have seen that evolve. I've been involved in this committee for a long time. I still think as a country we're underutilizing science and sport.

I'm not saying that nothing is being done, but it's one of the things that isn't often raised here. That's my personal criticism. Science and sport don't seem to get the attention they probably deserve for a country like Canada.

With some of my time, I want to move to what wouldn't be an unexpected topic for this table. My Bill C-440 on Crown copyright in Canada is very important for the science community. It's not only with regard to the universities, but is also related to a number of different academic associations, research think tanks and so forth.

Our law on Crown copyright is based on a 1911 U.K. law, which was put in place here in Canada in 1929. This is the restriction of government publications, scientific research and other materials that the public has paid for. Over 200 research academics testified here at our committee calling for the elimination of Crown copyright. It doesn't exist in the United States or in most Commonwealth nations. It's very rare to find it in Canada.

What is your position on Crown copyright as it currently is in Canada?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Brian.

You've touched on a number of areas. I'm going to touch on a number of them, and then I'll hand it over to my deputy minister.

You mentioned science and sport. The two absolutely go together. It's really important. If we want to improve performance and the health and safety of our athletes, it's through science. We do have the sport research institutes. I'd be happy to talk about that further.

You also talked about making research available. We absolutely agree. We want our scientists and researchers in government speaking freely. I take every opportunity to say that. We have to change that culture. We believe in open data and open—

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

As the government, do you believe in Crown copyright? That's my specific question.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

We believe in open data and open science.

To pick up on Michael's question, he asked what the chief science adviser has been doing. I hope he has taken a look at her first annual report and the areas that she thinks we should be looking at.

I will turn it over to my deputy minister.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Minister, I'm asking about a specific Crown copyright, the protection and prohibited use of government documents and research materials. I'm asking for your position on that. I don't need the deputy minister's position on that. We've studied it extensively in this House. It's a well-known fact that Canada has a unique system of protection, and I want to know whether you support the status quo of Crown copyright.

I think it's a fair question.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Brian.

This issue is raised with us all the time. We're aware of the issue and we're reviewing it.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Okay.

How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

None.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Oh, there we go.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We're going to move to Mr. Graham.

You have seven minutes, sir.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I sure hope that industry presents a report on copyright soon. I think it would be quite helpful.

Minister, could you explain to us what the Canada research chairs do and what they've accomplished so far?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

David, thank you for the question.

The Canada research chairs are some of our prestigious chairs. They were brought in in the year 2000. We have two kinds of chairs. Tier one Canada research chairs receive $200,000 over seven years, and tier two chairs receive $100,000 over five years.

We have made changes to the program. The tier one chairs used to be able to have seven years, then seven years and then seven years and that could go on forever. We have capped that at one renewal. Why? It gives more researchers access to these prestigious chairs.

We have actually made the first increase to the tier two funding in 19 years. That's because it is for early-career researchers.

We have made changes in terms of equity and diversity. Of course, I pulled the data; that's what I do as I want to see how we're doing. If we look at the history of the Canada research chairs program, we weren't close to our chairs reflecting the Canada we see today when you look at percentages of the population. I told our institutions that they had two years to make the voluntary targets that they had agreed to in 2006. I really want to thank our institutions. They really changed the way they do nominations and, for the first time, 50% women were nominated for these chairs. The highest percentage of indigenous, racialized and persons with disabilities were being nominated to these chairs.

I want to stress that, for the first time, we have five persons with disabilities holding a research chair. That's not 5%. It's five. That shows the work that needs to be done and that's why we're bringing in the dimensions charter.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

How many research chairs are there?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

It's close to 2,000. Through budget 2018, the historic budget I talked about with the $6.8 billion, we're investing $210 million for another 285 Canada research chairs.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

It's more than I realized. I sense great pride in the program.

I do have another question related to the research. How does one motivate particular research to happen? One of the big issues in my rural riding, which has no research institutions, is that there are over 10,000 lakes in my riding. It's a big riding. We have Eurasian milfoil and other invasive species that are causing great problems. There seems to be no research being done on how to address them, mitigate them and prevent them from spreading further.

If somebody who isn't a scientist wants to take a particular topic up for research, how does that happen?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I'm going to start right at the beginning.

I want to strengthen our culture of curiosity in Canada. All children are born curious. All children want to discover and explore. They'll pull apart this pen. They'll pull apart the microphone. They want to understand how things work. They're interested in nature. They want to go out and explore the lake and what's found at the bottom of the lake and what insects are there.

It's up to us to foster that natural-born curiosity through elementary school, high school and hopefully beyond. It's not enough to attract them in their institutions. We have to be able to retain them. I think it's about science literacy. It's about strengthening a culture of curiosity.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Mr. Massé wanted to ask a quick question as well, if I could pass some time to him.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

You have two and a half minutes.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you. It's greatly appreciated.

Minister Duncan, first, I want to thank you for your commitment, passion and determination when it comes to science. It's extraordinary.

I've had the opportunity to meet with you several times with representatives of our research centres, both at the college and university levels. On a number of occasions, you and I have been told that regional research centres have difficulty accessing grants to continue their research. We've been told that these grants are mainly allocated to major research centres. However, some extraordinary research is also being conducted in the regions.

I'd like you to discuss potential measures to help our smaller regional college or university research centres access these funds.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I want to thank my colleague for his question.

Rémi, thank you. Yes, we met with a number of your researchers, and it was just fascinating to know the research they were doing.

As you know, all the research that's done is peer reviewed. There are panels created, but we want to make sure those panels reflect Canada, and that has been changed.

We haven't talked about colleges yet. Colleges, polytechnics and CEGEPs play an incredible role in the research ecosystem. Just as we've made the largest investment in universities, we've also made the largest investment in our colleges, in applied research, of $140 million. That's the largest investment ever.

When I go across Canada, whether it's at Red River College—that's where Lloyd went—Humber College, Centennial or Seneca, the research that's being done is absolutely extraordinary, and they are able to make a difference in the community.

A company comes in. They need an answer, a quick turnaround, whether it's in robotics, artificial intelligence or virtual reality, and in three or four months the college is able to provide a solution.

At Niagara College, it was a certain type of nut they were able to do. At Niagara College, it's the help they're able to provide to the wine industry.

Thank you for raising this important question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We're going to move to Mr. Lloyd.

You have five minutes.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister and officials for attending today.

It has been reported as recently as May 2 in the Globe and Mail by Stephen Chase and Colin Freeze that in a National Research Council application process for advisory members of a committee related to a Huawei research grant, those with political opinions about Huawei need not apply for this process.

I think it's disturbing to Canadians when they're seeing that our federal agencies are screening people out for their political viewpoints in terms of their membership on committees. We have seen this trend in other departments, with the government putting political and personal values tests on whether or not you get government funding.

I'm just wondering, Minister, if we can trust the government in the future to protect Canadians and protect our processes from people being screened out for their political and personal viewpoints, and excluded from sharing in government programs and processes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Dane, thank you for your question.

I believe it is incredibly important that our researchers, whether in government or academia, are able to explore, to cross disciplines and to cross boundaries. That's how research works.

When it comes to academia, NSERC has very specific rules in terms of peer review. It needs to be hands-off. It is the specialists who review applications.

You mentioned foreign investment. As you know, there is a review being undertaken by security officials, and we will respect the results of that review.