Science and Research Committee on May 12th, 2022

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

You talk about being as far-flung as Halifax, but geographically in Canada, are your institutes out in our neck of the woods? Are there examples west of Manitoba?

[Dr. Robert Myers]

With regard to the associate program, we worked for many years with an associate at the University of Victoria, actually. Unfortunately, he's no longer there. I believe that largely for personal reasons, he moved to the United States recently, to Minnesota. That was the farthest we went west, and at present we don't have any associates out there. We still have the affiliate program. It covers all of the western provinces.

We also work with various organizations such as TRIUMF in partnerships, for instance, to run a summer school in—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

I'm sorry, Mr. Myers; I'm going to have to interrupt.

[Dr. Robert Myers]

Okay, sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Thank you, Mr. Tochor.

With that, we are going to go to Mr. Collins.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Thanks, Madam Chairman. I'll start with Dr. Myers.

You talked about the cluster effect. Brilliant people want to work with brilliant people. That, I'm assuming, was a challenge to foster during a pandemic, when international travel was suspended. I'm assuming international student numbers were down during the pandemic. Can you share with us how the pandemic impacted your ability to attract top talent from other parts of the world? That was a part of your opening. You bragged about your successes in the past.

[Dr. Robert Myers]

Yes.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

What we can do to support kickstarting the process you had in place prior to the pandemic?

[Dr. Robert Myers]

We're very fortunate in that I work with blackboards such as the one behind me. I don't have an experimental lab. It was very easy for me and my colleagues here to take our work home and interact via Zoom.

It did slow us down. We were successful, though, in recruiting at all levels. I must say that the place the pandemic hit hardest was in our master's program. Every year we have a class of about 20 to 25 master's students who come for a one-year course. It's largely an international cohort. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, we were not able to actually bring them to Waterloo. That was very difficult for them.

We managed to do it online, but we made a special effort to bring the students here. We got them all here last September. It really added a lot of energy to the institute. It was really a turning point in opening up again the energy and the presence that they had here in the institute.

Well, I'll just close there. Those are my thoughts on the pandemic.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Thank you for that.

Mr. Robinson, can I take you back to the issue that you raised in regard to precarious employment? I agree with you in that it is a dual responsibility. There are shared responsibilities between the provinces and the federal government in terms of supporting you and everyone involved in that issue.

Are there provinces right now that have stepped up to the plate and have gone above and beyond what you expected in terms of trying to resolve the precarious employment situation? Is the issue the same across all provinces, currently? Can you tell me what the situation's like in that regard?

[David Robinson]

Sure.

There are variations among the provinces. One variable is the level of funding. Obviously, different provinces provide different levels of support for institutions. In those provinces where there's higher public investment, we do see generally lower levels of casualization.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Who's doing it right, in your mind, at this point in time?

[David Robinson]

I'd have to take a look at the actual data. I'd be happy to follow up with you on that. I don't have the most recent numbers.

Again, it's hard for us to get a clear handle on the actual number of contract staff in each place. We have broad trends, but when you look on an institution-by-institution basis, it's very difficult to tell.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Okay. Thank you for that.

To Ms. Watts-Rynard, in your opening you talked about how public investment leverages private sector funding. You gave us some statistics on that. How did the pandemic impact your ability to leverage private sector funding? Is it on the rise again at this point in time? Has it returned to the prepandemic levels?

[Sarah Watts-Rynard]

What we saw during the pandemic was definitely some difficulty for some small businesses to come up with the in-cash support. The COVID recovery grants allowed for more in-kind support, and less in cash.

We've found that the private sector community is looking forward to getting back and having the kind of support they need to get back on track after the pandemic and their investments have bounced back.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Great.

I had the same question that Ms. Bradford had earlier, about Ukrainian support. Can I ask you, Ms. Watts-Rynard, if there are efforts being made in your area or institutions to facilitate those who are coming from Ukraine?

[Sarah Watts-Rynard]

The colleges overall are doing a lot of work when it comes to thinking about how to support those coming from Ukraine. However, I'd be hard pressed to give you a hard number on that.

There is a lot of support that I'm seeing among our members.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Thank you very much, Ms. Watts-Rynard.

Thank you, Mr. Collins.

I see we have two minutes left.

Mrs. Vignola, you have the floor for one minute.

Mr. Cannings, you will have one minute after that, to be fair.

Go ahead, Madame Vignola.

[Julie Vignola]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Myers, you said you had special strategies to attract talent and that it was not only a matter of salary, but also of quality of life and good working conditions. I would like you to elaborate on that. If we run out of time, I invite you to answer me in writing. That would be wonderful. Thank you in advance.

What could the federal government do to attract talent, both in Quebec and in the rest of Canada?

This question is for the three of you. Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Madame Vignola, are you asking each of the witnesses?

Terrific. Each of the witnesses can answer that question.

Thank you.

Mr. Cannings, one minute goes to you.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

I'll turn to Ms. Watts-Rynard. You were rushed at the end of your initial presentation. You had the three recommendations. I didn't really catch all of the third recommendation, so maybe you could expand on that for 45 seconds. I'd appreciate it.

[Sarah Watts-Rynard]

The final recommendation was around the tri-council funding formulas and ensuring that the college and community innovation program is not exempt from some of those funding formulas in the research support fund and programs like the Canada research chairs.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Thank you, Mr. Cannings and Ms. Watts-Rynard.

We'd like to thank all of you. We thank you for your time, your effort and your expertise. You've all been very gracious, and we are all very grateful to you.

We will say thank you and we will suspend while we get ready for our next panel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Welcome to our witnesses. We are delighted that you can join us tonight on this study of top talent, research and innovation.

For this panel, we are very fortunate to have as an individual Dr. Kevin Smith, president and chief executive officer, University Health Network.

We welcome you. Since you represent the health sector, we would like to acknowledge all that you've done through the pandemic and your life-saving service.

From the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, we have Christian Fotang, chair of the board of directors. Welcome.

From the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, we have Dr. Alejandro Adem, the president, and we have Dr. Danika Goosney, vice-president, research grants and scholarships directorate.

We welcome all of you. We're looking forward to your testimony. Each of you will have five minutes. At the four-and-a-half-minute mark, I will raise this card, which lets you know you have 30 seconds left.

We aim to be fair here, so with that, Dr. Smith, we'll begin with you. The floor is yours, and welcome.