Science and Research Committee on May 19th, 2022

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Thank you for that.

Dr. Whiteside, the Banting Research Foundation introduced a strategy in their annual report for 2021 by creating an opportunity for a sustainable Discovery Award program. What barriers do you face in implementing the strategy, and how can it be better supported?

[Dr. Catharine Whiteside]

The key barrier for us is really funding. We're a relatively small foundation, and we are able to provide a limited number of pilot and feasibility awards each year. To give you an example, we usually have around 60 applicants. These are individuals in their first three years of an assistant professor position, and we're able to fund anywhere between six and eight of them.

Last year was a bumper year. We were able to fund 12, because we've been building our strategy around stakeholder sponsors. These are, again, amazing investigators. To a person, they have said to us that if they had an opportunity to compete for salary support and better funding when they first came on, within the first few years they could have accelerated programs, realized their bold ideas much more quickly and been able to provide better impact with regard to their research.

This is really an issue of funding.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

My question is also this. When you're dealing with the marginalized communities as well, how are you able to help them? Because funding is such an issue, is that another area where it's lacking quite a bit?

[Dr. Catharine Whiteside]

Absolutely. I really applaud the federal government for some of their directed support now for the Black community and for indigenous. That's definitely on the right track, and we need more.

We need to understand how to most strategically deploy those funds, again working with universities and working even earlier, for instance, summer programs for high schools, to really get that pipeline built in terms of capacity. Again, all of these programs could be working together and could be networked across Canada in a way that I think could really build this capacity and address these matters.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

How is that possible that I'm almost out of time, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

You have 25 seconds, my friend.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Dr. Whiteside, just quickly, we've heard from other researchers or witnesses on how women have been disproportionately disadvantaged with scientific research. Could you provide any information on that quickly, or please have it in writing to us for the future as well?

[Dr. Catharine Whiteside]

I can—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

As much as I know the committee wants to hear this, I think it's going to have to be in writing unless someone else picks this up.

Thank you, Mr. Soroka.

With that we will go to Monsieur Lauzon.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

These are some great questions.

I just wanted to come to you with the same question but more specifically for women researchers in their early career. Can you talk to us about parental leave and how they manage their pregnancy during their research? I think they now get 12 months across granting agencies. Can you talk to us about that?

[Dr. Catharine Whiteside]

Yes, the granting agencies really have very good parental leave plans and policies, as do the universities generally in Canada. In fact, in that case we do much better than the U.S. I really feel that the policies that are in place today are reasonably fair.

I think, though, that the issue is much deeper. I know the honourable Kirsty Duncan is an expert in this, and I've heard her speak about it.

Really, there are still biases in the system with regard to hiring and promotion. I think that's really where we need much more support for educating our colleagues and really putting in place the necessary checks and balances in the context of both hiring and promoting within academia, particularly in the research areas where often there's a male dominance, shall I say. We still see this in engineering and computer science, in the STEM areas, and we really need to be promoting women and equity groups within these areas to cash in on the great talent we have in Canada.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Thank you for the very complete answer.

What I know about the Banting Research Foundation is that it played a truly historic role in terms of scientific discoveries following the discovery of insulin. I myself am diabetic, and my daughter is too.

I am type 2. My daughter is type 1. It's genetic and we have to live with that. I just wanted to thank you for that research, but I want to come back to the study.

In your 2021 report, Quebec accounted for approximately 23% of the population, but for 35% of your award winners. You also said that Ontario represented 38.8% of the population, but 43% of recipients. Representation among the provinces is very lopsided.

Is this great disparity between the numbers of awards a reflection of provinces where there are more rural regions compared to those with bigger cities?

[Dr. Catharine Whiteside]

Just to be clear, you're talking about the Banting Research Foundation Discovery Award program.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Yes, that's it.

[Dr. Catharine Whiteside]

The distribution of awards is based strictly on the applicants we receive. One of our issues is that for many years, until just recently, we were only accepting applications in English, so that could have been a detriment to early-career investigators.

We have supported investigators from over 30 different institutions across Canada. On a per cent basis in terms of population, I would say we're doing reasonably well in terms of distribution.

There was the language issue, which we have now fixed, and we can accept applications and review in both languages. Also, I would say that Quebec is much better at supporting their early-career investigators than the other provinces. You have a long-standing granting agency that has been quite supportive, and that may also be part of the equation here. I don't think I can be more specific, but we certainly welcome applications from Quebec.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Thanks for the answer.

I'm returning to Mr. McCauley.

Mr. McCauley, on May 5, we heard from a witness whose company really made me think of your organization. This was Mr. Martin Basiri, of ApplyBoard, one of Canada's fastest-growing companies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Monsieur Lauzon, I regret doing this to you, but perhaps you might ask the witnesses if they'd like to table a written response. I'm sorry.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Yes, okay. I finished my time. I thought I had 15 minutes today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Would you like to ask them if they would like to table a written response?

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

That's okay. I don't have time to ask my question, but I think I will send in my question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Thank you, Monsieur Lauzon.

To all of you, thank you for being so gracious. Thank you for having a conversation. We're really starting a conversation in this country between parliamentarians and researchers. We're so grateful for your expertise. You can see you have a really interested committee. We thank you for tonight and hope you'll want to come back.

We are suspended.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Dear colleagues, I welcome you all back for the third panel of this evening.

To our witnesses, we welcome you. We're delighted you can join us.

We have returning, from Colleges and Institutes Canada, president and chief executive officer Denise Amyot. Welcome.

Returning from Genome Canada—and we're delighted to have you coming back—is Dr. Robert Annan, who's the president and chief executive officer, and Pari Johnston, vice-president of policy and public affairs. Welcome. It's nice to have you.

From the University of Calgary, we welcome president and vice-chancellor Edward McCauley. Welcome. We're grateful for your expertise tonight.

Each group will be given five minutes. At the four-and-a-half minute mark I will hold up a card, so you know there are 30 seconds left. We aim to be fair and we can't wait to hear from you.

We will begin with Colleges and Institutes Canada.

Ms. Amyot, the floor is yours.

[Denise Amyot, President and Chief Executive Officer, Colleges and Institutes Canada]

Good evening. I'm speaking from the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe nation. I am pleased to be here again on behalf of our 142 publicly supported colleges, CEGEPs, institutes and polytechnics.

Colleges and institutes are driven by demand. They anticipate the needs of our economy, and then train, upskill or re-skill thinkers and doers. They are vital to making Canada future-proof.

Colleges and institutes ensure that Canadians are ready for any and all challenges that could arise in six months, a year, two weeks, 10 years or 20 years. Right now, that includes programs in, for example, biotechnology, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, to name a few. We offer them in nearly 700 locations across the country.

Our members are agile and can adapt to fill gaps, meet changing labour market needs such as the worker shortage in the health care sector, and provide training for sustainable jobs in a carbon-neutral economy. This unique approach by the colleges in terms of applied research enables employers, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, to get in touch with researchers and students to improve or develop new products, processes and services. This provides a source of highly skilled workers and helps to keep talent in the communities.

Guess what. College-based, business-led applied research and the talent pipeline it provides is growing. In two years, we saw a 42% increase from private sector investment in applied research, and now, for each federal dollar, there is a dollar from the private sector and a 45% increase in students participating in applied research.

This is some of the latest data from our applied research survey that we will be submitting to the committee, and it points to growth in all directions: more projects, more partnerships, more solutions, more students and more dollars.

The success paints a picture of what applied research already offers Canada's innovation ecosystem and what we can still achieve if we think more strategically about investment. This is why we are making the following recommendations.

One is to make permanent the temporary funding the college sector received for two years to support applied research.

Two is to expand SME participation in the R and D ecosystem by investing $40 million per year in business innovation engagement services located in colleges, institutes and polytechnics.

Three is to boost Canada's talent pool through the development and implementation of permanent residency streams for international students graduating from colleges and develop a national employment pipeline for skilled newcomers.

Four is that this committee dedicate a study specifically to applied research and how we can scale this approach to maximize its potential for our economy. Why? Because of the immense potential that applied research presents for talent development and innovation in Canada.

Through applied research, our system provides a pipeline of talent to local communities across the country. It's a tried and true Canadian solution for untapped potential.

Our sector is ready to build on this success. We want to do more, but we need more support to do so.

Thank you.

Meegwetch.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Thank you so much, Ms. Amyot. We're delighted to see you tonight.

We will now go to Genome Canada. I think Dr. Annan is speaking or sharing time.

The floor is yours for five minutes. Welcome.

[Dr. Robert Annan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Genome Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good evening, everyone. I'm joining you today from Ottawa on the unceded traditional land of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

It's a real pleasure to be back again at committee, along with my colleague Pari Johnston, to discuss this important topic. It's one that we think about all the time at Genome Canada.

We're a national not-for-profit organization that invests in genomics talent, research and innovation to develop and deploy solutions to Canada's major challenges in health, climate action and food security. We work with a pan-Canadian network of six regional Genome centres to align academic institutions, hospitals, government and industry in shared large-scale research projects that are the foundation of life science innovation. Genome Canada has a 20-year track record of investing in Canada's researchers and trainees in genomics and related biosciences.

As a brief reminder, genomics describes the science of genetic information, the digital code at the foundation of all life sciences. It is the language of living systems and underscores everything from vaccine development to cancer treatments and from agriculture to environmental monitoring.

We're very proud of the role we've played in laying the foundation for amazing Canadian research, treatments and technologies in life sciences that have been deployed both before and during COVID and that will continue to support important work in future health innovation, food security and climate action.

Indeed, the tools and technologies being developed today will change our world during the next 20 years in the same way the digital revolution changed our world during the last 20. At the same time, we also need to ensure we're training the future innovators, researchers and workers. We need to ensure that we have just as many young people being trained in the biological code as we have in the digital code. It is they who will drive innovation in health care, agriculture and agri-food and sustainable biomanufacturing.

At Genome Canada, we take training seriously. Since 2000, we have supported almost 6,000 trainees through our research programs. Those early trainees have become the backbone of Canada's genomics ecosystem: our researchers, our technicians and our entrepreneurs.

Our research projects are not confined to university labs. We support applied research involving an end-user, industry or otherwise, so that students learn how to translate ideas into impact. We're proud that our projects have spun out more than 100 start-up companies, many of which were started by or with the trainees working on them, but we need more people trained—or retrained—in this area in order to meet tomorrow's demand, and that's what we are working on.

As I said, we take talent seriously at Genome Canada. We refer to our strategy around talent as the three I's.

First, we are increasingly intentional. We have a proud history of supporting students. Traditionally, we let this flow organically from our research strategy, but today we are intentional in developing a talent strategy linked to deriving specific outcomes. We're talking directly with industry and other end-users to understand their needs and opportunities, and we're including specific initiatives for capacity building and training into our research opportunities with ecosystem partners such as adMare.

Second, we believe talent must be interdisciplinary. At Genome Canada, we employ a challenge-driven approach to address big issues. All of our projects involve interdisciplinary teams of researchers, including social scientists. Genomics involves cutting-edge technology, but effective implementation requires understanding its economic, environmental, ethical, legal and social implications—how genomics works in society. We fund research and trainees in all of these areas and work with ecosystem partners like Mitacs to support opportunities to match research skills with work-integrated learning.

Third, we believe talent must be inclusive. Historically, the research community has not supported a diverse and representative population of trainees. This limits our pool of ideas and narrows the scope of potential innovation. We must diversify the pipeline of talent in Canada and ensure that students from a diverse set of backgrounds are able to contribute to advancing this work. This includes developing new models for engaging with trainees from indigenous backgrounds. Supporting their leadership will be essential for us to redress the inequities and injustices that have been done to first nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada, particularly in medicine and genetic research.

We're proud to support the summer internship program for indigenous peoples in genomics, SING Canada. Led out of the University of Alberta, it is designed to build indigenous capacity and genomics literacy among undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral and community fellows from first nations, Inuit and Métis communities across Canada.

In conclusion, it is clear that Canada needs a life sciences skills strategy as part of its research and innovation imperative. We have enormous needs and opportunities as the life science revolution proceeds.

We are proud to support foundational training in genomics, the digital code of biology, and are keen to work with this committee and other across Canada to ensure that we're equipped for today's challenges and tomorrow's opportunities. There remains so much to do.

Thank you.