Science and Research Committee on Oct. 31st, 2022

[Valérie La Traverse, Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council]

Good evening, everyone.

I am Valérie La Traverse, vice-president, corporate affairs, at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, or SSHRC. I am responsible for policy, strategy, performance, evaluation, audit and international relations at SSHRC

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about SSHRC's efforts to support French-language research and publishing. Thank you as well for your leadership on research and science in Canada.

As many of you know, SSHRC is the federal research funding agency that promotes and supports research and research training in the social sciences and humanities in Canada. SSHRC also administers interagency programs on behalf of the three federal research funding agencies: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and SSHRC. These interagency programs include amongst others the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund and the New Frontiers in Research Fund.

Canadian social sciences and humanities research is helping address some of the most critical challenges we face as a society, domestically and globally, be it pandemic recovery, economic growth, environmental sustainability, affordable housing or reconciliation.

Fundamentally, it's about building a sustainable, just and prosperous society.

SSHRC has a genuine interest in supporting Canadian research in both official languages. As a federal entity, SSHRC must, of course, comply with Canada's official languages legislation. But it is more than an obligation, as SSHRC is committed to increasing the impact of Canadian social sciences and humanities research conducted and published in French.

It is indeed essential to connect with and capitalize on the wealth of ideas and knowledge produced in French, to increase the pool of solutions to pressing global issues that concern us all.

As you know, research and scholarship are increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative, both here and abroad. That is why it is so important that the researchers we fund be able to participate fully in international collaborations in both English and French.

Looking broadly at Canada in the global context, linguistic duality is an asset for Canada and the Canadian research system. It allows SSHRC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, to assess and fund research and research training in both official languages, strengthening the research enterprise, opening larger horizons and increasing solutions that contribute to building the Canada and world we want for today and tomorrow.

Looking more regionally within Canada, we see how important it is for official-language minority communities to have access to a local, regional post-secondary institution operating in the minority language. We realize that, for francophone communities outside Quebec, these institutions—often small in size—have a huge impact on the vitality of the community as an employer, for education and skills development, for local innovation and as a community hub.

SSHRC is pleased to support these communities through both institutional and individual grants for research, research training and knowledge mobilization.

I have been working in the public service for over 20 years, and I am truly impressed by the strength of SSHRC's workforce, which is very bilingual, and by the organizational culture, which is also very bilingual. Thanks to this, our activities are thought out in both languages and take into account linguistic duality.

In conclusion, at SSHRC we are always looking for international best practices and challenges facing the Francophone research community in Canada, to ensure greater equity in the funding and dissemination of research in French.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Thank you to both witnesses. We're really grateful for your time this evening.

I believe that, tonight, we're beginning with Mr. Mazier for six minutes.

The floor is yours.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This question is for Madame La Traverse.

Canada is not the only bilingual country in the world. There are many countries that have even more official languages than Canada. Is there any research or analysis on how these countries have dealt with this matter?

[Valérie La Traverse]

I don't have the evidence in front of me.

We fund quite a bit of research at SSHRC that is focused on the French language and bilingualism. We'd be happy to share some of the research we've funded on that topic. It's also important for us to connect internationally to communities that have a bilingual nature, as well. Yes, we do fund research of that nature and I'm happy to follow up with some specific examples.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Yes, if you could provide the committee with that research, that would be fantastic.

Is there an international language being used for publications around the world?

[Valérie La Traverse]

I would say that English is the predominant language in the social sciences and humanities.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Okay. Thank you.

Do you think Canada is on track to becoming a destination of choice for francophone researchers and post-secondary students?

[Valérie La Traverse]

I would absolutely say so, and I would say that the bilingualism of our country is an asset. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, I am responsible for international relations. When we do meet with international counterparts such as Switzerland, France—and we recently met with the Wallonia region in Belgium—Canada is definitely seen as a leader, not only in French-language research but as a bilingual country. Yes, I would say we're on track.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Excellent.

Dr. Vats, do you think the lack of publishing opportunities prevents innovative discoveries by francophone researchers?

[Dr. Nipun Vats]

What I would say is that I don't have any empirical evidence to that effect. I think it's important that researchers be able to connect with one another as effectively as possible. In some domains the lingua franca of research is English, and in others it varies depending on the nature of the research. That connectivity is actually what promotes innovation, so I think having that ability in Canada to move across two languages actually just strengthens our ability to explore domains of research that may otherwise be a little more challenging to access.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Thank you.

Madame La Traverse, do you have anything to add to that?

[Valérie La Traverse]

No, I do not.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Okay.

The next question is for you.

In your experience, do French and English publications receive the same amount of recognition, or are there any advantages associated with anglophone publications and research?

[Valérie La Traverse]

I have to say I have a short-lived experience in this, so I will defer the question to my colleague. I joined SSHRC a year ago and I have worked with the scientific community across all disciplines, but I couldn't say that I have a particular opinion on that question.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

You've never noticed a difference between French or English publications as far as the acceptance of them is concerned.

[Valérie La Traverse]

Could you repeat the question?

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

In your experience, do French and English publications receive the same amount of recognition? Are there any advantages associated with anglophone publications and research?

[Valérie La Traverse]

I would say that if you're in a French community and you're published in a certain publication, you would have probably the same respect as if you were an anglophone publishing in a well-known publication in English, so I wouldn't see any difference. I think it just depends on the community in which you operate and in which you publish.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Excellent. Thank you.

That's all I have, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Thank you so much, Mr. Mazier. We've so glad you've joined us. Welcome.

With that, we will go to Mr. Collins, for six minutes, please.

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

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks to the witnesses for attending this evening.

Dr. Vats, we've heard from many witnesses throughout the study that there is a whole host of supports for French research obviously in the province of Quebec, and that should come as no surprise to anyone. However, we also know and we've heard that there is French research that is conducted outside of the province and there can be challenges and barriers faced by individual researchers or organizations that are looking to support French publications.

Do you have any recommendations as to how the government can assist and supplement maybe provincial and/or post-secondary programs that might exist outside the province of Quebec?

[Dr. Nipun Vats]

Thank you for the question.

I guess, at a very basic level, the publication costs for those journals that actually require you to pay for publication costs are an eligible expense under grants from the granting council, so there is that level of support.

The other thing is that, when it comes to peer-review processes for grant awards, I think there isn't a really strong attempt to ensure there is a level playing field between the two languages, and that's borne out by some of the statistics around the success rates, although, granted, a smaller proportion generally of francophone researchers actually submit their applications in French than would be the case if you were going by population share. There may be something to look at in that.

Outside the province of Quebec, there are institutions that are either bilingual or francophone in nature, and they provide supports to their researchers. Beyond that, there are other opportunities for publication, like open access types of publications that allow for publications to be provided in either official language. They also are an effective way of disseminating materials.

There are a range of supports. I don't think there's a single magic solution to the problem, but I think when it comes to the actual financial support that's provided through federal government programming, the efforts are to try to ensure that merit does not discount one language versus the other.

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

Thank you for that.

As a supplemental to that, first I'll go to what you submitted earlier. You talked about requiring organizations to conform with the policies under the Official Languages Act, you talked about a level playing field just now, and you've used other language that talks about ensuring equitable treatment of both languages. I think some of the witnesses we've heard today have talked about the challenges and barriers they face when submitting grant applications. In the context of those constructive criticisms that the committee has heard, what changes have been made over the last number of years to create the environment that you opened with, as it relates to creating that level playing field?

There seems to be some disagreement from those who are submitting grants that it may not be level today, as we speak and as we undertake this study. What would you argue in defence, in terms of the changes that have been made over the years that try to create the environment that you've presented here this evening?

[Dr. Nipun Vats]

One important change that's happened is that assessment boards are trained in issues related to systemic bias. There is, much more than, say, 10 years ago, a level of understanding and a required training in the case of many boards, and certainly within all the governance committees at the councils, that requires you to understand how you can bring your biases to the table, which may be with respect to gender, race or linguistic issues, and try to get over those types of issues.

The other part of it is in terms of recruitment. I don't have a time series of statistics on recruitment when it comes to reviewers of grant applications, but certainly today the share of reviewers on review committees for grant applications, generally speaking, either meet or exceed the share of applications. In fact, I think in many cases it's about a quarter, so it's representative of the population. In so doing, you're ensuring that, when you have a peer-review committee that's assessing the quality of an application, a significant fraction of those reviewers are equipped to review it in that language, which means that applications in either official language are getting a fair shake, if you will.

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

Thanks.

I have a supplemental to that, if I have time.

Dr. Vats, on EDI training, is it mandatory for those who are reviewing the applications? Is it policy for anyone who's in receipt of a grant application and is reviewing those applications to undertake EDI training to get at that systemic bias prior to going through that process, or is it optional for those people who...?