Science and Research Committee on Nov. 14th, 2022

[Valerie Bradford, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

What role could the federal government play in this respect, then? Is there any role for the federal government in encouraging more of these applications to be made by francophones in French?

[Dr. Martine Lagacé]

It would be a good idea to establish a permanent committee within each of the three granting councils, insofar as that is possible, so that this question of support for francophone researchers could be genuinely discussed.

As well, the federal government could help francophone researchers to get together and work jointly more, by ensuring collaboration in the francophone research field in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Alberta. At present, there is no mechanism to allow for such points where attachment and collaboration can occur.

[Valerie Bradford, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I have one more question—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

I'm sorry, Ms. Bradford. My apologies.

I'd like to thank all our witnesses.

We thank you for coming, for your time, for your expertise and for sharing your ideas. We hope that it's been a good experience for you, and we hope that you will want to come back. We'd really like to thank you.

With that, colleagues, we will suspend briefly to get ready for our second panel.

Thank you again.

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Colleagues, I'm going to call this meeting back to order. We're beginning panel two.

I'd like to make a few comments for the benefit of the new witnesses.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mike, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

For interpretation for those on Zoom, you have the choice at the bottom of your screen of floor audio, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel.

As a reminder, all comments should be addressed through the chair.

We'd like to welcome you to this panel.

Appearing before the committee today we have Kenneth Deveau, president of the Fédération acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse.

We also have Allister Surette, president and vice-chancellor of Université Sainte-Anne.

Welcome to both of you. We're delighted to have you here. Each of you will have five minutes to present. At the four-and-a-half-minute mark, I will hold up a card, which lets you know that there are 30 seconds left.

With that, we say welcome and thank you for joining us.

We begin with President Deveau. The floor is yours.

[Kenneth Deveau, President, Fédération acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse]

Thank you.

I am very happy to be with you and very grateful that you have given me the opportunity to speak to you this evening as a member of the community and president of the Fédération acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse.

I also have some experience in the teaching world: I was vice-president, teaching and research, at Université Sainte-Anne. I have also been a very active researcher studying the Canadian francophonie and my work was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

The Fédération acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse was not born yesterday: it was founded in 1968. It has 29 member organizations that are dedicated to the growth and global development of the Acadian and Francophone community of Nova Scotia. The federation carries out its mission by acting as the leading spokesperson for the Acadian population of Nova Scotia. I am speaking to you this evening in that capacity.

I would like to point out that Université Sainte-Anne is one of the federation's members. I submitted a brief to you. I don't know whether you have received it. You will receive it eventually if you do not already have it. I can't present everything it contains this evening, but I hope you will have an opportunity to read it. I am first going to address a few key elements and I may be able to address others during the period set aside for questions.

In addition to being a member of the FANE, Université Sainte-Anne is a preferred partner for a majority of our member organizations, and is thus a key centre of influence for Nova Scotia or Acadia in Nova Scotia. The research into the Canadian francophonie, and more specifically Acadia in Nova Scotia, that is carried out at this institution by its researchers and the collaborators at the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne is essential to the vitality of our communities, for numerous reasons that I can't take the time to list here.

I would like to draw your attention to an essential point in my presentation. Université Sainte-Anne and the research it does are also an essential tool for developing a sustainable and innovative economy in Acadia in Nova Scotia. That research contributes to community economic development strategies. As well, collaborations with our enterprises and entrepreneurs is an essential link in the creation of a dynamic, innovative and sustainable economy in our communities.

I would like to point out, as well, that our research also focuses on the environment and health. Sometimes, but not always, it is directly linked to the francophonie or issues relating to it. That is something we need.

I have several recommendations to make to you this evening. I am going to have to address them briefly. I would draw your attention to the recent report of the États généraux sur le postsecondaire en contexte francophone minoritaire, which describes in detail the challenges faced by francophone institutions in minority communities. I want to say that the federation supports each of those recommendations, in particular the six that deal specifically with research and publication in French.

The position occupied by Université Sainte-Anne within Acadia in Nova Scotia is made possible in large part by its autonomy and the fact that, by virtue of its enabling legislation, it is not bilingual, but French.

However, that autonomy brings with it sizeable challenges. In a way, we have done a deal with the devil. Université Sainte-Anne is required to do everything that a large university does, but with far fewer resources, and, in addition, it has the responsibility of offering college programs and, by virtue of its mission, must do it in French, but also in English.

We are therefore asking that the federal government take the opportunity offered by the next action plan for the official languages to support research and scientific publication in French in Canadian francophone postsecondary institutions.

We are also asking that those provisions include special measures to take into account the unique challenges associated with small size, remoteness—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Mr. Deveau, I'm sorry to interrupt you.

You have a very interested committee. I know they will want to ask you a lot of questions, and I'm sorry to interrupt.

We will now go to Monsieur Surette for five minutes, please.

[Allister Surette, President and Vice-Chancellor, Université Sainte-Anne]

Thank you for having me here this evening and for doing such an important study for the francophone postsecondary sector in Canada.

I have represented Université Sainte-Anne as president and vice-chancellor for 12 years. As Mr. Deveau said, Université Sainte-Anne is the only French-language postsecondary institution out of the ten universities in Nova Scotia. We offer university and community college programs, along with immersion programs and customized French as a second language programs. We are firmly rooted in our community and we are a preferred partner for enhancing the vitality of our small Acadian and francophone communities in Nova Scotia.

In my last 12 years at Sainte-Anne, our roots in the community have been a focus of our strategic plan. In other words, the question is how better to support our communities. We are a small establishment with about 600 full-time and part-time students. We offer our instruction and services via five campuses from one end of the province to the other, including one in Halifax. Of the other four campuses, two are in the southwest, in Pointe‑de‑l'Église and Tusket. The two other campuses are on Cape Breton Island, in Saint-Joseph‑du‑Moine and Petit‑de‑Grat. The Acadian and francophone regions of Nova Scotia are coastal, rural and remote regions, at least three hours' drive from Halifax airport. They are also official language minority communities.

We have distinguished ourselves over the years by our willingness to be actively involved in our communities and to promote their development, both in terms of language and culture and in other fields, to support our industries. We have centres, laboratories and observatories that serve to connect researchers among themselves and to create bridges with the other institutions, including anglophone institutions, and with enterprises and social actors as a whole.

I would now like to talk a little about research. I am certain there will be questions after that. We support what was said by the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne and by Acfas before this committee.

These are some of the facts of life at Université Sainte-Anne. First, because of our small size, we have a lot fewer master's and doctorate level programs than the bigger institutions. There are therefore fewer students available to support professors in their research projects. However, supervision of students is one of the criteria used by the granting councils in reviewing grant applications. In addition, the more prestigious grant programs are less suited to small institutions like ours.

I would like to say a little about the Canada Research Chairs Program, since we have two of these chairs. As you probably know, if the average total funding of the granting agencies falls below $100,000, institutions like ours are no longer eligible and may no longer host a research chair. As well, all of the active chairs have to be deactivated. We found ourselves in that situation in 2019, and that is very regrettable for our communities and our institution.

People often think that we, francophone educational institutions, do research only in relation to the French language or to Acadian or francophone culture. However, in our case, since we are located in a coastal region and we are the only postsecondary institution in the southwest, we also support our communities and industries in relation to economic development, for example. So we have played a key role for several years in—

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

I'm sorry, Mr. Surette.

You're right. It goes very quickly, but you have a really interested committee here.

We want to say thank you. We welcome you and we look forward to hearing the answers to the committee's questions.

Now we'll go to our first round of questions. This is a six-minute round.

We'll begin with Mr. Soroka. The floor is yours.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Thank you, Madame Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses tonight.

Mr. Surette, I'll start with you. What are you doing to encourage students to pursue a career in French research and scientific publications?

[Allister Surette]

In that case, we're hoping as many of our professors as possible can present projects to the council so that we can have projects to work on. The more professors we have who can have research projects, the better off our students will be.

However, as I was trying to mention in my opening remarks, having fewer graduate studies programs makes it more difficult for us to engage students in research. That being said, with the research we have here and the number of students we have in undergraduate studies, a lot of the students are involved in research projects. In fact, the percentage of our students participating with professors in research projects is quite high within our institution, and because we're so small, we can easily promote that within the Université Sainte-Anne.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

I have a follow-up question. With the research that's being done, one of our previous witnesses said that there's a shortage of research assistants. Are you finding that at your university, or not at all?

[Allister Surette]

We're not finding that in our case. In our case here, for the number of projects we have, we have a number of student applicants who are looking to work as research assistants.

We have engagement within our small population. I think it might be word of mouth or just from the culture that's been involved within our own university. We have a culture of engaging students who are very interested and who take pride in working as assistants with some of our professors.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Thank you for that.

Mr. Deveau, your organization takes pride in promoting the growth and development of Acadian and francophone communities in Nova Scotia. I was wondering how you're able to accomplish this, or what successes you've had. Could you give us a bit more on that?

[Kenneth Deveau]

Sure, but could I touch on the question you just asked Mr. Surette?

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Sure.

[Kenneth Deveau]

I guess it's sort of some contamination between my various roles. We have a lot of undergraduate assistants, and we take very much pride in incorporating them in our projects. That is recognized by the research councils. We think, first of all, that it should be better recognized, not by the councils but by the peers themselves.

Second, it would be very important for us to be supported. To compensate for our lack of graduate and post-graduate fellows, we try to collaborate with other universities, but a lot of times we have to do that on our dime. If we could have some support built into the structure and the support we get through official languages funding—not necessarily just through research councils—to facilitate collaboration between francophone institutions, we could do a lot more with less.

To your question on successes for the Acadian federation, I think the strength of the Acadian federation is in its members. We regrouped regional organizations, so every part of Nova Scotia is covered by a regional organization. We also have provincial organizations that are sector-based. However, I think one of our real strengths is at the institutional level. We bring all of those members in together with our institutions as well. Our university and our school board are actually part of our federation, and it builds collaboration. I think our success really comes through our collaboration.

Another thing that we have.... I mean, we will challenge our governments in the courts, if need be, and we have challenged them, as have most francophone organizations. That's always a last resort, but it's sometimes a necessary one.

Notwithstanding that, we always approach our governments, be they municipal, provincial or federal, as willing partners. Essentially I think we're all in this for the same thing. We're just looking for a better community, a better province and a better country to live in, and we're trying to contribute to that. I think that's really our success in Nova Scotia.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Okay. Thank you for that.

Mr. Deveau, you also mentioned that you wanted more support. Are you talking federal, provincial, municipal or private as well?

[Kenneth Deveau]

Yes.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Okay, it's yes to all of the above.

[Kenneth Deveau]

Yes.

Essentially the support we're looking for is support that takes into account our specific challenges. Mr. Surette mentioned that we're a very small institution that's very far away from the centre, be it the centre of the province or the centre of the country. I think we're hoping that the structures—

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Mr. Deveau, I'm going to have to cut you off there, because I only have a couple of seconds.

Could you please reply to that in writing, as well as anything you or Mr. Surette had in your opening statements that you would like to supply to us?

[The Chair, Liberal, Kirsty Duncan]

Thank you, Mr. Soroka.

Thank you to our witnesses.

With that, we're going to go to Ms. Diab for six minutes, please.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to welcome Mr. Surette and Mr. Deveau. As a proud Nova Scotian, I am very happy that they are participating in the meeting this evening.

Mr. Surette, you talked about Université Sainte-Anne, the only francophone university of the ten universities in the province. I am well aware that you have played a key role in the creation and development of Université Sainte-Anne.

You said that if somebody asked you the question in English, you were going to respond in English to maximize the understanding of every committee member here tonight, because that's how important the topic that we're studying is, and there's also the fact that we have someone from the Acadian community and Nova Scotia with us.

Can you speak to us a bit about the international connection you've had outside of Canada but also the Université Sainte-Anne? How does that play, if at all, with the researchers and the work that the university itself is doing, but also in the context of what we are talking about here in this research?