With that committee in particular, there's no doubt there have been challenges, but there have also been some successes. I know this week there were two different species that were assessed that did have indigenous knowledge included in their assessment. One was the killer whale. An immense amount of knowledge was available to the committee from British Columbia, for example, and the different first nations there. The second species was the ivory gull, and a lot of knowledge about that was known among Inuit communities.
I could give another example: 10 years ago, the Torngat Mountains caribou in Labrador were considered data deficient in the language of COSEWIC. Ten years later, with the documentation of Inuit knowledge in Labrador and Quebec, that species is now recognized by COSEWIC as its own designatable unit and is now considered endangered. There's a lot of care and monitoring now happening by the co-management system that's in place. There is certainly progress happening.
I'd like to take this opportunity and this question to highlight a bright spot within the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada and acknowledge Anishinabe academic Dr. Myrle Ballard for her contributions to date in establishing a new indigenous science division within the department.
I think that's really innovative and needed. I'm really hopeful for where her work is going to go within that department.