Good evening, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much for this privilege to be in front of the Standing Committee on Science and Research.
My name is Baljit Singh. I am vice-president of research and professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, which is located on Treaty 6 territory and the homeland of the Métis people.
This university is a proud member of the U15 group of Canadian research-intensive medical doctoral universities and enrolls more than 20,000 students, including 4,000 graduate students from 130 countries. We are proud to say that 15% of the student body—about 3,500 students—are self-declared indigenous students. That percentage is equal to the percentage of indigenous peoples in the province of Saskatchewan.
The Canadian government has proudly made significant investment over decades in basic and applied research that has lead to the current levels of prosperity that we enjoy every day.
Today, Madam Chair, I would like to make four specific points for consideration by this committee. I hope some of those are fresh points and some will support what has already been presented to the committee.
Number one is research facilities. Canada has done a commendable job in investing to create unique and world-class research facilities in this country. There are 17 national research facilities, and we are proud to have three of those at the University of Saskatchewan. Because we operate those, we also have experience in the challenges of finding funding to operate those facilities in an adequate and optimal manner; therefore, I would request the committee to consider a national conversation to create an alternative funding model for large, national research science facilities that considers the full life cycle of the facility from the first brick to the finish of the facility.
The second point, Madam Chair, I would like to make is about work with indigenous communities. As part of our national work, universities have developed significantly better ways of working in a respectful manner with indigenous communities and their leaders to undertake research in partnership with the communities into challenges that are directly confronted by our indigenous peoples.
The road is long; there are still challenges, but I also see that there are massive opportunities in front of us if we can do the work right. I would request the committee to consider creating a better funding model that galvanizes the partnerships between universities and indigenous communities to create a better and prosperous way of life for our indigenous peoples in Canada.
The third one, Madam Chair, I would make is about One Health. Over the last couple of years, we have seen what a fast-moving and complex threat such as COVID-19 can do to expose the gaps in our knowledge and abilities of public policies to tackle that problem. What emerges are the intersections of the animal health, human health and environmental health. We don't have to react in a similar way to future challenges.
There is a better way, and it's called One Health. One Health examines deeper connections between animal health and human health, and it leads to the creation of a better public policy framework. The University of Saskatchewan is engaged with other universities and some federal departments in advancing the concept of One Health to protect the health of Canadians, their animals and their environment when a future outbreak takes place in this country.
I would recommend leadership from the federal government to allow us to coalesce the existing abilities in the area of One Health to create a legacy program for Canadians to protect their health.
The last point, Madam Chair, I would make is about better funding in the areas of social sciences, humanities and the arts. I think the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the epidemic of mental health in our country. Also, we don't have a better way of building cohesive, resilient and multicultural communities in our country. A better investment into social sciences and humanities will allow us to do that and also give us a better way of expressing ourselves culturally, and different ways of artistic expression will allow us to create wellness in our country.
With these comments, Madam Chair, I, again, am very grateful for the opportunity to be in front of this committee. Thank you so very much.