Once again, this idea of integrating may have a broader meaning in the context of this House of Commons committee. The idea isn't to start off with science as the main dish and to add an ingredient that comes from indigenous sciences, indigenous knowledge and indigenous knowledge systems. The idea instead is to see how we can find potential responses in both systems and how we can make them coexist rather than integrate them.
What we've done in previous decades by wanting to integrate knowledge hasn't yielded very convincing results because the basis was scientific and not very open to other kinds of information. By establishing a slightly more equitable foundation, we can draw on practices and ways of doing things. Science isn't just about data; it's also about practices and ways of doing things that come together, sometimes more often than we think. In fact, when you adhere to the idea of integrating, you lose sight of the very essence of indigenous knowledge systems, which could suggest other ways of building knowledge or experience. Ms. Lazare clearly established that.
However, if we aren't open to those kinds of practices, we'll lose sight of the evidence that would enable us, for example, to develop more effective environmental, health and education policies.