Evidence of meeting #80 for Science and Research in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was colleges.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
I have to call time. I was listening to the answer and then I realized that I'm supposed to be keeping track of the time. Thank you very much for that.
Monsieur Boulerice, you have two and a half minutes.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I find it a bit ironic that my Conservative colleagues are concerned about the price of food in northern communities, given that it was they, when they formed the government, who eliminated the program that subsidized the transportation of food in these communities, even though it's transportation that represents the bulk of the cost of food there.
Mr. Nantel, in your presentation, you talked about improving equity in access to federal research funding. What exactly do you mean by this notion?
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Strategic Enterprises, Niagara College
Thank you very much for the question.
Sometimes, a program is designed to get university results and target universities, which is fine. At some point, however, someone points out that colleges were forgotten. So we add “and colleges” to the instructions, but it doesn't work. In fact, if the results and the kind of interventions desired are university interventions, no college is going to receive a grant, because the way assessors evaluate applications will favour universities.
Therefore, when you design programs and want colleges to be part of them, you need to look at the contribution colleges can make and adapt the evaluation criteria and desired outcomes accordingly.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
In other words, if the specific mandates and objectives of the colleges end up in the blind spot of the people who design the programs, the colleges are excluded.
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Strategic Enterprises, Niagara College
That's sometimes the case, yes.
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Strategic Enterprises, Niagara College
Even though the letter officially states “and colleges”, that is useless. We're really out of luck.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
During the first hour of the meeting, university representatives told us that universities were competing with each other instead of working collaboratively, due to a lack of resources. Is this true of colleges also, or are things different in that universe?
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Strategic Enterprises, Niagara College
The colleges find themselves, in a way, in a situation that pits them against the rest of the world, so to speak. We help each other to try to put more water in the pool, so we can all have fun. There's a lot of collaboration between the colleges, partly because there's not enough money. I don't really want to put it like that, but we'd collaborate more if there was more money. Two universities are part of the SONAMI network, and we collaborate with them. The colleges are much more collaborative.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
Thank you to the clerk for including colleges among our witnesses here this morning. It's tremendous to hear about the work going on at Aurora and the real challenges they face with keeping research alive not only in the institution but also outside of the institution, which they're working on.
Mr. Nantel, you were talking about working with industry. I graduated from Red River College Polytechnic in mechanical engineering technology. My co-op job back in 1979 had to do with a local blinds manufacturer. I used that co-op experience over my 30 years of experience in the field. I kept using that experience over and over. Thank you for the partnerships you have with our local businesses.
Thank you both, Dr. Nantel and Pippa Seccombe-Hett, for being with us this morning and giving us your insights on colleges and post-secondary institution research funding. I had to cut you off a couple of times, but if there's any further information, please feel welcome to send it to the clerk.
To members of the committee, I have a heads-up. The indigenous knowledge study is going through translation right now. We should see version 1 of the report in early May, so we can take a look at it.
Thank you to the analysts for all of your hard work on that report. I'm looking forward to reading it. Those testimonies were incredible.
Let's get on with our day.
Is there a motion for adjournment? I see nods around the room.
(Motion agreed to)
Thank you.