Science and Research Committee on April 11th, 2024

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

Costs are higher in the north. There are a number of programs to offset research costs that are more available to universities than to colleges. There is a northern supplement that is not available to us within the college system that NSERC gives. There are other programs to offset—

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

What about the facility? You talked earlier in questions about how you use oil and some diesel for electricity. There is a limited amount of natural gas.

This is another place where Liberal policies have hurt your ability to do research in the north at your college. If we had a natural gas pipeline, you would probably use more natural gas than oil, but because of the Liberal Bill C-69, the “no pipelines act”, no new pipelines got produced to get clean natural gas up to your facilities.

Would you say that has negatively impacted your ability to lower emissions, because you're still using oil?

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

The emissions are higher with oil, certainly. Inuvik has a slightly more complicated scenario. We were on gas. The gas ran out and now we're back on oil.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

If the new Conservative government removed Bill C-69 and we could get new pipelines built in Canada again, a natural gas pipeline to your community would lower your emissions. There are other technologies, like solar and whatnot, to lower emissions and ensure milk doesn't cost $25 a jug. Would that be fair?

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

Some of our communities sit on large natural gas reserves that could be developed. I don't feel comfortable commenting on the pipeline impact, just because many of our communities are so remote.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lloyd Longfield]

We're at time now.

Thank you for answering the best you could on some of those questions.

We'll go now to Arielle Kayabaga for five minutes, please.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I welcome our second round of witnesses.

Could you share how much funding you receive from the federal government compared to other provinces?

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

Do you mean how much research funding?

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Yes.

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

I cannot give you that number at the moment. I would have to follow up and provide it after.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Maybe you could talk about the areas where funding would be more beneficial for your institution.

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

Funding to our institution for research helps contribute to increased research administration services, which help us pursue funding through the competitive processes. The one we focus on largely is the NSERC college and community innovation program. Helping us have the core services that enable us to properly support our researchers to pursue funds to support their areas of expertise and collaboration with communities and industry would be key.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

I know that you conduct research projects in several areas. These includes health, energy, environment, food and agriculture.

I think anyone on the panel can answer this question.

Earlier, one of the witnesses talked about indigenous funding. I asked a question about minority funding, whether it's for indigenous communities, francophones or others who have a minority language. What's your approach to securing funding for minority groups that are within your institutions? Are there any, actually? I'm curious to know if you even have any.

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

At Aurora College, the population we serve is a majority indigenous population in the Northwest Territories. Then it's composed of a diversity of Canadians.

We do work with our indigenous partners to secure funds for research programs that align with their interests. I believe the tri-agencies have had some targeted streams specific to indigenous communities. That is identified in the strengthening indigenous research capacity strategy they're working on with an indigenous advisory committee.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Is there any linguistic funding for communities that may be minorities based on language, like francophones, for example?

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

The Northwest Territories has 11 official languages. They are French, English and then nine indigenous languages. The funding for indigenous languages is a critical and important issue within our territory. The leads on that are the indigenous organizations themselves.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

What are the challenges you're facing in securing funding for those specific language researchers?

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

We currently are not conducting any language research. That work is led by indigenous governments and organizations. I believe—

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Would it be beneficial if there was research for language and for people who are in linguistic minority groups?

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

Certainly, I believe there is a need and demand for that coming from the indigenous communities and governments.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Mr. Nantel, would you like to comment?

[Dr. Marc Nantel]

Indeed, one of our main funders is FedDev Ontario, which is a regional development agency. It is very strong in making sure that some of the projects we choose to conduct are about clean transition and are as diverse as possible in the people who start or run companies.

We certainly keep stats. As we talk with potential industry partners, the leads that come in and the projects we do, it's about diversity: Is the company women-owned? Is the company run by an under-represented minority?

At SONAMI, we have signed MOUs with the Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce, the 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce and the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce to make sure that our services are known to the businesses that assemble under these chambers of commerce so we can help them better. We're trying to go as far as we can to bring them into our area of service.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lloyd Longfield]

Terrific. Thank you very much for that comprehensive answer.

Monsieur Blanchette-Joncas, you have two and a half minutes.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Nantel, you talked about the importance of your organization in terms of research. I'd like to hear more about the geographical aspect. We know that most colleges and CEGEPs are close to the population. According to the data we have, 95% of the population is close to a college. So people living in rural areas also have access to these educational establishments.

I'd like to hear more from you about the role you can play and the greater recognition you could get so that there's greater equity in funding. This would enable you to meet a great need and serve a large part of the population.

[Dr. Marc Nantel]

Yes, 95% of Canada's population is within 50 kilometres of a college, as is 86% of the indigenous population. So we're everywhere. Plus, the fact that we work mostly with local companies helps us improve local economic conditions.

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, Niagara College focuses on industry sectors that are important to its region, such as manufacturing, food, beverages, environment and horticulture, among others. Every college in Canada tends to do this.

You have to know that applied research with local businesses or non-profits is a contact sport, as they say. You really have to be ready. People have to come and try the new product we've designed with them, whether it's a new recipe or a new drink. They have to come and test the prototype we've just made for them. Often, when they adopt the technology, we'll help them install it in their factory. So proximity is very useful.

We get more convincing and effective results when we can keep a role in the company's future. Generally speaking, when we hand over the intellectual property of a product to a company, they want to know whether they should protect it, or how to market the product. We can help companies to do this, since we're usually quite close to them geographically, and thus guide them further in their economic development. Proximity changes everything.

Of course, companies across Canada can benefit from grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, but the more local FedDev Ontario grants, for example, target a certain region of Ontario. Generally, that's closer.