Science and Research Committee on May 9th, 2024

[Dr. Jackie Dawson]

I'm not a paleoclimatologist, so I look more into the future than the past, but certainly all of us understand the ice age and the changing conditions we've seen. We had ice times and non-ice times—we all know that. The difference now is how rapidly it's happening, not that it's happening.

It doesn't surprise any of us scientists that we are seeing a warming period. We've seen cooling periods, but the timeline that it's happening in is way faster than we've ever seen before. There are certain periods.... The last ice area has been here for over two million years, and we expect that to be gone within the next 20 or so.

I'm not sure that I answered your question, but I'm not a paleoclimatologist either.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

From your experience up there, people were studying this years ago and will do so all the way through to continue to learn what's going on.

[Dr. Jackie Dawson]

Yes, absolutely. People take ice cores, for example, and the ice cores help us to understand. Konrad Gajewski and Dorthe Dahl-Jensen are two people who would have a very good understanding of this.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

I think all Canadians feel it's their responsibility to do their best and to be mindful of what they're doing and their contributions, be they personal, commercial or industrial. However, if we're taking an honest look at the Arctic region and some of the Russian businesses, they're emitting almost all of the emissions up there. We can do our part, yes, but if Russia is contributing almost all of the emissions, what do we do? Really, is our job just to study the continued impacts of Russian pollution and its impacts on the Canadian side of the Arctic? Is that really what our role is going to be?

[Dr. Jackie Dawson]

No, and I think you're right in the sense that the pollution coming from the Arctic is coming from Russia. That's really reflective of the fact that something like 72% of the circumpolar GDP comes from Russia. Our contribution to circumpolar Arctic GDP is about 2.8% or 3%.

We're completely underdeveloped and they're pushing development. From my perspective, it's actually not the Arctic that's the problem. It's other places around the world where we have to focus on mitigation efforts. Even Russia is emitting limited greenhouse gases per population compared to other countries.

I hope we can make some strides at the UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. We all have to come together. Also, I think we need to make money on an energy transition. That's how we have to get people to buy in.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Maybe I should know this, but approximately how many Canadians are currently doing research in the Arctic and contributing to that research? Is it hundreds? Is it—

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

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

MP Blanchette-Joncas has a point of order.

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

I've been told that the interpretation services are no longer working for people remotely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Okay. We need to add a little more time and go back a bit.

How long were you missing interpretation?

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

It's not for me, Madam Chair, but for the people who are listening to us remotely. They need interpretation services in both official languages.

Can we do a test? It seems to have come back.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Do you have interpretation now? Is it working? Can everyone hear in both languages?

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

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Okay, good.

MP Lobb, do you want to ask that last question again? I'll give you a bit more time so the interpreters can get it.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

This was my question. How many Canadians are working directly or indirectly on Arctic research currently?

[Dr. Jackie Dawson]

The answer is that I just don't know. It's a problem, actually, that we don't know. We need to know. We don't have an inventory of the projects and programs. We can put that together, but it hasn't been done yet.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

I appreciate that answer, because we're talking about an Arctic research science strategy. That's great.

Like Mr. Arya, at almost every meeting I've been at since I've been on this committee, somebody has said, “Give me some more money.” In this case, if you had a strategy, you would be able to pool it all together and say, “This is waste, this is good, this is duplication and this is triplication” and do it. That should be a highlight in the report, I would think.

[Dr. Jackie Dawson]

Absolutely.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

How's my time doing, Madam Chair? Do I have five minutes left?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

No. Actually, you're down to a matter of seconds.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Okay, I'll cede my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you, Mr. Lobb.

That takes us over to MP Longfield for five minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for your testimony.

I want to go to Dr. Barnard. We've had people mention ArcticNet, but we haven't heard from you directly at this meeting. I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us.

When I look at how Canada participates in Arctic research with other groups in the world, when collaboration is happening, it seems like there is a gap that ArcticNet is helping to bridge. Could you talk to us about how ArcticNet is working to try to bridge science research in Canada and, through your working groups, how you're contributing to some of the research outside of Canada?

[Dr. Christine Barnard]

Thank you.

ArcticNet is one of the primary convenors of Arctic research across Canada, and I would even say across the world, because we can bring multidisciplinary researchers together through working groups, committees and science meetings. One of the core criteria funded through ArcticNet is having teams composed of researchers from different institutions to train HQP—highly qualified personnel—from different institutions. That automatically brings people together from different disciplines and institutions, thereby increasing the aspects of collaboration and contribution.

With our working groups and committees, we make sure to bring people from all northern regions and our research management committees to make sure there is an information exchange from the different regions that are brought to these committees. I think it is absolutely critical that we recognize the heterogeneity of our northern landscapes and peoples and we hear their voices on our committees and working groups.

We have this power of convening because we're not stuck in a federal department or agency or in the private sector. When we were building our application for the strategic science fund, we wanted to hear from everyone about what the science priorities were in Canada and internationally. We brought together over 300 people to discuss priorities in Arctic science. People from government sectors were telling us that it was the first time they were actually working with other public servants on this issue. They're Arctic researchers, but they don't have a place to come together.

I think ArcticNet really has a convening power, if you will, to bring people together across sectors, because we fund researchers from universities, indigenous organizations, Inuit organizations and the private sector. I think that's a big strength of ArcticNet.