Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for giving me a few minutes to talk to you about the challenges facing the people of Canada's north in terms of science and research.
My name is Normand Voyer. I'm a chemist and a full professor at Université Laval. My specialty is the chemistry of natural products in Canada's far north. Today I represent the Centre for Northern Studies, or CNS, which was founded in 1961. Based at Université Laval, the CNS is part of a strategic research network together with other Quebec universities.
The Centre for Northern Studies is an interdisciplinary group of 61 research teams. It has more than 500 researchers. We have a network of seven research stations in Nunavik, in addition to two other research stations in Nunavut. We operate a network of unique environmental measurement stations from James Bay to Ellesmere Island.
We and members of northern communities are therefore privileged witnesses to the significant impacts of climate change. As has been said a number of times, the far north is the fastest-warming and most warming place on the planet. This is due to a phenomenon called Arctic amplification. I won't go through the effects of climate change, but for a comprehensive view of climate change in the Arctic, I recommend that you read the excellent review paper by my colleague, Professor Warwick Vincent, which I have submitted to the committee.
Do the people of the Arctic and the north have the research infrastructure, tools and funding to participate in the research? The short answer is no. Our work and our interactions clearly show that the communities themselves are seriously lacking financial and human resources and instruments. As a result, they are unable to conceive and carry out research projects that immediately address their concerns and allow them to train their future generations to actively participate in research.
For example, they have no laboratories equipped with the necessary instruments to validate water safety and the safety of medicinal plants. The same is true for labs and instruments to measure emerging pollutants, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and microplastics in the Arctic.
Moreover, many projects of interest to the communities require very fine environmental data at the local level. This strategic data is vital for monitoring environmental change and making decisions. This data exists virtually everywhere, but one of the issues is that research stations and environmental measures are aging and require major investments to maintain and bring them up to standard. Unfortunately, no programs in Canada are specifically tailored to meet this type of need.
In addition, because funding sources are very limited, they do not allow indigenous and non-indigenous researchers to work closely together to analyze and put the data into perspective.
There isn't enough cooperation with local and indigenous communities on Arctic science and research.
There are some great examples, such as the Kangiqsualujjuaq Inuit Imalirijit project in Nunavik, carried out in conjunction with scientists who came to communities to study pollution in the George River, which is essential to traditional activities. We also have a joint initiative with the Cree and Inuit communities of Whapmagoustui-Kuujjuarapik to characterize the natural substances in Labrador tea, a widely used medicinal plant in those northern communities.
However, there are very few examples because joint projects with northerners come with enormous challenges due to distance, transportation costs, limited access to the Internet, as well as a lack of human resources and spaces to build collaborative partnerships. We scientists lack the resources to build partnerships on the ground with the communities because northern logistical initiatives like the polar continental shelf program are underfunded, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, or NSERC, also provides limited funding.
Building collaborative research partnerships with the communities is the only way to develop significant projects that truly meet their needs. They must be given the means to do so. We must give ourselves the means to do so.
Thank you.