Evidence of meeting #87 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 north.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would also like to welcome our witnesses, who are joining us on Zoom.
When thinking about research ethics, how are universities, ethics boards and funding distributors ensuring that research in the Arctic is conducted in a manner respectful of local communities' rights and priorities?
Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo, Polytechnique Montréal and CSMC, As an Individual
Are you asking me?
Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo, Polytechnique Montréal and CSMC, As an Individual
You've hit on a very important point.
Whenever there is an indigenous group of people in the Arctic or south of the Arctic, universities are required to go through an ethics board. Many of the ethics boards, with the new spreading of indigenous research in all universities, have decided not to take on these issues up front. There is a major lack of these types of boards. I'm the chair of the First Nations University of Canada. We're trying to solve that problem. Most of the universities cannot get the ethics board they need to make decisions. Still, the research needs to be done, so we're in a bit of a conflict.
Each of the communities in the north provides its own accord for some of the research. That does the trick presently, but it's still not at the level of a research ethics board. That is the problem.
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
On that point, what would your suggestions be to improve that?
Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo, Polytechnique Montréal and CSMC, As an Individual
At universities and colleges that are more involved with first nations, like the First Nations University of Canada, we could create a research ethics board that would allow people from different universities to present their projects in order to assess their impact on the people in the north and first nations inhabitants. We need those.
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
Recently, we completed a study on the integration of indigenous traditional knowledge and science in government policy development. This was an important component of the motion to discuss how Arctic science and research are meaningfully conducted with local indigenous communities.
Do you think this contributes to your work, and are there any—
Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo, Polytechnique Montréal and CSMC, As an Individual
Yes, definitely.
Again, I was the chair of CHARS and I'm still the chair of ARI and research centres in different universities. First nations are force multipliers for research. That term comes from the military, but it's still very valid. It helps us find things faster, because they know where the samples need to be taken.
We created a program at the Arctic College to educate people in the north to become environmental technicians. That's a program that does very well. We did this because we needed to get more personnel from the north into CHARS, the Canadian High Arctic Research Station. We were the last one to get those people. They were stolen by the people in the mining industry.
The key example of integrating ITK, which is indigenous traditional knowledge, into research has been demonstrated and proven to be very effective many times. For example, let's take a simple project. We needed to find the Franklin ships. That was an important item for national sovereignty. It has an interesting historical nature, but it was very important to find those as a demonstration that Canada has had a presence in the north for a long time. The armed forces were expected to find these people. They couldn't find these people. We went to ask an Inuit historian and he said—
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
I apologize for cutting you off. It's because of time.
What do you think is still required of the Government of Canada to implement the Arctic and northern policy framework? What are the missing links?
Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo, Polytechnique Montréal and CSMC, As an Individual
We have found a way to sign another agreement with ITK, which is the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the political arm of the Inuit in the south. There has been quite a bit of work on integrating ITK inside or internally with research. It's been demonstrated to be extremely effective when used correctly.
There's a relationship that needs to take place between ITK and the research centre or the research authorization.... I'm sorry. I'm forgetting the word.
Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo, Polytechnique Montréal and CSMC, As an Individual
I can't remember the name. I'm so old that sometimes I forget my own feet.
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
That's okay. Once you remember, you can also submit that.
I don't know if I still have time, Madam Chair.
Liberal
Arielle Kayabaga Liberal London West, ON
With my 17 seconds, let me just thank you for answering my questions.
Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo, Polytechnique Montréal and CSMC, As an Individual
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Valerie Bradford
Thank you very much.
We will now turn to MP Blanchette-Joncas for six minutes.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.
Good morning to the witnesses who are with us today.
Mr. Boudreault, in your statement, you mentioned some pretty telling facts, including that warming is occurring more rapidly in the north. We also have information from the federal government that global warming is happening three times faster in the north—
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Valerie Bradford
I can hear it softly. It does have to be cranked quite loud, it seems.
We will continue.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Boudreault, I was saying that global warming is happening three times faster in the north.
I'd like us to go back to basics. What causes global warming? From what I understand, it comes from greenhouse gas emissions linked to human activities. In 2021, a federal government report told us that in Canada, 28% of greenhouse gas emissions came mainly from the oil and gas sector.
So, Mr. Boudreault, my question is simple: Does increasing oil and gas production increase greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate global warming, and even more so in the north?
