Science and Research Committee on May 28th, 2024

[Ted Hewitt]

The most important thing to remember is that we are funders of research that is developed almost exclusively by the individuals who are doing the research.

Big projects like that are themselves well coordinated. They've been put together, in some cases, over years. They've applied for funding either from us at SSHRC or through tri-agency mechanisms like the Canada first research excellence fund, and then they're adjudicated again by peer review. This is a way we help ensure there isn't overlap and that projects are undertaking the research they're intended to do.

We've also started to work more internationally on projects that will meet or speak to international priorities, which is the case with the competition I mentioned earlier. It's being organized by NordForsk, which is the representative body of the research funding councils of the Nordic countries. Canada will be joining that, as we were invited to do. There will be specific questions and objectives, as I recall, from the NordForsk initiative that countries will be looking to put forward. We can provide you with some more information on that.

Our role is primarily as a funder of projects developed by the researchers themselves and, more and more, by researchers in northern communities, which is our objective overall. That's how we work as a funder.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Are there models or buckets of funding set aside for collaborative projects?

I used to be involved with projects that had researchers from a number of universities working together on a project that was funded by NSERC or whatever, all of them focusing on the same big question but coming at it from different angles. Does SSHRC have models for that kind of funding? Does that happen in the Arctic?

[Ted Hewitt]

We do indeed, and projects have been funded in the Arctic. I'm going to pass the mic to my colleague Sylvie Lamoureux, who can talk a bit about our partnership program and how that works.

[Sylvie Lamoureux, Vice-President, Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council]

Thank you very much.

There are the SSHRC-specific programs and also the programs through the TIPS, the tri-agency institutional programs. Some of these are quite large.

As an example, in 2022 the Canada first research excellence fund awarded the Qanittaq clean Arctic shipping initiative over $91 million. It is a partnership between Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Ottawa, but there's a host of other partners, so it's a very large, unique partnership. The Inuit Circumpolar Council was part of the co-development of that. That's, I think, a shift that we've seen in the past 10 or15 years, with co-development of applications, co-construction of knowledge and co-publication. All of that is happening much closer together. That's one example.

In ArcticNet, we have nine SSHRC-funded Canada research chairs whose work is on the north. There are three NSERC-funded CERCs—Canada excellence research chairs—and Canada 150 research chairs. In the partnership in insight grants, we have some projects in French, which are on intercultural mediation and ontological conflicts in justice in Nunavik. There's also a scoping and “storying“ project on food governance in Inuit Nunangat. There's a whole range of topics.

If you'd like, we can send you more information on these particular projects, on which ones are partnerships and the types of partners that are there.

I would just like to add with regard to NordForsk that when it seemed that we would be invited to join—because we had to be invited to join—the first thing the team did was reach out to ITK. This project is being led by a foreign organization, but we really want to work within our zone of control, to make sure to bring in ITK as quickly as possible and to see how we could influence the call that was eventually launched for this funding opportunity but, really, to work closely together. That's very important as well, because the relationship with indigenous partners is not necessarily the same when we work with some of our international partners, so I think it's an important role that the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

That's our time. Thank you so much.

We now turn to MP Tochor for five minutes with our second round.

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

Thank you very much.

Thank you to our witnesses for being here today.

Ms. Barker, you were talking about the different costs associated with research in the north, and we understand how cold it is in the north and the costs associated with keeping everyone safe and warm. You were cut off a bit when you were talking about those costs. Can you expand on those, the challenges of doing research in the north?

[Anne Barker]

Certainly.

For the research that the National Research Council has carried out in the north, we need to be mindful of the costs associated with doing things in the right way with our indigenous and northern partners. That could be costs to ensure that corporations, for example, have adequate data storage for large amounts of data that may be collected through fieldwork or observation studies.

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

Wouldn't that be the same in the south? What are the associated different costs in the north? We should be, as we know, consulting on all developments anywhere in Canada, so that's not the difference in the north. What are some of the other costs, though, that drive up the research?

[Anne Barker]

Some of those costs could be, for example, in community consultations. Those could include honoraria for working with elders in communities and bringing communities together to help decide on research priorities and how to advance those. Even just intercity or inter-hamlet travel costs themselves are phenomenally more than for the same type of research in the south.

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

For people in the north, what's life like right now with the cost of living?

[Anne Barker]

Pardon me?

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

What's the cost of living in the north right now? Is it up, flattened out...?

[Anne Barker]

I can't answer that question. I'm sorry.

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

That's why I think we need to do more research in the north, to understand what's going on. For how many years has the NRC been trying to find solutions for climate change, or for how many decades has NRC been working on climate change?

[Dr. Shannon Quinn]

I can't give you an exact number, but it is decades and decades. Of course, there are many aspects to this, and we look at very applied—

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

I'm going to run out of time shortly.

You've been working for decades and decades on climate change. What are some of the solutions? What are the top two solutions that this research has come up with to mitigate or stop climate change?

[Anne Barker]

There are a variety of things we've been looking at, including climate-resilient infrastructure and making sure that engineers and designers have the right data to have a better design life for buildings across Canada, not just in the north.

Again, we've been looking at tools and technologies to support northern communities so that they have better homes, and homes that are better able to withstand changing climatic conditions.

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

Roughly, how many of these new homes that the NRC has researched or put dollars into to find better designs have been built?

[Anne Barker]

You'd need to talk to all the housing corporations across the north, because they are responsible at a territorial level or an Inuit regional level for those constructions.

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

Is there also a housing crisis in the north right now?

[Anne Barker]

My understanding is yes.

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

It's terrible across Canada.

Earlier on, Ms. Quinn, you commented on all the impactful contributions this research has had in the north. Can you give us the top two research things that have changed people's lives in the north because of the funding through the NRC?

[Dr. Shannon Quinn]

I'm going to turn to Dr. Barker.

[Anne Barker]

Some of the more impactful research has been looking at things like heat recovery ventilators in homes, recognizing that in a southern landscape, these systems are certified, for example, to perform for so many days at -5°C. That's inadequate for the north, so we've been working very closely with manufacturers to install heat recovery ventilators in a northern context that will perform under the conditions that can be expected in that climate.

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

Have any actual solutions been brought to the market? Perhaps some of the things you recommended or discovered in the research have impacted lives.