Science and Research Committee on June 11th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Oh, I'm sorry.

Mr. Cannings, you have two and a half minutes. I'm sorry.

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

Thank you.

Mr. Obed, I wanted to bring up the subject of traditional knowledge, the Inuit way of knowing. Is one of the barriers you're facing having southern research funders or people who are setting priorities actually using traditional knowledge along with science, or western science, whatever you want to call it, or, on its own, are you facing that barrier in Inuit research priorities?

[Natan Obed]

Yes. I think that's an ongoing issue. It's been individualized. A lot of professors or a lot of researchers will kind of define for themselves what incorporation of traditional knowledge means and the place Inuit knowledge has within existing research. Often in the academic community there'll be a split between those who say they're scientists and those who are researchers. I think people who say they're doing work purely for science often don't see Inuit knowledge as being part of that statement.

I think it is a generational thing. I think it'll be really difficult for us for a long time for our knowledge to be fully respected. That's one of the reasons we're creating an Inuit Nunangat university. In the next five years, hopefully, we'll be able to open the doors. The more we can have a footprint within especially the post-secondary and academic world, and have researchers coming out of that system as well, we will gain a greater foothold in the ability to be peers in the academic and research communities moving forward.

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

I have another quick, big question. It's about data, namely, access to data and control over data. Is that an ongoing issue within research?

[Natan Obed]

Absolutely. We have a lot of data messes that we still have to clean up, where, historically, some of the terms and conditions that were on research projects involving Inuit didn't have time limits on the ability to house data in southern institutions.

Then one of our biggest challenges within partnerships with universities is data and the inability for universities to have separate consideration for self-determining first nations, Inuit and Métis, when they have a particular definition of what's permissible for research partnerships, and the terms and conditions for everyone else.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you.

That's a little bit extra, but anyway. We were trying to decide what we're doing next. We've decided to do another two and a half minutes for the Conservatives and Liberals, and then that will be it for this panel. Okay?

Mr. Tochor, you can go ahead for two and a half minutes, please.

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

Yes, I just have a general question about success stories. We've done a fair bit of research in the north. What are any adaptation or mitigation strategies that have come out of actual research done in the north that are held up as examples of what we should be championing in our research?

[Natan Obed]

There are a number of different successful research projects. Again, in the social field, I would say there are a number of different public health research projects—on suicide prevention, mental health, and food security—that have really given us a great insight into how either to better adapt public policy or to apply new best practices to systemic problems in the Arctic.

As far as the environment and physical research are concerned, there are ways in which we can understand a changing Arctic better, and I think SmartICE is a great example of that, where it just gives people more information to navigate in a more difficult, changing Arctic.

I think some of the work we've done—which I'll have to get back to you about—on infrastructure would also be held up as an example.

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

Thank you again for appearing today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you.

Now we'll turn to MP Longfield for two and a half minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Chair. I'm really pleased to have a few minutes to ask questions of President Obed.

It's so good to have you back at the committee. Per Dr. Jaczek's experience, you spoke to us at the agriculture committee several years ago and your comments are still resonating with me. Thank you for taking the time to be with us.

You mentioned governance. That was something I've been struggling with in how we manage the governance of research projects. The governance that we are applying, as you said, is Ottawa up. It's south-north versus north-north, and then we participate. Is there a model of governance between communities in the north or within communities of the north that we should be paying attention to and maybe working within that framework of governance versus a framework that we're bringing from the south?

[Natan Obed]

I spoke a little bit earlier about the complexity and the way that we are all carved up in our geopolitical space now as Inuit, which has created four separate research approaches—and all within, I would say, from an Inuit lens of a very similar look and feel, but very particular to the jurisdiction in which Inuit reside.

There are best practices that we can use, but each one of our governance models lives mostly with provinces and territories as their partners, and research structures within those jurisdictions, rather than research partnerships across Inuit Nunangat from north to north.

We do come together through ITK and have our research management, an Inuit Qaujisarvingat National Committee. That's the committee that guides Carrie and her work, and then guides our board of directors on the decisions they make on the research space, but that is, I would say, an Inuit democratic function at the senior technical level, which is, I think, a best practice but one that has limited application to your question.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Can you share that back with us, as part of our recommendations to look at ITK and the role it could play in helping us with the governance of research? I think that would be very helpful for our study.

[Natan Obed]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you. That was important to bring out.

Thank you, President Obed and Director Grable, for joining us today. We really appreciate your testimony.

We're going to now suspend while we get ready for our next panel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Welcome back, everyone.

I'd like to make a few comments for the benefit of our new witnesses.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mic and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

For interpretation for those on Zoom, you have a choice at the bottom of your screen of floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel.

It's now my pleasure to welcome from Aurora College, Pippa Seccombe-Hett, vice-president of research, who's here by video conference. From SmartICE, we have Dr. Katherine Wilson, director of knowledge co-production.

Up to five minutes will be given for opening remarks, after which we will proceed with rounds of questions.

Ms. Seccombe-Hett, I invite you to make an opening statement of up to five minutes.

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett, Vice-President, Research, Aurora College]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak with the committee today and present some perspectives from a northern educational institution. I work for Aurora College, the public community college of the Northwest Territories, and we thank you for including our perspectives in these discussions.

As you have been hearing through these sessions, the north has always generated a tremendous amount of research interest, and it continues to attract increasing research attention, particularly with the significant changes resulting from climate change and the disproportionately high impacts on northern and Arctic ecosystems and people. However, historically, northern residents have not been resourced to lead the science and research in the region, with the majority of this work in the Northwest Territories being led by researchers located outside of the region, typically positioned in federal government departments and universities across southern Canada. National research funds for science and infrastructure are mainly accessible to university researchers and federal government scientists. Without a university in the Northwest Territories to anchor these funds, northern communities and organizations have been largely excluded, creating a sense of inequity.

When I first began working in the Northwest Territories 25 years ago, much time was spent advocating for northern research priorities since funds were inaccessible to residents of the territory and this prevented the region from establishing and maintaining research capacity in the north.

Although much Northwest Territories research has made significant contributions to science and is valuable nationally, regionally and internationally, there remains a disconnect between the large-scale Arctic science and regional research concerns and priorities. Times have certainly changed while I've been working in the NWT, and there are many new national and regional initiatives to empower and strengthen both indigenous and northern research leadership and capacity building. However, this gap in research leadership and access to resources persists in the Northwest Territories.

As the public college of the Northwest Territories, Aurora College has research staff on all of its campuses, and it maintained minimal in-house research capacity until the last decade, when the institution became eligible to access tri-agency funds. Since then, the research capacity has really started to grow and realize the opportunity to develop applied, community-partnered research programs that benefit northern communities and focus on Northwest Territories questions.

We have also been able to anchor access to research funds for our indigenous and regional partners and to increase collaborative engagements with universities, allowing the region to access new funds, mentorships and partnerships.

Aurora College is currently transforming into a polytechnic university, and part of this vision is to expand on this applied-research focus. Access to the national research funds has positioned the college in a meaningful role for the region and has opened new funding opportunities to support and expand northern research and research leadership.

From an infrastructure perspective, Aurora College operates the Western Arctic Research Centre, which is a purpose-built research centre in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. This facility is the logistics hub for research across the western Arctic. It serves the community, the college and the external research community, which includes over 300 regional, national and international researchers annually.

However, there is no other research infrastructure like this at the college or in the territory, and there's a desperate need for a similar shared research infrastructure to support research activities across the southern and central Northwest Territories, most notably at the Yellowknife campus. The absence of infrastructure of this type presents a barrier to research programs and research partnership development for the college and the northern research community beyond the college.

In terms of collaboration, the Northwest Territories does have a research licensing process to review, track and monitor regional research activity. This process is intended to mitigate the risk of harm from research and to promote best practices and communication between researchers and northern residents. Unfortunately, the act is antiquated and insufficient to ensure that researchers engage with northern and indigenous residents to develop meaningful collaborations and research relationships.

More robust mechanisms are required to ensure that northern people are appropriately engaged in ways that lead to meaningful research collaborations, that generate community benefits, that appropriately share knowledge, that respect indigenous self-determination in research and that build northern research capacity.

In saying that, we are seeing increasing examples of opportunities to empower northern research leadership through northern reviews of research, engagement of advisory boards, meaningful investment in capacity development and strong, demonstrated research collaborations. Still, there remains significant room for improvement to grow northern research capacity meaningfully.

I thank you for allowing me to speak with you today, and I welcome all questions to help support the work of the standing committee.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you, and we look forward to your testimony.

Now we will turn to Katherine Wilson, a director at SmartICE.

I understand that you will also be reading, perhaps, a message from Andrew Arreak, whose headset did not come through for us.

[Dr. Katherine Wilson, Director of Knowledge Co-Production, SmartICE]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Arreak sent a message to say he's sorry he couldn't present today, but he's given me his blessing to read his testimony on his behalf, as follows.

Qujannamiik. Thank you for inviting me and asking me to speak with you today. My name is Andrew Arreak and I live in Pond Inlet. I am the Nunavut SmartICE operations lead for the Qikiqtaaluk north region.

Climate change is affecting our ice conditions across the north. The ice is not only melting from the top from the heat of the sun, but from the bottom due to warm ocean currents. This is making some ice conditions unpredictable to travel on.

The ice is vital for northern people. We travel on it to go to our hunting grounds and camping sites, and even to travel to see family and other communities. It's part of our identity and it is who we are.

SmartICE is an indigenous-led social enterprise that supports communities in monitoring their own ice conditions and share this information with their community. SmartICE provides training, employment and ice safety information so that we can adapt to changing ice conditions and continue our way of life. We use the latest technology to monitor the ice thickness on the ice from above, using satellites, and utilizing our Inuit knowledge.

I'll be talking to you today about Arctic science and research from a community level, and I'd like to emphasize four important points.

The first is the need for Inuit in leadership positions. The second is the need for co-developed training. The third is the need for community-specific research spaces. The fourth is the need for ongoing funding.

I'll expand on each of these.

Each SmartICE community has a local committee, which decides where and when SmartICE operates.

My committee in Pond Inlet is called Sikumiut. The members are local people who grew up, live and travel on the ice. Some people may think I'm the only one making the decisions, but in fact, I'm following what Sikumiut decides. It's important to have local leadership, because their Inuit knowledge guides me in the different areas I should monitor by season. They also guide me in what information is most important to share and how to communicate using our local dialect and knowledge.

SmartICE provides various types of training programs. I was part of several teams that co-developed the training, because I know how Inuit like to learn.

All of our training is hands-on. It's done in communities, so we don't need to leave our families. We don't need to go south to get a western degree to do research. We also have programs so Inuit can become the next generation of instructors. I am now an instructor, which allows me to deliver this training in English or in my language of Inuktitut.

My second point is that training in communities needs to be co-developed. By working together, we can develop training that not only works for us, but also provides the jobs, skills and information that are needed in our communities. We have shown that the capacity and interest exist, and that we can do a lot of the research ourselves in our own communities.

Thirdly, we need community-specific research spaces. In my community of Pond Inlet, there is one research station and another one being built. None of these were built to meet community research needs. They meet the needs of seasonal researchers from the south, who only come up for two or three months in the summer, but I work and live in the community all year round. I was lucky to get an office in town, but I still lack the space to store and fix my equipment. Most of my Inuit colleagues don't have offices, and must work from home in crowded conditions, which is not a place where people can be very productive.

I've been with SmartICE since it started in 2015, and today, we operate in 36 communities across the Canadian north. SmartICE is still growing because we're providing services to northern communities that are not being provided by governments or universities.

Communities do not pay for our services. SmartICE submits proposals to various agencies and organizations to get funding. This takes up a lot of time, with no guarantees that we can keep operating each year. Therefore, my fourth point is to emphasize the need for northern organizations like SmartICE to have ongoing funding so that we can keep providing these important services to our communities.

In conclusion, northerners are very capable of doing science and research when we are given a chance, are part of the leadership and the training, and have the proper space and funding.

When you truly partner with communities in terms of science and research, you will get the community's support and all parties involved will benefit from the work.

Qujannamiik.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you so much, Dr. Wilson, and also to Andrew, in absentia.

We'll open the floor for questions. Be sure to indicate to whom your questions are directed.

We'll kick off our first round with MP Tochor for six minutes.

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

Thank you so much, Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses.

I'm going to start with SmartICE.

Ms. Wilson, the instruments that you guys use are very in intriguing.

I want to clarify, how does one connect to the Internet in the north right now, with all these sensors?

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

When the sensors are out on the ice, as soon as they come into town, they are Bluetoothed to the local Internet. The information is then immediately available at our head office, so it can then be presented up on a website.

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

It's a city or town that does have Internet—

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

It's once you're into the cell network in a community.

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

Of the components that go into the sensors, how many are.... Is the hardware mostly from China, I suspect?