Science and Research Committee on March 23rd, 2026

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON]

Last, on Friday night they're going to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of SONAMI, the Southern Ontario Network for Advanced Manufacturing Innovation. Niagara College is a lead on this. My colleague would like to know that McMaster University is the only university amongst the colleges that participate.

They do fabulous work in working with government, not only on the research side, but with FedDev, for example, from southern Ontario, to advance those projects that are critically important to local businesses. That's why I think that work from the college level and that applied research are so valuable, and we don't take advantage of that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

We will end this panel with MP Rana for three and a half minutes.

Please go ahead.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Dr. Chan, are you a mechanical engineer?

[Timothy Chan]

On the industrial side, but yes, in the same department.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I don't see your ring.

[Timothy Chan]

My undergraduate training is in math.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Your research background is in operations research and optimization. You think about how to make systems work better. If you were advising this committee on designing an accountability framework for federal research funding, what would you change about how the system measures whether public money is producing results?

[Timothy Chan]

It's a very good question. It's a difficult question. I don't know that I can come up with a model on the spot. I would reiterate that such a system needs to maintain the fundamental strengths that the current ecosystem has now and then build on them. For example, there is the strength of our peer review system, which has independent researchers reviewing other people's work, where they have no conflict of interest and assess it based on the merits of research. I think that has to be an important aspect of it, making sure that the funding is used responsibly and the ethics protocols are in place. All of that has to be done responsibly.

I think we have all of the ingredients in our current ecosystem right now. We need the will to move towards a framework that will govern this type of mission-driven research.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Ms. Morin, do you think current accountability structures see college-based research and university-based research as being on a level playing field?

[Karine Morin]

I'm sorry. I didn't understand the question.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Do current accountability structures treat college-based research and university-based research as being at the same level, or is the system tilted in favour of one over the other one?

[Karine Morin]

Certainly, in terms of funding, more goes through universities than through colleges. That would be accurate, yes.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

You have several positions across the science and research landscape. Drawing on that experience, where do you see the biggest inconsistencies in how the three granting agencies handle governance and reporting? Would the capstone organization fix any of that?

[Karine Morin]

I would not consider that there are significant inconsistencies. However, in having each of the councils operate legislatively in their own respective areas and in response to their respective communities, there are probably some economies of scale, if I could use that term, that aren't being realized. They could be realized through a capstone that would bring together some areas of work towards evaluations and other science policy areas where, right now, the work is more fragmented than I believe it needs to be. It would benefit from being better coordinated and aggregated together. The greater sum of the parts through a capstone would likely be the beneficial outcome.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

With this, the panel comes to an end.

On behalf of all the members of this committee, I would like to thank our three witnesses for appearing before the committee.

Is it the will of the committee to adjourn the meeting?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

The meeting is adjourned.