Science and Research Committee on June 11th, 2026

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

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being with us this afternoon.

I'm going to begin with Dr. Nantel.

Thank you for always being available when the committee asks for presentations and testimony, as well as for your technical knowledge and expertise.

I want to follow up on the notion of the speed with which you say colleges can reply and provide that type of talent. At Niagara College and other colleges across Canada, what opportunities exist going forward to get more involved in dual-use technologies in Canada's defence industry? You mentioned you're now the only college so far to develop a three-year defence systems engineering technology program and then also a two-year defence systems engineering technician diploma program.

Can you explain that a little further?

[Marc Nantel]

Thank you, and through you, Madam Chair, Niagara College has a long-time program in photonics, which is how I got involved with the college. We found that our graduates would find most of their jobs in the defence industry because of the knowledge of sensors and the combination of mechanical, electronic and photonics. With the call to the country to do more on defence and dual use, we decided to pivot and serve these companies better, maybe with a more focused graduate.

We were able to turn this program around fairly quickly, in less than a year, to welcome these new students in the fall. It's being very well subscribed, I'm happy to say. This program will be very well connected with the research program at the Walker Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre to develop, with industry, new products that they can use in that supply chain for industry.

When I say at speed, it's because a lot of us are ready. We already have a bunch of innovation centres and research labs that do projects of all sorts of different durations, from a few weeks if it's tests, to maybe a year. We're not looking at generating years and years of articles or Ph.D.s.

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

The key to the college sector, I would suggest, is the immediate help that it provides SMEs that come to it for assistance with regard to research. You talked about L3Harris and Raytheon. We also have in our community Genaire. We've got De Havilland, as well as Airbus helicopters—in our community since 1984.

What work does Niagara College do with these organizations?

[Marc Nantel]

We've worked with these companies, of course, over many years. These are companies that manufacture aircraft, some of them fixed-wing, some of them with rotating wings, and a lot of what they do has very exacting precision requirements. In our Walker Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre at Niagara College, we have the reality-capture scanning devices and coordinate measurement machines that can help these companies figure out if they have the rig properly assembled and if the jig is the right one. The company says, “We designed it on a computer and then we built it, but we need to verify that it's the right one.”

There are also first-article inspections: They produce one piece and they want to know if it's the right one. We can do all of that for them, and we have been for many years.

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

That's fantastic.

Again, it's the notion of speed and the willingness of the organizations, because you're right there on the ground. In the testimony that we've had in several different hearings, I've always noticed the ability of colleges and CEGEPs to immediately translate those demands by businesses into results, as opposed to the long-term research that takes place at the universities.

We're spending over $10 billion on public research. Unfortunately, the college level gets only about 3% of the total funding that is made available by the federal government. For example, in this recent economic statement, the government committed $165 million over five years to the college and CEGEP level, but I believe you had asked for $485 million.

I wonder if both you and Mr. McDonald can comment on that.

[Marc Nantel]

Michael, do you want to take that?

[Michael McDonald]

That's an excellent question.

For what this moment particularly asks for, I think the core of it is that across the country, Canada continues to be a world leader in discovery and research, but we continue to have discussions, and this committee has had discussions on a regular basis, about the ability to capture that for economic gain in Canada and for direct returns on that.

The Canadian college applied research system has been built to do that and has continued to show results, as can be demonstrated by my colleague down the table, in delivering clear economic returns for SMEs in their localities.

As for your point and your question, 80% of the projects that a college undertakes are done in a year. This is based on the speed of business, and that's also why businesses continue to match a dollar of investment to a dollar of federal investment. We're extremely happy with the investments we received in the spring economic update, but with investments, this system can do more.

Specifically, in terms of this question today around ensuring that defence investments turn into benefits for both the Canadian Armed Forces and for the Canadian economy, we think we're well positioned to do that, and we would encourage government to explore that avenue.

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

Before I conclude, I want to say thank you, Mr. Nantel. I understand you're retiring at the end of the month. Niagara College is the number one research college in Canada, and I believe that's due to the leadership that you've shown over the last several years, as well as your willingness to appear before these federal committees with your testimony, your input and your advice, so I'll thank you for everything you've done. Don't be a stranger.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you, MP Baldinelli.

We will now proceed to MP Eyolfson for six minutes. Please go ahead.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank all the witnesses for coming.

The first question I have is for Dr. Quinn.

My background is in medicine, particularly emergency medicine. You mentioned some of the research that the NRC funds in biomedical sciences and biological threats. Could you expand on the type of research there and how that can be applicable to expansion into general medicine and civilian medicine?

[Shannon Quinn]

I'm happy to do so. Thank you for the question.

The NRC has research on two tracks, both of which I think are responsive to your question and useful in the defence and dual-use space.

On the one side, we are doing research on medical countermeasures. This is vaccines and other biologics. We have capabilities and facilities that allow us to do the research right from the lab scale, up through producing sufficient quantities for clinical trials and then moving into commercial-scale production, in which we own but don't operate the biologics manufacturing centre. That full end-to-end capability, we think, is going to help Canadian companies take some of these advances in biologics all the way through to seeing them in use in our Canadian Armed Forces, but equally in the civilian sector as well.

On the other side, we have programs in medical devices, which have both civilian and defence uses. In particular, when you think about rapid diagnosis by our Canadian Armed Forces, especially in remote locations, there's significant interest there. Of course, it has use in civilian applications throughout our north and other more remote locations.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Okay, thank you. This segues very nicely into my next question.

You mentioned development of this in remote northern areas. One thing I know about for military in remote northern areas is environmental injury, by which I mean injury because of either heat—depending on where they deploy—or the cold. I practise in Winnipeg. We have cold winters and hot summers. Is there any research on those particular injuries that you can see when having to operate in these remote, extreme environmental conditions?

[Shannon Quinn]

Well, maybe I would say there are some related activities. On the medical devices side, we have active research in how to train both troops and medical practitioners using virtual reality and other simulated environments that can help in preparing for some of these situations.

I would also say there's some prevention that's called for in these types of circumstances. We heard from some witnesses earlier who talked about the need for adequate clothing and other types of protections. On the civilian side, we have an Arctic and northern challenge program, in which all of the projects that we do are co-led by northerners and our Inuit partners. In that space, when it comes to being able to thrive in some of these harsh northern environments, we certainly have a lot to learn from our Inuit partners to benefit from their expertise in that area. That is an area we're working on with them to understand some of these protective clothing options that are coming out of their expertise.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you.

Further on devices, this is one of the problems I dealt with. I used to fly for our air ambulance service, and we used to fly to very remote northern areas. One of the challenges we had was in finding devices, like monitors and transport ventilators, that would continue to work in -35°C to -40°C. Is there research on medical devices that will operate when you're in these extreme environments?

[Shannon Quinn]

Yes, although they may be slightly different from what you're talking about. We try to keep our research focused so that we essentially take our research and see it all the way through to application in the field. In the area of medical devices, one of our areas of strength and expertise is microfluidics, looking at rapid diagnosis in the north and elsewhere. In those circumstances, we are working to make sure that those devices ultimately work in the environments in which they're intended to be used, including in the north.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

The time is up.

Now we will proceed with MP Blanchette-Joncas for six minutes.

Please go ahead.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I would like to welcome the witnesses who are with us today for this second hour of our meeting.

Mr. McDonald, I would like to return to a rather important issue that Colleges and Institutes Canada has raised on several occasions. These were the cuts made in the latest budget to the College and Community Innovation Program. I understand that the government has finally woken up, realized its mistake and reinjected funds in its economic update. However, there is still a shortfall of approximately $5 million.

And that's not even counting the small percentage of Canada's total research investment that your members already get, if I'm not mistaken. What's the exact percentage?

[Michael McDonald]

I'm sorry; could you repeat that?

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

How much do you get? Is it approximately 3%?

[Michael McDonald]

Yes, it's about 3%. It depends on the year. It varies between 2.8% and 3%.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Okay. So, you're getting 3% of the total budget. They wanted to cut your budget by about $40 million, but ultimately they reversed course. There is progress but not much. At least we are not going backwards. That said, I still think we are going backwards, since the budget was, in fact, cut by $5 million.

I'd now like to return to the whole issue of recognition for colleges and CEGEPs. You're doing extraordinary work with technology centres, in particular, but also with the college centres for the transfer of technology in Quebec, the CCTTs. From what I understand, you're ready to be part of the solution for the defence industrial strategy.

How are you positioning yourselves so that the government will finally recognize your expertise and your importance?

[Michael McDonald]

Thank you for these fantastic questions.

First of all, I believe we are engaging with all levels of government, particularly the Department of National Defence, but also other departments involved in defence innovation and research.

We showcase what our system can do, as well as the capabilities and expertise available across the country—including the CCTT network in Quebec—that can directly meet the government's national defence needs.

I believe that what we can do—and what we continue to do—is showcase our work, the speed at which we carry it out and the results we achieve. Every year, we're able to provide an update with exact figures on the number of partnerships, interactions and resulting products. I hope that presenting these facts and figures will help us achieve a victory. We'll keep at it.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Thank you.

What specific expectations do you have of the government in order for you to share this strategy?

[Michael McDonald]

I have made four recommendations. However, for starters, the government must commit to viewing us as a key partner in all these discussions.

As we have already mentioned, there are options in almost all of the announcements made in recent years. This includes Canada's national artificial intelligence strategy, which was unveiled in recent weeks. You can see that there is a section that identifies colleges and CEGEPs as key players. This also includes discussions on the defence industrial strategy. In this context, I think it’s clear that we are essential for workforce development and applied research. We are currently in contact with all branches of the armed forces and will continue this engagement.

We will also create the College Defence Training and Innovation Network, which will bring together 60 of our colleges and CEGEPs specializing in defence. Together, we are working on research and workforce issues to ensure we can meet the direct needs of the government and the military.