Science and Research Committee on Sept. 24th, 2026

[Sylvie Lamoureux]

I don't know if Treasury Board sent any comments to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, but—

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

In fact, it should.

[Sylvie Lamoureux]

That's a good question.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

So what you did was at the initiative—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Your time is up, MP Godin.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

MP Deschênes-Thériault, you have the final three minutes. Please go ahead.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you very much.

Earlier, I asked a question about applying a francophone lens. I asked how you see that in your respective organizations. I had reached the CIHR.

So, how do you see the implementation of a francophone lens in your area?

[Chantal Marin-Comeau]

Thank you for the question.

The francophone lens has to be organized around four components. First, research in French must be strengthened. Second is access to funding and evaluation. Third, we need engagement with—

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Madam Chair, could you ask—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

It's MP Deschênes-Thériault's time.

We need another three minutes.

MP Deschênes-Thériault, go ahead, please.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Go ahead, Ms. Marin‑Comeau.

[Chantal Marin-Comeau]

I'll go back to my answer to the question.

It really revolves around four major axes. The first major thrust is to strengthen research in French. The second axis is access to funding and peer review. The third area is knowledge mobilization. Finally, the fourth axis is the promotion of research, its dissemination and publication.

I'm telling you that, at CIHR, we have taken concrete action on all these axes. We'd be very happy to share those concrete steps. I have several pages here. However, there are always opportunities, and we are exploring every opportunity to strengthen research in French around these four major thrusts.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you. Unfortunately, we don't have time to look at all of these measures, but feel free to send them to the committee. That would be interesting.

Measure 7 talks about visibility. More specifically, it proposes to “Increase granting-agency support for, and raise the visibility of, partnership‑based research in French”. This measure addresses the impact of research in French and is aimed directly at your three organizations.

I would like to hear what you have to say, in 30 seconds for each organization, on the issue of visibility.

Let's start with NSERC.

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

Thank you very much.

For us, visibility is very important. We mainly have the memorandum of understanding with Acfas and we participate in its Science Exposed contest. That's one of the ways we participate in outreach, for example.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

What about you, Ms. Lamoureux?

[Sylvie Lamoureux]

SSHRC sponsors two Acfas awards. One is for professors. The other, which is new and is being awarded for the first time, is dedicated to students. It is presented at the Acfas conference and promotes or recognizes the participation of a student who made a presentation at the Acfas conference on the theme of the francophone minority community.

There's also the Impact Awards.

It's also present in the way we do things and talk to people. We make sure that French is valued in everything we do.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I think that's my time.

Thank you for your testimony.

We look forward to seeing the implementation of the recommendations in all three of your organizations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

With that, this panel comes to an end.

I'll say a really big thank you to all the witnesses for appearing before the committee today.

There are two quick things before we adjourn the meeting.

One is about the briefing session with the chief statistician of Canada. We talked about it at our last meeting, on Tuesday, and MPs were going to discuss it with their fellow members.

If I can have some answers from the MPs on how to proceed....

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

Vincent would still like to go forward with that meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Okay, what about—

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

I'd prefer to wait for the new person because I'm not sure what answers we're going to get from the interim person.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We have scheduled that for October 27, so if members want, we can go ahead.

MP Blanchette-Joncas.

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

Madam Chair, I'm ready to welcome the chief statistician.