Science and Research committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas. The Fonds de recherche du Québec's structure isn't all that different from the federal structure. The three agencies were combined into a single agency. In Quebec, the conditions are a bit different from those in the rest of Canada in terms of community, regional and language differences.

Science and Research committee  It was an honour and a privilege to take on that role. Based upon where we started, the measures we have taken and put into place over these past few years have been remarkable. We do have a report we published just this year that we can certainly pass along to the committee and it lists some of those accomplishments.

Science and Research committee  —to harmonize support for early career researchers. I could go on and on.

Science and Research committee  Bonsoir, Madam Chair. Thank you for your invitation to appear before this committee and also for your long-standing leadership in science and research. I'm very proud to appear before you today as president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council since 2015. I'm also a career academic, working in Canada and internationally, including for many years as the senior university administrator, principally in the research field.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm going to try. First of all, what we said is that when researchers or students, typically graduate students, apply to us for funding, in the projects they design and in the projects they elaborate, they can certainly—and we encourage them to—go well beyond traditional western bases of knowledge, such as published reports, evidence that's provided through observation and experimentation, etc.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is absolutely true; it is new. As agencies, we've always funded what we would call indigenous research. For example, the CIHR has set a floor of 4.6% of its funding to support indigenous research. SSHRC spends every year—year in, year out—about 10% to 12% of all of its funding on indigenous research.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll start if I may. It's a really, really good question. What I would say is that from the very, very start, we have taken a very broad view of reconciliation at SSHRC, the tri-council, and with the work we're doing together. There's a view that research on reconciliation is research about what the term means, how it's evolved and so forth.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Do you mean globally or with respect to indigenous people?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Okay. You're asking the question about SSHRC. I'd be pleased to try to answer with respect to the other funding councils as well, CIHR and NSERC, which are also doing important work. I want to make that very clear. If I'm speaking here about my agency, I'm responsible for that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the invitation to be here. I'm here with my colleagues, Ursula Gobel and Manon Tremblay, from SSHRC. I want to begin, as you did, by recognizing and acknowledging our presence on the unceded territory of the Algonquin people. As president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and chair of the Canada research coordinating committee, I am really pleased to have this opportunity to speak to members of the committee about a very special initiative that the federal government granting agencies, in collaboration with first nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, are undertaking with the goal of strengthening indigenous research capacity.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, everybody. I'm very pleased to be here with my colleagues from SSHRC—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Does that count for my time, Madam Chair?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm going to be very efficient.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I am.

Industry committee  I would generally agree. As I said earlier, it's really important to take a broader view of this, because the impacts and the results are often not anticipated. As was mentioned earlier, we just have to keep the pipeline going—invest in the best minds and see what happens. It may be a leap of faith, but it will produce.