Science and Research Committee on June 4th, 2024

[Lisa Koperqualuk]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

That would be great. Thank you.

[Lisa Koperqualuk]

If the question could be be resent to me, please, I'll be happy to answer it.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Okay. Thank you.

Now we will turn to MP Chen for five minutes.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to the witnesses joining us today.

Ms. Koperqualuk, it's my understanding that as an anthropological researcher, you have examined the impacts of globalization on traditional Inuit ways of life. How has globalization specifically affected indigenous communities and their connection to the environment?

[Lisa Koperqualuk]

I think it requires a book to tell that story.

Globalization is so immense. It's connected to colonization as well.

First of all, centralized communities have changed family dynamics. There were missionaries who came into our communities. Our economy has changed. It now requires money to be able to buy things. There's a difference between a southern family's income and an Arctic Inuit family's income, which is lower. We also deal with a high cost of living.

There are many impacts of many decisions, and there was autonomy lost by Inuit. Inuit men lost sled dogs. There were boarding schools and all these things.

Those are all part of globalization. Some had good impacts, but many had negative impacts as well.

Globalization brings climate change. Industrialization has brought contaminants into our communities. We have mercury in our food. Our people, pregnant people and families, need to be careful what they eat. Our healthy food has become contaminated.

There are so many other impacts. Plastic pollution is now part of those contaminants coming into our Arctic waters. Microplastics can be found in great numbers now in the Arctic Ocean.

There are many impacts from globalization.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

In thinking about how to reverse these trends, the federal government could apply and promote indigenous traditional knowledge in its climate change policies and decisions. You have examined in your research the importance of Inuit cosmology, spirituality and traditional ways of life.

In what ways do you believe they can play a role in developing an effective Arctic strategy?

[Lisa Koperqualuk]

In our belief system, from our shamanism times, we have relations with the whole—sila and the exterior—that we are living in. This exterior is also when we experience it to the fullest. It brings us knowledge. It brings us wisdom. That's called silatuniq. It's one who has the greatest sila and the greatest outside.

That relationship we have with the environment around us is what guided us through our knowledge system in our relationships with animals and with spirits. Animals are beings that we had to rely on in order for us to live, because in the Arctic, we can only live from the animals we have relationships with. That relationship was one of respect and protection.

That link was with our story of Sedna, who was also the protector of the sea mammals, but we had to have a good relationship with Sedna and have good conduct. That good conduct is the love of our kin and the love of our environment, so it's the protection of our environment.

Human behaviour is what it comes down to. If we don't behave well, and if we don't protect and respect the animals and the environment around us, it will do the reverse to us. It's part of our belief system.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

We have seen globalization generally have a negative impact on the environment. In your opinion, could that be turned around if we were to incorporate more traditional indigenous knowledge into globalization? Could it be used as a force for good for the environment?

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Give a very short answer, please.

[Lisa Koperqualuk]

Yes, it can. That's a very short answer.

Absolutely, and this is what we're talking about over here in Bonn. Indigenous peoples' knowledge systems offer this change.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you very much.

Now we will turn to MP Blanchette-Joncas for two and a half minutes.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will address Mr. Burgess once again.

On the subject of the Canada-Inuit Nunangat-United Kingdom Arctic Research Programme, commonly called CINUK, I’d like to hear what you have to say about the main priorities or gaps in research the program identified in terms of fighting climate change in the Arctic, especially regarding means of subsistence, culture and well-being of the Inuit.

[Henry Burgess]

Thank you for your question.

Yes, the reason why the CINUK programme was developed very much in partnership with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and local community members, northerners, Inuit and others was to make absolutely sure that the themes of the program addressed local priorities.

That's why, right from the very start, we made sure that this wasn't just environmental science, classic work on glaciers, permafrost or other things, but had a human dimension to it as well, a social science dimension to it.

It was clear from the very start that, if people wanted to put forward proposals to the program, they had to have Inuit partners right at the very start, and they had to address not just hard-science environmental questions but how that would affect the life and the future of the communities in the north.

There's a really broad range of work that's supported through the program looking at country foods and animal health, human health, housing and energy and plastics. It's a really wide range. That came about, not through direction from the program but from the people who put forward the proposals. I think that links very closely to the sustainability of life in the north.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Could you quickly explain how you establish priorities and determine what you will study in terms of research? Did communities work with you in making decisions?

[Henry Burgess]

Yes, very much so. Particularly in this CINUK programme, yes, absolutely, because we knew, having cast the net widely for ideas and having said to people that you have to have Canadian, U.K. and Inuit researchers together, that it wasn't going to be enough to just filter the quality of those through a Western science lens.

That's why we had an excellent assessment of the proposals, but we also had a local assessment for what that would mean to the communities themselves, and both of those had equal weight when we decided which ones of them were going to be funded. I think you can see, from the nature of the 13 projects, that they're not all traditional, Western, hard science projects; they are a really broad range of work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you so much. That's our time.

We'll go to our final questioner now, MP Cannings, for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you.

I'm going to continue with Mr. Burgess to dive into some more of the details of the CINUK project. I'm looking online, as you suggested, to see some of them. I see things on community surveillance of animal health, muskox, and beavers moving north. Who knew about that? There's also a very interesting project on, basically, climate testimony from people living in the Arctic and from communities about how climate change is affecting them.

I'm just wondering if you want to maybe comment on that latter project, about how important it is to get the voice of communities on the impacts that climate change is having in the Arctic.

[Henry Burgess]

Yes, absolutely. There is a really broad range of projects within the CINUK programme.

We have wanted to make sure that, all the way through, we share the knowledge from the projects across the 13 projects as well. It's not just 13 individual projects that are doing their work; they're coming together at least once a year to share what they know.

That project in particular might be the CCT project: Inuit Youth, Wellness and Environmental Stewardship.

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

Yes, that's it.

[Henry Burgess]

Thank you.

We made sure that in our most recent annual science meeting—we held it here in Canada—there was funding provided for Inuit researchers and community members to come over from Canada, from Inuit Nunangat, to the U.K., to Cambridge here, to share their testimony. That was in really all of the 13 projects, and it was fantastic to see because we don't just want to have western science results; we want to have a combined knowledge. The whole point of the CINUK programme is to combine indigenous ways of knowing together with western science. It was really good to hear that view first-hand from the community members.

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

Thank you.

I'll leave it there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you very much. That allows us catch up our time.

Thank you very much, Ms. Koperqualuk and Mr. Burgess, for your testimony. Please see the clerk with any questions. You may also submit additional information through the clerk.

We'll suspend briefly to allow our witnesses to leave, and we'll resume with our second panel of three witnesses.

Members attending via Zoom, please stay connected to this session.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Welcome back.

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. Those participating by video conference, please click on the microphone icon to activate your mic, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking. With regard to interpretation for those on Zoom, you have the choice at the bottom of your screen of the floor, English or French. Those in the room can use the earpiece and select the desired channel.

It is now my pleasure to welcome, as individuals, Dr. Susan Kutz, professor and tier 1 Canada research chair in Arctic One Health, who is here by video conference; and Dr. Warwick Vincent, professor, centre for northern studies, Université Laval, who is here in the room. From the Arctic Institute of North America, we have Dr. Maribeth Murray, executive director, who is here by video conference from Cambridge Bay.

We'll give you up to five minutes for your opening remarks, after which we'll proceed with rounds of questions.

Dr. Kutz, I invite you to make an opening statement of up to five minutes.

[Dr. Susan Kutz, Professor and Tier I Canada Research Chair in Arctic One Health, As an Individual]

Thank you very much.

I am a wildlife veterinarian and a Canadian research chair in Arctic One Health. I have spent 30 years working in northern communities to study and mitigate the impacts of climate change on wildlife health, and it's from this perspective that I'll speak to you today.

Climate change is rapidly, dramatically and irreversibly altering the physical and the biological systems in the Arctic in a myriad of ways. This is having serious downstream consequences for northern food security, cultural continuance, the economy, biosecurity and Arctic sovereignty.

Today, I wanted to share with you just one example about umingmuk, the muskox, to illustrate some of these concepts. During my research over the last 20 years, I've witnessed the largest muskox population in the world, on Banks Island, Canada, undergo a massive decline as a result of climate change driven severe weather events and emerging infectious diseases. In 2003, a rain-on-snow event led to a thick, impenetrable ice layer covering vegetation, resulting in starvation of tens of thousands of muskox and a 50% population decline. This type of severe weather event is only expected to increase in frequency under the current climate scenarios, and it poses as a major threat to caribou, muskox and all other wild life across the Arctic.

Subsequently, between 2010 and 2014, the same muskox population suffered a major disease epidemic, which resulted in an additional 60% decline. This herd essentially went from 72,000 animals down to about 10,000 today. A similar outbreak with similar consequences occurred on Victoria Island nearby, which was previously the second largest muskox population in the world. With these declines, the commercial muskox harvests and the guided sport hunting, which are important contributors to the wage economy on these islands, have ceased, and the food insecurity for these muskox-dependent communities is exacerbated.

By 2021, this emerging disease had spread all the way across the Arctic Archipelago to Ellesmere Island. Similar declines have been seen there, and today, the future of this ice age survivor on the Arctic Archipelago remains uncertain. Detecting, understanding and mitigating the impacts of such catastrophic mortality events and population declines is clearly critical for the ecosystem, for the Inuit communities and for food security.

However, wildlife disease emergence has additional implications for human health, where over 70% of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases in people are of wildlife origin. Avian influenza is just one example, and the disease muskoxen are dying from is another. For national defence, this is really important. Mass mortality events in any wildlife species should be viewed with concern from the biosecurity and biowarfare perspectives, perhaps particularly in the Arctic.

Finally, these issues are really important for Canada's livestock industry, where wildlife disease emergence may threaten our global trade status.

To address these issues, strong, inclusive and innovative research approaches are needed. There are some excellent examples in the Canadian Arctic, where indigenous communities, academia and government are working together to address wildlife health. These include the beluga monitoring program in the western Arctic, the muskox and caribou health monitoring program in the central Arctic and the Arctic Eider Society in Hudson Bay, and there are many others.

Common to these programs are a foundation of respect, a focus on local concerns, concerted efforts to elevate community voices and capacity in research, and braiding indigenous knowledge into western science. However, these programs are expensive. They're typically run on short-term funding. They can stretch the local human resource capacity, and they remain dependent on southern academics or governments. To move forward in science and research in the north, by the north, there really needs to be a significant and sustained investment not only in human resources in the north in the form of training, but also in ongoing support for northerners, not only in research, but also in everything around that: administration of grants and funding, project management and other areas. Arctic colleges and universities are critical to support these goals, but other parallel intersecting initiatives are also critical.

As for accessible research infrastructure, we do have infrastructure in the north, and it's growing. However, it tends to be centralized, and it's not particularly accessible to communities, as it sits within government institutions. Breaking down the barriers for indigenous residents to access this infrastructure is critical. Northern research is incredibly expensive, but quality and quantity time spent in the north, with northern partners, is crucial to develop equitable relationships and to understand and address northern priorities.

Innovative thinking that encompasses indigenous knowledge and ongoing investment in the development of novel technologies that can be implemented in low-resource settings are also needed. Replicating what works in the south is not always an effective strategy for the north, so we need to look to northerners for this innovative thinking.

Finally, Canadian values are really critical when working with northerners. Our Canadian values of working with northerners really must underlie any international collaborations. We need to teach our international partners these values and how to work with communities.

I just want to finish by highlighting to the committee—and I'm certain the committee is aware of it—the recent report by the Council of Canadian Academies on northern research and equity. I'd emphasize that this report really outlines the philosophical underpinning and the paradigm shift that's needed to truly move our research forward in a world-class, effective and ethical way.

Thank you very much.