Science and Research Committee on June 11th, 2024

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

This is another really interesting session. We're absolutely learning more about the north, and the strengths and also the areas of opportunity and some of the deficiencies.

I'll start with Dr. Wilson.

In your opening statement, you talked about four areas that we need to focus on and strengthen. I look to those as recommendations, but I'm wondering about the sequencing of them. If we had a magic wand today, where would we start building capacity and focusing on more projects and more research that is indigenous and western in concepts, melded together in terms of a two-eyed seeing approach as we call it back home in Cape Breton? I'm wondering where we would start with investment.

I have another question. You mentioned project-based.... Having come from the not-for-profit world, we're always trying to focus on projects, whether they be research or not, because of the work and also to help fund the operations. In terms of your operations, is there any stable funding that you have right now that enables you to take a breath and focus on other areas that you may want to focus on?

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

The short answer is no, we don't have any stable funding. A lot of the research funding that comes out is focused on pilots and outcomes, as opposed to investing in something long term.

When it comes to the sequencing of the four items we talked about, I think I would start in the order they were in the speech, namely, working with that leadership and at that community scale to understand their interests in community-based research. Honestly, very often their questions are global questions that trickle up.

Again, coming back to training and employment, a lot of the folks whom I work with are very young parents and, even if there were at university in Iqaluit, they still may not go from their community to Iqaluit and leave their families, because they need that support. I would not recommend taking a southern approach to universities but instead think about doing training in a different way so they can do the research themselves.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

It's interesting that you bring up trying to change mindsets, mine included, in how you view certain things. It's often been said—I forget the leadership theorist who said this—that culture drives strategy. I believe what that person was getting at is that the strategy doesn't drive culture.

A few moments ago, we talked about a bottom-up approach to a strategy. I wonder if both of you, with the time that I have left—which is about two minutes, which sounds like a game show now—could please give me a response about what that may look like.

We'll start with Dr. Wilson, and then we'll go to Aurora College.

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

I'm not sure that I understand the question. Is it a bottom-up approach for an Arctic science strategy?

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

You referenced earlier in the testimony that, as opposed to using a top-down strategy with government leading, it needs to be a collaborative approach.

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

Yes.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

That is basically what I am getting at in terms of the culture, in terms of the people and the researchers who are there, and the elders who are there being a part of that from the bottom up.

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

It would probably start with working with your regional governments, then going out to the communities and meeting with them and then going from that perspective.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Now I'll turn to Aurora College.

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

I agree with Katherine. That would be the approach, starting with the regional governments and having them feed up.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

How much time do I have left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

You have 32 seconds.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

I have 32 seconds left, and I didn't even use any of the questions that were in my book, because a lot of the questions have been asked.

Dr. Wilson, one thing intrigued me. As a former youth worker, you talked about focusing on young people. Within the time that we have, what are the age brackets? How long do you stay with the youth in terms of training? What's the aftercare with respect to the training?

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

The ages of the youth are quite broad, from high school to mid-30s. They're usually with me for two to three years, and they either then become full-time SmartICE employees, and then they become trainers, because we're expanding, or they go on to other positions, which is also, I feel, a success.

I'd like to see more funding for the middle generation as well. There is a gap there for those over 35.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you very much.

We'll now 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.

My next questions are for Ms. Seccombe‑Hett, from Aurora College.

Ms. Seccombe‑Hett, as someone representing a college in the Arctic, you know first-hand how to carry out research with communities there and identify what the research needs are.

I'd like to hear what you have to say about research funding.

What are your Arctic research needs at Aurora College?

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

That's challenging to answer.

What are the college research needs or the Arctic research needs? I see them as two different things.

The college needs for research are to focus on supporting community priorities and community-identified issues. Different from universities, what colleges bring is a focus on applied research and local research and the co-production of research.

The research needs for our region are articulated through our indigenous governments and our government of the Northwest Territories.

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

Given where your college is located, how can you bring added value to Arctic research?

[Pippa Seccombe-Hett]

Value for our college is our ability to really collaborate on the ground, work with communities and be there in a long-term relationship.

Being on the ground, being able to meet regularly and being co-located really provides a lot of advantages for relationship development and the reciprocity that's expected working with indigenous communities. It gives you the time and the space to develop the relationships and build meaningful research programs based on community-identified priorities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Valerie Bradford]

Thank you very much.

We will now turn to MP Cannings for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you.

I'm going to go back to Dr. Wilson at SmartICE.

You're associated with Memorial University. It's always good to have a Memorial alumna here at committee. Memorial and you are part of CINUK, which is the Canada-Inuit Nunangat-United Kingdom Arctic Research Programme.

Can you expand on that program and programs like it in the north? What role do they fill in doing research in a modern way—if I could put it that way—in the Arctic?

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

When university researchers partner with SmartICE, we go back to our committee in the community to ask if this is research that they feel will benefit them. If they agree to it, then we follow an approach where our monitoring staff are involved in the research, so they are also getting the benefits and learning how to be researchers.

We're trying to train the next generation of Arctic researchers in the Arctic, as opposed to in the south. There are so many benefits to that. You don't have to teach them about ice, Arctic weather and culture. They come with that already.

It's almost an advantage for those researchers who are perhaps coming from the U.K. or something. I feel like they're getting a lot. It's an exchange of knowledge, so that our monitors are learning more skills and those coming from the U.K. are looking and understanding how they are to work in communities.

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

Do you see other examples of collaborations and partnerships like this in Arctic research with different universities that have that community base at the core?

[Dr. Katherine Wilson]

I think it's getting better. I think it's been mentioned in other testimony that there just aren't enough people at this point who have some of these skills.

That's what we're working towards, so that as our staff expand, grow and are doing work in their research, if other researchers come up in the summer and want to hire my staff to do GIS work, they're trained and they can contract themselves out to do that work now.

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

Thanks.