Dr. MacLatchy speaks to Standing Committee on Science and Research

May 24, 2022

On May 19, Laurier's president and vice-chancellor, Dr. Deborah MacLatchy was invited to speak before the Standing Committee on Science and Research in the House of Commons on the topic of Top Talent, Research and Innovation. In a virtual session, Dr. MacLatchy shared her insights on how we can best attract and retain top talent at Canadian universities, and support research and innovation.

Good evening, Madame Chair, vice-chairs, and honourable members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me today.

I am speaking from the Haldimand Tract, traditional territory of the neutral, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples.

This land is part of the Dish with One Spoon Treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples.

Today, this gathering place is home to Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island. There are many contributions to knowledge and innovation Indigenous peoples have made and continue to make to this nation we call Canada.

Wilfrid Laurier University is a comprehensive, mid-sized university in Southwestern Ontario, with campuses in Waterloo Region and Brantford.

We are opening a campus in Milton in 2024, on the west side of the Greater Toronto Area, which will have a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics focus, and which will further grow our research capacity in environmental health.

In addition to being Laurier’s president, I am also a scientist, with an active research lab, where I supervise undergraduate and graduate student work in the field of ecotoxicology. I am sharing my observations and recommendations from the perspective of both an administrator and researcher-mentor.
Recently, Laurier alumnus and CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, Dr. Darrell Bricker, spoke to our senior leadership team about demographic trends in Canada.

Canada is in for a demographic ‘shock’ in the next 20 years. Our population is aging and the proportion of working age Canadians is declining. By the mid 2030s, only 58% of our population will be of working age.

At the same time there is a global competition for research talent.

We cannot hope to be competitive in research and innovation if we do not have people, from Canada and from around the world, who share a passion for discovery, coming to our universities to pursue advanced-level degrees and research.

I am going to focus on student pathways in my remarks, while recognizing that programs such as the Canada Research Chairs and the Canada Excellence Research Chairs are critical to the country for retention of top talent.

Canada is recognized around the world for its quality of life. Geopolitical conflicts and the global rise of governments unfriendly to academia have made Canada an increasingly attractive place for those pursuing opportunities in research and innovation.

We must leverage this desire to come to Canada by making it more accessible to international students. We can do this by streamlining study and work permits, supporting immigration and citizenship processes, and increasing funding for developing research talent.

We also have an opportunity to be best-in-class in expanding our research talent pathways for Canadian youth. Canada has fallen behind our competition across the global market when it comes to graduate and postdoctoral supports; federal scholarships have not kept pace with inflation.

The investments in targeted scholarships and fellowships for Black student researchers was welcome news in the federal budget, and we need further investment in Canada’s scholarship programs, including those that will widen the pathway in areas of science and technology to persons with disabilities, and women-identified, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, and racialized persons.

We need to give Canada’s youth the mentorship, resources and supports they need to pursue big, bold ideas that drive innovation and discovery. If we are serious about equity, diversity, and inclusion, we need to shed the assumption that graduate students and postdoctoral fellows should be self-funding or augmenting their studies through work, family support, and student loans.

It is disheartening to see promising students leave the university and research environments because of a lack of financial support, including first-generation students and those without access to generational wealth.
Building subject matter knowledge and research acumen takes a significant amount of effort; when we lose these people, it wastes the human and financial resources invested.

At Laurier, we are taking steps to address these barriers – we are one of the 17 institutions in Canada that are part of the federal Dimensions Pilot Program, to collect data and analyze our systems and practices.

We are taking steps to increase opportunities for careers in research, including developing mentoring programs specific to Indigenous youth, however, to attract and retain the students who will drive the next period of discovery there is a need for financial support that keeps them in the system.

In short, when there is a growing global shortage of scientific talent tied to demographic shifts in Canada and a changing global context, Canada needs to be an inclusive and welcoming and financially supportive environment to ensure research is an attractive and viable career option for trainees.

Thank you.