The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
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SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC)

March 10th 2018 - 9:00 a.m.
PIPSC NATIONAL OFFICE

 

Members in attendance:

  • Jean Bérubé - SAC President, NRcan
  • Norma Domey - SAC member, ECCC Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre
  • Krishna H. Gautam - SAC member, NRCan
  • Robert MacDonald - Board Liaison, Transport Canada
  • Karen Hall - SAC member, Transport Canada
  • Elizabeth Ptasznik - SAC member, HEALTH
  • John Shi - SAC member, AGCAN (teleconference)
  • Patrick Cherneski - SAC member, AGCAN
  • Dean Corda - CSD, Friend of the committee (teleconference)
  • Cathy Cheung - NRC, Friend of the committee
  • Pierre C.M. Morin - CRA, Friend of the committee
  • Charlotte Young - NRCan, Friend of the committee
  • Richard S. Winder - NRCan, Friend of the committee (teleconference)

Staff resource:

  • Maxime Gingras, PIPSC Research Officer

Staff in attendance:

  • Catherine Wright, PIPSC Labour Relations Associate

1. Call to Order & introductions - Chair

  • Meeting called to order at 9:11 AM
  • With many new faces around table and on the phone, a round of introductions was held.

2. Purpose of SAC - Chair/ Rob

  • Members received a binder containing multiple documents;
  • The Chair explained the role of SAC and where it fits within the scope of PIPSC;
  • SAC is the voice of PIPSC represented scientists which reports and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors on science matters;
  • The Chair also recommended reading the SAC owner’s manual to new members;

3. Roles & Responsibilities of SAC members - Chair/Rob

  • As a member, you are a representative and advocate for science within PIPSC;
  • There is a lot of work ahead and members can help raise the profile of our activities in getting the pulse of what is happening on the ground;
  • The role of the member is ultimately advisory;

4. Discussion on Agenda - All

  • There was a quick briefing from staff and the Chair as to how hectic the agenda is today;
  • A working lunch will most likely be in order;

5. Adoption of Agenda - Chair

  • Agenda adopted as is by members;

6. Approval of minutes of previous meeting - All

  • Minutes were approved as is;

(AI) NEW Action item: Max to get minutes translated and posted on the PIPSC website;

7. Business arising from previous meeting - All

  • Max went through the previous Action Items stemming from the December 4th meeting, most of them were completed.
  • New Action items were issued stemming from the previous ones;

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Max to get the list of Consultation Presidents present at the PIPSC SI policy workshop and compare it to the list of all Consultation Presidents, particularly those from non SBDAs.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Artificial intelligence should be an item for discussion at next SAC meeting, Max will distribute Intel deck obtained through S&T IB to committee.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Rob to continue looking into follow-up on unanswered email from stakeholders at PIPSC regarding erosion of PC jobs to EC and EG classifications, as well as GT classifications.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM:  Max to schedule a teleconference with SAC members on establishing suggested guidelines on the use of Monitoring reports. How to get input from Consultation Teams and updating the reports through time;

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM:  Carried forward to the next meeting, “What is a Federal Scientist?” Max to circulate deck from S&T IB to SAC on Science demographics;

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Once the SAC owner’s manual is finalized by R.Winder, Max to send it to informatics to be hosted on pipsc.ca under SAC’s page.

8. Reports on science activities: members - All

  • Members at NRCan have been attending conferences and invoking their right to speak clause from their collective agreement to speak on their science work in the government;
  • Transport Canada has been creating Innovation Hubs which include multiple classifications working together in the same physical space;
  • PCs need to be educated on their professional development days, the issue is especially pressing in non-science based departments;
  • There does not seem to be support for the national March for Science;

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Max to inquire with PIPSC’s Mobilizations section on activities regarding the March for Science happening April 14th Canada-wide.

  • Conference attendance approval continues to be an issue for members;
  • At CRA, obtaining training has been an issue there are also many Engineers working CO jobs within CRA;
  • Conference travel is being restrained at AGCan, which is creating conflict;
  • AGCan is experiencing staffing of science positions, which has not been seen since WFA;
  • Many job descriptions are being reviewed, which is a significant exercise and could result in many triggers and issues;
  • The Predatory journal list is ever growing and ADMs are informing staff;
  • Some of the actions to improve the working conditions at NRC were confirmed in Budget 2018. There are a lot of changes ahead;

9. Presentation of the Science Strategic Plan to new members - Maxime

  • Max presented the Science Strategic Plan to the committee in order to put new members in the loop and provide context on the strategic activities for new members;
  • The plan had be approved by the Board of Directors, from there it became a PIPSC Science plan;
  • The role of SAC is to provide advice and support to staff & suggest recommendations to the Board in implementing that plan;

10. Updates on Strategic and Operational Plan for Public Sector Science for 2018-2019

  • Max provided members with a document pertaining to updates on 5 strategic science activities;

a) Science Membership Survey & Associated Reports:

  • Defrosting Public Science was released February 21st 2018.
  • A post-mortem on do’s and don’t is happening next week on the strategic release and timing of the report;
  • The  Gender Report on Women was also released this week;
  • Science Capacity is TBD; target could be for pre-budgetary period.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: PIPSC Science Capacity Report findings and strategic messages to become a New Business item at the next SAC meeting in order for the committee to provide feedback and buy-in from scientists.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Karen & staff will craft key one-pagers on the multiple science reports in order to brief and stimulate consultation teams.

b) Departmental Team working on Scientific Integrity in Departments

  • Max gave an update to the committee on SI model policy development;
  • The next meeting with TBS and CSA is on March 19th;

c) Women in Science initiative

  • Catherine Wright gave an update, the Gender Report was released as scheduled;
  • A discussion on the recommendations will follow later in the meeting;

d) Conference attendance

  • The RE group has put together an online database for its members to register their conference attendance requests in order to gather data for the upcoming bargaining;
  • SAC does not foresee getting a high number of initial responses; this will be an ongoing tool which will be refined through time;
  • This is an ongoing issue and the process is not standardized across government
  • The committee had a conversation about various clauses throughout SP, NR and RE collective agreements pertaining to conference attendance;
  • The committee had a discussion regarding the standardization of the conference attendance approval process;

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: SAC would like to request a grievance template on Conference Attendance denial from EROs modeled after the Phoenix grievance template.

e) State of Government Science Monitoring

  • Max provided more background surrounding the ECCC monitoring report coming down the pipe in PIPSC Research;
  • PIPSC is also monitoring the efforts from the S&T ADM Integration Board in establishing demographic metrics for federal scientists.

f) Government & External relations on Science

  • Max provided an update from President Daviau to SAC on bridging relations with TBS and CSA in getting to a model policy on SI;

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: SAC members to come to the next meeting with ideas on how to implement and incorporate the Science Reports in Government & External relations on Science. SAC will report its suggestions to Emily Watkins.

11. New Business

a) Gender Report (WiS): Discussion on recommendations - Catherine

  • A report on the recommendations stemming from the Gender report was given by Catherine;
  • The work stemming from the recommendations is suggested to go into various sections of PIPSC staff including Mobilization, Bargaining & Education;
  • Members have demonstrated a lot of interest in this activity, but the capacity on the ground is not as alive;
  • A discussion was had on what recommendations should be made to the Board;
  • The Women in Science working group had many recommendations before boiling it down to the 10 recommendations;
  • Members brought up the idea of recommending metrics to the Board which could be worked towards;
  • SAC members will look at the recommendations & contact Rob/Catherine with suggestions on how to propose and implement the recommendations. Rob & Catherine will then write a memo and report to SAC for actions to the Board;

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: By March 16th Max will send an email to members reminding them to provide suggestions to implement the recommendations from WiS report. Members will have until March 30th to do it.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Catherine & Rob will craft a memo pertaining to the suggestions from members on WiS report recommendations. Such memo will be reviewed by SAC at the next meeting. This will be eventually recommended to the Board for action.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Richard S. Winder will come up with metrics on the 10 recommendations in order to gauge progress on the Women in Science initiative.

b) Federal Budget 2018-19: what’s in it for Science? - Maxime / All

  • Max distributed a draft note from PIPSC Research on what is in Budget 2018-19 for Public Science.
  • Mostly collaborative science infrastructure was announced ($2.8 billion)
  • Was the $500 million over six years for ocean and freshwater science at DFO new money or simply a roll-over?

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: inquiry Budget 2018-19 - Was the $500 million over six years for Ocean and Freshwater science at DFO new money or simply a roll-over?

c) SAC Owner’s manual - Richard

  • The Owner’s manual is still being tweaked;
  • The possibility of having the owner’s manual online could help as a recruitment tool for SAC;
  • Some sections pertaining to involvement of members in regions, as well as sections on policy and the board liaison are still being fine tuned;

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: SAC members will individually read the SAC owner’s manual and report back to SAC and Richard Winder on points of clarification which arise during their read.

d) CSPC participation & panel submission deadline Maxime / All

  • SAC held a panel on Scientific Integrity last year at CSPC and it was a very successful initiative;
  • The committee discussed its will to submit a panel proposal which fits in with the proposed CSPC themes;
  • The deadline to submit a panel proposal is April 13th.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Max will craft a panel proposal on SI for CSPC and send it to SAC for comments and approval before April 13th.

  • The Women in Science initiative could submit a proposal for a panel as well, based on its recent Gender Report in Science and invite the CSA and/or Minister Duncan.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Max will approach the Women in Science initiative and Catherine Wright to suggest submitting a panel on the Gender report.

12. Round Table - All

  • Members and friends of the committee expressed they were pleased to participate to SAC and look forward to working as part of the committee for the rest of the year;
  • Members are happy to contribute what they can to the committee and learning about what is in the works for Science at PIPSC;
  • Office 2.0 is becoming an issue in Victoria for SE-RES; Abuse of authority and political interference is occurring in the SE-RES community out in BC.
  • Phoenix continues to be an issue;
  • The OECD Innovation report in the Canadian Public Service should come out late March.
  • The contracting out of public sector science is starting to occur for PCs,  which could eventually be linked with consultations and the PIPSC Contracting Out working group;
  • New members expressed various reasons for joining the committee including protecting federal scientists from future governments, political interference and muzzling.

13. Date of next meeting - All

  • Next meeting date could be late May or early June. A doodle will be sent out.

(AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Marielle to connect with Rob to send Doodle for the next potential SAC meeting dates 

14. List of Action Items - All

  1. (AI) NEW Action item: Max to get minutes translated and posted on the PIPSC website;
  2. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Max to get the list of Consultation Presidents present at the PIPSC SI policy workshop and compare it to the list of all Consultation Presidents, particularly those from non SBDAs.
  3. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Artificial intelligence should be an item for discussion at next SAC meeting, Max will distribute Intel deck obtained through S&T IB to committee.
  4. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Rob to continue looking into follow-up on unanswered email from stakeholders at PIPSC regarding erosion of PC jobs to EC and EG classifications, as well as GT classifications.
  5. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM:  Max to schedule a teleconference with SAC members on establishing suggested guidelines on the use of Monitoring reports. How to get input from Consultation Teams and updating the reports through time;
  6. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM:  Carried forward to the next meeting, “What is a Federal Scientist?” Max to circulate deck from S&T IB to SAC on Science demographics;
  7. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Once the SAC owner’s manual is finalized by R.Winder, Max to send it to informatics to be hosted on pipsc.ca under SAC’s page.
  8. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Max to inquire with PIPSC’s Mobilizations section on activities regarding the March for Science happening April 14th Canada-wide.
  9. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: PIPSC Science Capacity Report findings and strategic messages to become a New Business item at the next SAC meeting in order for the committee to provide feedback and buy-in from scientists.
  10. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Karen & staff will craft key one-pagers on the multiple science reports in order to brief and stimulate consultation teams.
  11. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: SAC would like to request a grievance template on Conference Attendance denial from EROs modeled after the Phoenix grievance template.
  12. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: SAC members to come to the next meeting with ideas on how to implement and incorporate the Science Reports in Government & External relations on Science. SAC will report its suggestions to Emily Watkins.
  13. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM:  By March 16th Max will send an email to members reminding them to provide suggestions to implement the recommendations from WiS report. Members will have until March 30th to do it.
  14. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM:  Catherine & Rob will craft a memo pertaining to the suggestions from members on WiS report recommendations. Such memo will be reviewed by SAC at the next meeting. This will be eventually recommended to the Board for action.
  15. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM:  Richard S. Winder will come up with metrics on the 10 recommendations in order to gauge progress on the Women in Science initiative.
  16. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM:  inquiry Budget 2018-19 - Was the $500 million over six years for Ocean and Freshwater science at DFO new money or simply a roll-over?
  17. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: SAC members will individually read the SAC owner’s manual and report back to SAC and Richard Winder on points of clarification which arise during their read.
  18. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Max will craft a panel proposal on SI for CSPC and send it to SAC for comments and approval before April 13th.
  19. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Max will approach the Women in Science initiative and Catherine Wright to suggest submitting a panel on the Gender report.
  20. (AI) NEW ACTION ITEM: Marielle to connect with Rob to send Doodle for the next potential SAC meeting dates.

15. Closing comments & Adjournment - Chair

Meeting adjourned 3:15 PM

 

Notes:
1) SAC webpage: http://www.pipsc.ca/portal/page/portal/website/issues/science

Published on 22 August 2018