SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC)
October 6th 2017 - 9:00 a.m.
PIPSC NATIONAL OFFICE
Members in attendance:
Jean Bérubé SAC President, NRcan
Michael A. Forbes SAC member, Retired, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Karen Hall SAC member, Transport Canada
Susan O`Donnell SAC member, National Research Council
Norma Domey SAC member, Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre
Robert MacDonald Board Liaison, Transport Canada
By teleconference:
Richard Winder SAC member, NRCan
Staff resource: Maxime Gingras, PIPSC Research Officer
Staff in attendance:
Catherine Wright, PIPSC Labour Relations Associate
Michael Urminsky, PIPSC Research Lead
Emily Watkins, PIPSC Advisor to the President
- 1. Call to Order ....Chair
- Meeting called to order at 9:15 AM
- 2. Discussion on Agenda .......................All
- An item was added as point g) classification
- 3. Adoption of Agenda....................... Chair
- Agenda adopted by members.
- 4. Approval of minutes of previous meeting.......................All
- A few modifications were flagged. Minutes were subsequently approved.
NEW (AI) – Max to get the minutes from the last SAC meeting translated and posted on the PIPSC website.
- 5. Business arising from previous meeting.......................All
PREVIOUS (AI) – The Science survey results will be tied back to the Strategic Science Plan in a presentation to the Board in August. A plan on the communication of the reports will then be presented.
- Dates have been pushed; has been rescheduled to a fall Board meeting.
PREVIOUS (AI) – A message will be sent to consultation teams explaining Science Integrity, what was agreed to and where to steer these queries.
- Several consultation presidents will be invited to participate in the first Science Integrity meeting with the Integration Board.
- The message has been crafted and will be forwarded to consultations presidents shortly.
PREVIOUS (AI) – Conference Attendance: Jean to share the website information and link with SAC members and consultation team members.
- Administrative issues have prevented the website’s rolling out. The RE president is on the issue. Jean will keep the committee in the loop.
PREVIOUS (AI) PIPSC will craft a message for consultation presidents in communicating what is being done, what the dates are, basic information to members, opportunities to get involved and what the points of contact are.
- Other bargaining groups will come and educate the working group on consultation regarding the meaning of Science Integrity and the language contained in the new collective agreements.
- Agencies should be involved in the consultations alongside PIPSC’s TBS groups.
PREVIOUS (AI) – Max to ATIP Information Commissioner’s Office on the report concerning the muzzling of scientist.
- Max provided context and an update on the ATIP request;
- Ultimately, the investigation is deemed ongoing and the Information Commissioner’s office refused to disclose the information we were requesting;
- The Information Commissioner’s Office mentioned the report could be released as early as this upcoming November;
- 6. Reports on science activities : members
- ECCC National Wildlife Research Centre had open houses to the public demonstrating the work of Research Scientists.
- CCIW also had demonstrations of the work of wildlife research scientists.
- The NRC has an NCR subgroup; there are about 800 NRC members in the Ottawa region.
- NRC released its dialogue report; the President of the NRC met with Debi Daviau of the Institute, to present PIPSC’s view on the strategy moving forward for the NRC.
- RO/RCO is going into bargaining.
- The RE executive went to Winnipeg and met with the Grain Commission, they also met with members to present Scientific Integrity and visited labs at Health Canada’s CFIA.
- During the summer, DFO held open houses in the community in demonstrating the work of their scientists. The SP group has also established three more subgroups.
- There are many new stewards in the SP group. An update was provided to the Steward Council on SAC.
NEW (AI) – SAC to ask Debi to write to TBS and IB in holding open houses presenting Scientific Integrity to the public and CC the Chief Science Advisor
- 7. Reports on science activities: staff
- a) Science Integrity Implementation Strategies…… .......................Michael
- Michael gave an update on his discussions with other departments trying to get ahead with developing SI policies without the Integration Board.
- Getting a date or even finding the right vessel to coordinate a meeting with the Federal S&T community for SI is proving difficult.
- The committee is worried about non-science based departments and agencies implementing Science Integrity policies. This could be a challenge.
- The overall goal in engaging in the preliminary round of the development of SI policies is to get departments to buy in to our model as much as possible.
- b) Science Membership Survey ..........Michael/Maxime
- A deck was distributed to SAC members on the roll-out of the results of the Science Survey results.
- The roll-out will be three-fold: Muzzling, Capacity and Women in Science.
- For each theme, we have products and timelines associated.
- The development of those products was detailed through a consistent timeline for each theme.
- SAC members advocated for December 2017 launch date to be moved to January in order to maximize momentum.
- Muzzling report should be put forward to the new CSA first with a letter before its official launch.
- A discussion was had on the strategic releases.
- The Science Capacity will have to address the Naylor Report’s exclusion of Public Science and why and where we fit in the Canadian Science Ecosystem.
- Canada’s rank worldwide in science investment and innovation has decreased to all new low.
- Reports can be linked to other emerging stories related to the loss of science capacity. (i.e., PEARL, shutting down of nuclear reactors, etc)
- Access to scientists within government, especially between various departments has become very limited or non-existent.
- Methodology will have to be consistent between reports.
- c) Update on Women in Science ...........Catherine
- Two members and staff will be sent to the Women’s conference in Montreal in November.
- The WiS email list is still sitting around 70. The work is materializing and is building up.
- The WiS report is being crafted and two meetings will happen at the AGM.
NEW (AI) – Women in Science to bring a plan to the next SAC meeting as to where the initiative is headed and what will be the next phase.
NEW (AI) - Catherine Wright will distribute a quick note about the upcoming WiS report for the SAC to comment on.
LUNCH BREAK
- d) State of Government Science Monitoring...........Maxime
- Max provided notes on a draft report for CFIA;
- e) Conference Attendance initiative...........Jean
- Matt Macleod is working on a glitch. Jean will provide the link once this is fixed.
- 8. New Business
- a) Annual report to the AGM on SAC activities ...........Jean/All
- The committee reviewed and discussed.
- b) Science Lobby day: Fall 2017........... Emily / All
- The plan is now to have full PIPSC lobby on October 24th. It will be the same format as in 2016, where training happens the day before.
- PIPSC is looking to have both wide variety of members and engage in our “Best in the World” campaign, as pointed a OECD study.
- We want to inform MPs of the work of our members and also build on the pre-budget
- Seeing as this is a PIPSC wide lobby, members will be discussing science priorities but also the Phoenix and contracting out issues.
- A call was put out to the regions to get a variety of volunteers to represent PIPSC at this lobby.
- SAC may make a recommendation for a training module for regional lobbying. Understanding a lack of resources and the hesitancies
- c) CSPC 2017: E4D & PIPSC panel on Science Integrity...........Maxime
- PIPSC and E4D as well as Matt MacLeod from the RE Group and Paul Dufour will be presenting a 45 minute panel at this year’s CSPC on Scientific Integrity and what it could mean for the Science landscape in Canada.
- d) Building bridges with the Chief Science Advisor ...........Emily/All
- What are going to be the restrictions in regard to the Institute and the Chief Science Advisor?
- SAC believes that Debi could send a letter to CSA reiterating PIPSC’s suggestions and points of view.
- The release of the reports would be a good way to introduce ourselves to the CSA.
NEW (AI) – SAC to recommend to the President that a letter be sent to the CSA to inform her of the agreement on Scientific Integrity.
- d) Artificial Intelligence ...........All
- SAC members discussed the potentialities of introducing more AI in certain departments.
- Inevitably, AI will affect different PIPSC populations positively or negatively.
- Technological change clauses could be re-worded in the future.
- Max is already working on a memo on AI at the Integration Board which could be used by Consultation teams.
- If the theory is that support staff can be replaced by AI down the road, we need only to point to the recent example of Phoenix to debunk the theories of automation within the Federal Public Service.
NEW (AI) – Max to continue drafting the memo on Artificial Intelligence and report back to SAC on the development of such memo. The goal is to have it ready so consultation teams can start asking questions at their quarterly meetings.
- e) Science Infrastructure ...........All
- Members had a discussion on Science Infrastructure money and implementation. SAC knows money is coming down the pipe in the next Budget.
- Is this science infrastructure investing in collaboration or collapse of actual science structures?
- This will remain on SAC’s agenda.
- f) Classification ...........Karen/All
- PC are being converted to EC’s through the Oceans Protection Plan at Transport Canada. EG’s also being advertised for PC jobs. This is also happening at NRCan and other departments.
- The issue has been brought up at working groups on consultations.
- Is there something PIPSC can do regarding this deprofessionalization?
- Should PIPSC address this with TBS?
- This fits in the conversation regarding Science Capacity.
NEW (AI) – Rob will follow-up to find the right avenue at PIPSC on the erosion of PC jobs to EC and EG classifications.
- 9. Round table ...........All
- Members expressed wanting to be kept in the loop in regard to IB meeting contents which could be sensitive to the Working groups on consultation.
- RO/RCO are going into bargaining shortly.
- Members are working on a owner’s manual for new SAC meetings in order to prep the grounds before entering in their first meeting, This document will be shared with current members.
NEW (AI) – Richard to forward the manual to SAC members for the committee to review at our next review.
- 10. Date of next meeting...........All
- Max to send Doodle to members
- 11. List of Action Items ........... All
NEW (AI) – Max to get the minutes from the last SAC meeting translated and posted on the PIPSC website.
NEW (AI) – SAC to ask Debi to write to TBS and IB in holding open houses presenting Scientific Integrity to the public and CC the Chief Science Advisor
NEW (AI) – Women in Science to bring a plan to the next SAC meeting as to where the initiative is headed and what will be the next phase.
NEW (AI) - Catherine Wright will distribute a quick note about the upcoming WiS report for the SAC to comment on.
NEW (AI) – SAC to recommend to the President that a letter be sent to the CSA to inform her of the agreement on Scientific Integrity.
NEW (AI) – Max to continue drafting the memo on Artificial Intelligence and report back to SAC on the development of such memo. The goal is to have it ready so consultation teams can start asking questions at their quarterly meetings.
NEW (AI) – Rob will follow-up to find the right avenue at PIPSC regarding the erosion of PC jobs to EC and EG classifications.
NEW (AI) – Richard to forward the manual to SAC members for the committee to review at our next meeting.
10. Closing comments & Adjournment .........Chair
Notes:
1) SAC webpage