SAC Meeting Minutes - August 15, 2022

PIPSC Science Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes

PIPSC Head Office

 250 Tremblay and by Zoom

August 15, 2022

Invited: Waheed Khan (Chair), Simon Zhou, Joseph Paquette, Sung Joon Kim, Georgine Pastershank, Mike Pauley, David Li Tang, Joanne Papineau, Babak Shalchi Amirkhiz, Jacqueline Montalibet, Nadia Leon-Alexis, Kimberley Keats, Eleanor McGrath (staff support), Marielle Nadon (assistant), Julie Poon (staff support)

Regrets: Marielle Nadon

1. 9:00 - Call to order (Waheed)
   Eleanor McGrath is leaving PIPSC for two years, Julie Poon will become staff support for SAC.
   Everyone welcomed Julie in the Committee.
    
2. Approval of Agenda
   The agenda is approved.
    
3. Approval of previous meeting minutes
   The previous meeting minutes are approved.
    
4. 9:30am - Board Update (Waheed)
   The strategic and operational plan has been approved by the Board.
   Waheed talked about extending the 1 year term of Committee members - it will have to be brought to the AGM with a resolution. One year isn’t enough to accomplish all the goals.
   Waheed would like Friends and Members of the Committee to attend the AGM which is not allowed yet.
    
5. 10:00am - Health Break
    
6. 10:15am - Briefing from staff: SI Training (Joanna Simpson)
   First set of training will be scheduled for October. Tentative dates are Oct. 5 & 12 for English training and October 19^th for French training.

Another training session will be available between January and June 2023 depending on the demand and the need.
Objective: Demystify the concepts of SI and the right-to-speak
Objective: Share diverse experiences and perspective on SI issues from various work and social contexts
Objective: Clarify the union’s, employees’, and employer’s roles and responsibilities with respect to scientific integrity.
Objective: Equip stewards to recognize and respond to possible breaches of the scientific integrity policy or the right-to-speak clause.
Objective: Identify strengths and gaps in our scientific integrity policies and their implementation and generate ideas for engaging members.
Joanna explained to SAC members and friends how the workshop would be outlined.

7. 11:00am - Strategic and Operational Plan EN and FR (Waheed / Eleanor / Julie)
   We just received the draft of the RCMP SI plan.
   The Treasury Board is obligated to provide data but we struggle getting it from them.
   1. Implementation
      In 2023, we will work on the plan and launch in 2024.
      WiS projects are ahead of time - we are developing collaboration with Canada Research Chairs (5 of them across Canada).
      WiS will plan events every 3 to 6 months.
   2. Reporting to Board
   3. Public reporting to members
      Julie to develop a report for the website.
   4. Next steps
       
8. 12:00pm - Lunch break
    
9. 1:00pm - Staff updates
   1. Women in Science (Sadi Pokharel)
      Pride: Celebrating diversity in Public Sector Science webinar on 25th August 2022, 12 PM EST
      Collaboration with NSERC Chair WiS programs:Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Atlantic, Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WWEST) and Laurier Centre for Women in Science
      Op-ed writing workshops for WiS members to help them improve their communication and advocacy skills
      Next steps include: Call for applications for Op-Ed workshops. update members on our collaboration with NSERC WiS programs and ways they can get involved, bimonthly speaker series with women and non-binary leaders in science and meet with GBA+ group in the fall to allocate tasks and start drafting the GBA+ project Toolkit.
   2. Science / scientific integrity (Eleanor / Julie)
      OCSA has been collecting names of departments/agencies wanting to participate in a central performance evaluation of the SIP, now including: AAFC, CFIA, ECCC, NRCan, StatsCan, PSPC, CBSA
      No update on SIP training through CSPS

No update on TBS following up with non-compliant departments
Some progress being made; RCMP’s SIP is heading for approval soon
Now prepping for September Governance Committee meeting to discuss mid-year progress

10. 2:00 pm - Scientists Issues: Foreign Qualified Doctors at Health Canada (Guest: Sally Hanna, Consultation President at Health Canada, and Mervat Mikhael)
    About 90 Foreign Qualified Doctors/International Medical Graduates (IMGs) at  Health Canada (HC) and Health Product and Food Branch (HPFB)
    All IMGs have a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from WHO accredited medical schools (6 years programs); In addition to Masters and/or PhD degrees. Some IMGs are even Specialists.
    As of October 2021: MD-MOF-2: annual rates of pay (in dollars)  Step 1:  $ 168,717 and BI-04: annual rates of pay (in dollars Step 1:  $ 102,434
     
11. 2:30 pm - Health break
12. 2:45pm - Public Science for Public Good “slogan and logo” (Erika Bryson)
    The preference seems to go to a bilingual logo.
    Erika will work on a few others options as discussed during her presentation and return it to Julie/Eleanor.
     
13. 3:00pm - Other Business
    Review of the last meeting minutes action items - all done.
     
14. 4:00pm - Other updates/roundtable/next meeting
     
15. Adjournment

Action Items:

1. Julie to develop a report template for our website and the Board on Strategic and Operational Plan (quarterly report).
2. Eleanor/Julie to search some data on members and how long they have been stuck in the same position.
3. Waheed to send out an email to every science member and give updates on Strategic and Operational Plan.
4. Sadi to double check that the email invitation for Pride: Celebrating diversity in Public Sector Science webinar on 25th August 2022 has been sent out.
5. Sadi to contact Calgary and Quebec region in fall because she received a lot of out of office email.
6. Erika to submit new logos to Eleanor/Julie for approval
7. Marielle to send previous minutes in translation and post on the website