That's our time.
Evidence of meeting #108 for Science and Research in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was organization.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #108 for Science and Research in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was organization.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Acfas – Association francophone pour le savoir
—their expertise and knowledge.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Valerie Bradford
Thank you.
We'll now turn to MP Blaney for two and a half minutes.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you, Chair. I'm glad I don't have your job. It's hard to stop people who are sharing really important information.
I'm going to ask Dr. Morin and Dr. Young the same question.
This goes back to the earlier conversation that you were having about the makeup of the board, and as I was contemplating this—I am new to this committee, so I'm not as saturated in this information and I am hoping to piece this together fairly concisely—I had a reflection. I know that diverse boards often do the best work because they bring together more complex, differing ideas, and then if you take the time to get there at the other end, you often have the best solution because you've looked at it from so many different angles.
In terms of the board, what kind of representation do you expect to be part of that? Is it just the research academic community, or do you want other reference points that speak more broadly to the experience of Canada?
I'll start with you, Dr. Morin, and then move to you, Dr. Young.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
We've placed a lot of emphasis on the disciplinary diversity that would make up that board, but I think you're right that we would also want to look at sectoral diversity. However, I think it can be challenging for people who are not at all familiar with the academic research world to be able to readily contribute to that thinking.
There are some who are outside of academia but still familiar with it who would be at ease exchanging with those peers. There is definitely the diversity, as you say, of the disciplines and the sectors, and individual diversity as well, but to facilitate the exchanges, familiarity will still be critical.
Executive Director, Canadian Brain Research Strategy
I agree that it should be a very diverse board, and I can speak to how we built our national strategy. It was based not just on the heads—all these directors of institutes—but also on early career researchers, so there's a diversity of where they are in their career stages.
Also, for us, indigenous knowledge and indigenous ways of knowing are very central to what we're doing, because we're really aiming to look at the brain more holistically. Because we understand that we cannot just look at molecules or even just at brain networks, we really need to look beyond that to other connections with the community and connections with other people. Broadly speaking, across all of the distinct indigenous nations we have in our country, they look at brain health and health much more holistically, and it's like the scientists are just catching on now.
There's absolutely value there. When we spoke with patients, they often told us they do not have a brain condition that just fits into one silo or one description.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Valerie Bradford
That's the end of our resources. Actually, we're a minute or so over.
Thank you so much to our witnesses.
Our next committee meeting is on Tuesday, November 19.
Is it the will of the committee to adjourn our meeting?