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jul10-science-policy-corner.pdf

The CAP Science Policy Committee (SPC) helps the organization to further one of its mandates – that of advancing Canadian science policy, especially concerning physics. More information on the committee can be found on the CAP website. The current composition of the committee is:

Paul Vincett, Chair
Ken Ragan, McGill University, Vice Chair
Daniel Banks, National Research Council
Melanie Campbell, University of Waterloo
Walter Davidson, National Research Council
Eric Donovan, University of Calgary
Francine Ford, CAP
Bruce Gaulin, McMaster University
Gary Knight (retired)
Tim Meyer, TRIUMF
Mike Morrow, Memorial University
Normand Mousseau, Université de Montréal

The committee has acted on two major issues over the summer and early fall.

The first concerned CAP’s submission to the House of Commons Finance Committee (HCFC). As in past years, the CAP prepared a brief to the HCFC as part of that committee’s pre-budget process. Last year, our brief resulted in an invitation to present our position in person to the committee. The brief’s format and content is quite constrained: there can be no more than three recommendations, and the brief must be shorter than 4 pages.

For the 2010 submission, the SPC organized a survey of the CAP membership to gauge support for various recommendations. Responses were received from 102 members (versus 44 the in the previous year’s exercise). Based on the results, the SPC formulated our HCFC submission around the following three “asks”:

1)   That the government increase NSERC's funding for basic research (its Discovery Grants program) by 5%.  Cost: about  $20M p.a.
2)   That NSERC's Major Resources Support Program be doubled (cost: $35M p.a.)
3)   That the government move rapidly, with the various stakeholders, to establish (in 2011) a formal engineering design, costing, and business analysis for a new Canadian Neutron Centre.  Cost: $5-10M.

We are currently awaiting a response from the HCFC and will, if invited, present these recommendations to the committee in person.

The second major issue the SPC has fielded recently concerns amendments (contained in Bill 68) to the Professional Engineers Act in the Province of Ontario. At a very late stage of the legislative process, we were apprised of the fact that one of the proposed changes was to remove the clause providing an exemption for the practice of natural science. Because of the broad definition of engineering established in the legislation, this is a critical issue for all physicists in Canada, and for CAP. It is not a new issue – it has been around for decades and CAP has consistently (and successfully) lobbied for the adoption of a natural sciences exemption. The new Ontario legislation curiously speaks about a “national” definition of engineering and excludes such an exemption, although all but three provinces currently have such an exemption and two of the three remaining have expressed their intention to include such an exemption in their next revision of their legislation concerning the engineering profession.

The CAP, together with sister scientific societies, organized a letter-writing campaign (resulting in over 600 letters) as well as extensive discussions with the Ontario Attorney General’s Office and the PEO (Professional Engineers of Ontario).  A tentative agreement has now been reached that will re-instate some form of an exemption for natural scientists.

Finally, we maintain a webpage with links to articles of relevance to science policy in Canada and internationally. See:  www.cap.ca/en/about-cap/committees/ science-policy-committee/links-and-articles

Ken Ragan, Vice-President
CAP Science Policy Committee