I'm going to apologize in advance. I'll be five minutes and 34 seconds.

[Witness spoke in Nisga'a]

[English]

I will begin by acknowledging and showing my deep appreciation to the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Anishinabe Algonquin peoples.

My Nisga'a name is Sigidimnak Noxs Ts’aawit. I carry matriarchal responsibilities to the Nisga'a Nation. I'm here in my role as co-chair of the indigenous research leadership circle with the tri-agencies. In my spare time, I'm also a Canada research chair in indigenous education and governance, tier two, at Simon Fraser University.

Before I begin, I'd like to take a moment to honour the passing of Chief Justice Murray Sinclair, who undertook such respected leadership to advance reconciliation priorities here in Canada. It is in this spirit that I invite you to continue advancing reconciliation by helping to ensure that self-determination for indigenous research and our research governance is meaningfully respected and strengthened in Canada.

I'd like to briefly explain a little bit about the role of the indigenous leadership circle in research.

I will talk a little bit about the role of the indigenous research leadership circle and our responsibilities. Our circle members include first nations, Métis and Inuit leaders who come from diverse indigenous-led research backgrounds. I'm very grateful for their collective guidance and wisdom, which has configured into my statement with you today.

We are responsible for guiding the implementation of the tri-agency indigenous research strategic plan, SIRC, which goes from 2022 to 2026. Ultimately, we provide deep guidance and leadership by advising on matters that may impact the agencies' support for indigenous research, training and leadership related to the implementation of the SIRC plan. Ultimately, we communicate directly to the tri-agency presidents as well as the indigenous strategy team and the multiple committees that come to us in terms of our monitoring of this plan.

The plan itself is quite broad. It has four priorities—building relationships with first nations, Inuit and Métis peoples; priorities for indigenous peoples in research; creating greater funding accessibility; and championing indigenous leadership self-determination and capacity building in research.

I'll briefly highlight some of our concerns related to the capstone development and the Bouchard report, but I also look forward to your questioning.

Our first concern relates to insufficient indigenous engagement. The circle had minimal input on the capstone development. Of deep concern is that the Bouchard report lacked genuine indigenous representation on its advisory panel. It therefore poses significant legal challenges due to insufficient alignment with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as the SIRC plan.

Another concern is related to indigenous representation in the capstone governance structure. We see a single indigenous board member in the proposed capstone's governance as being inadequate to address what we would consider an increasingly complex and distinctions-based research landscape.

Within the report itself, we also saw significant epistemic bias. The Bouchard report has a very narrow and epistemic focus on the broad ecosystem of science, and has completely negated the holistic and transdisciplinary nature of indigenous knowledge systems.

We also saw a misalignment of priorities. The capstone's focus on mission-driven and international research misaligns with many of our local, national and international indigenous priorities and mandates, including Canada's SIRC plan.

Our final concern relates to budget sustainability. There is no clarity on how funding priorities for indigenous research will be governed by indigenous peoples, nations and organizations across this country.

We have four broad recommendations. I'd be happy to go into more detail on those.

Our first recommendation is to increase indigenous research funding and indigenous oversight. Current funding levels need to be maintained and extended to support indigenous-led research and governance needs. This includes integration with the Canada Foundation for Innovation to support indigenous infrastructure needs.

We also highly recommend further consultation on indigenous research needs and the development of an indigenous research agency. This should follow a distinctions-based approach and involve partnership with meaningful and robust consultation with indigenous rights holders.

We also recommend continuity of the existing tri-agency indigenous bodies, including the circle itself as well as the SIRC indigenous advisory circle, and adherence to UNDRIP while contemplating extending and really embracing the SIRC plan beyond 2026.

Our final recommendation relates to the appointment of distinctions-based indigenous representation on the advisory council on science and innovation to support the implementation of the national science and innovation strategy.

I'm very grateful to be sitting beside Dr. Nemer here, as well.

Thank you.