December 2024

Welcome to The Advance, the newsletter of the CCA. Want to help us promote science-informed policy in the public interest? Feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend or colleague.

IN THIS EDITION

• A year of evidence for the public good
• Dig into the future of food production
• Readings on food prices and uncertainty; Canada’s new Arctic Foreign Policy; AI and superbugs; AI and productivity; and the decades-long effort to improve rural broadband internet accessibility in Alberta.

A year of evidence for the public good

In 2024, the CCA welcomed a new president and CEO. We published expert assessments on prioritizing international science and technology collaborations, the future of food production, and the impacts of EDI initiatives in the post-secondary research system. Our panellists weighed in on matters from targeted pest control to the Online Harms Act. We launched a monthly newsletter. We gained new members to our Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Committee. With next year’s projects well underway, we hope you’ll enjoy a look back on a year of providing evidence for the public good.

January

The year began with a momentous change: We said farewell to Dr. Eric Meslin, who stepped down after eight remarkable years as the CCA’s president and CEO. “It has been a great honour to lead the CCA, and I am proud of the work we have accomplished,” Meslin said of his tenure. Dr. Tijs Creutzberg, then the CCA’s director of assessments, assumed the role of interim president and CEO before officially moving into the role in July.

February

In February, the CCA released Navigating Collaborative Futures, a report from the Expert Panel on International Science, Technology, Innovation, and Knowledge Partnerships. The report presents the key elements of an evidence-based, data-enabled framework for Canada to evaluate new and existing international partnership opportunities for Canada. It also includes a user guide for public, private, and academic organizations evaluating their own international partnerships.

March

Members of the CCA’s Expert Panel on Public Safety in the Digital Age responded to the Online Harms Act, which was tabled in the House of Commons. The act, which identifies categories of damaging content and proposes legislative and regulatory mechanisms for addressing them, has “the building blocks of a good law” and “gets the big things right,” Emily Laidlaw wrote for the Globe and Mail. Florian Martin-Bariteau noted in Policy Options that, contrary to the concerns of some, the act “doesn’t tread on the dangerous ground of regulating speech that would be ‘lawful but awful.’” (Recently, the Liberal government divided the Online Harms Act into two separate pieces of legislation: one focused on protecting minors, the other concerning hate speech and incitements to violence.)

April

If you’re reading this, you’re already in the know. In April, the CCA launched The Advance, our monthly newsletter. Alongside a curated list of science- and policy-focused readings and CCA-related updates, The Advance featured expert interviews on pressing issues in Canada—from policing in Indigenous communities to the age of wildfire awareness. Looking to spread some cheer in the new year? Consider forwarding The Advance to a friend!

May

On May 26, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada announced more than $800 million in support for the two dozen beneficiaries of the Strategic Science Fund (SSF), including the CCA. “Science and research are the cornerstones of Canada’s economic well-being and progress,” said Fran?ois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “Canada’s researchers work to expand our understanding of the world, and they generate new ideas to solve some of the biggest challenges of our time.” With the support of the SSF, the CCA will produce ten expert assessments over the next five years.

June

Six reports. Thirty briefings. One hundred thirty-eight experts. More than 1,500 pages of top-notch evidence. Nearly 18,000 downloads. In June, the CCA’s Board of Directors approved the release of our annual report, where we detailed our 2023-2024 fiscal year. Read it here.

July

As summer settled in, we kicked off the first of our new projects under the SSF, hosting panel meetings for two expert assessments: one on Canada’s science, technology, and innovation landscape and another on strategies for securing dual-use research. Those reports will be published next year; join our mailing list for updates as we move toward publication.

August

“A pinpoint, as opposed to a bludgeon.” That’s how Robert Slater, chair of our Expert Panel on Gene-Edited Organisms for Pest Control, described the benefits of targeted pest-control technologies to Kate Helmore for a lengthy feature in the Globe and Mail. For a deep dive into the potential benefits of pest-control applications for gene-editing technologies, read the panel’s main findings here.

September

Ahead of the UN General Assembly’s high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance, the CCA revisited When Antibiotics Fail, the report from its Expert Panel on the Potential Socio-Economic Impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance in Canada. When the CCA began its work, "there was very little understanding of the threat that antimicrobial resistance presented to Canadians outside of the professional infectious disease community," Gerry Wright, a member of the CCA's expert panel, said. In terms of economic and health estimates, "our report provided the first Canadian impact information that was available." Explore the impacts of When Antibiotics Fail here.

October

Released this month, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in the Post-Secondary Research System details the recent history of transformative change spurred by EDI initiatives. “EDI work is critical to the future of science, scholarship, and education,” said Wendy Rodgers, panel chair. “While more data are needed to better evaluate specific initiatives, as a panel, we found many promising approaches.” Read University Affairs’s coverage here.

November

As the CCA prepared to publish its last report of the year, we welcomed four new members to our Board of Directors, and five new members to our Scientific Advisory Committee, to be helmed by Dr. Maydianne Andrade, our new chair as of January 1, succeeding David Castle. “Dr. Andrade’s extensive expertise and leadership will be an asset to the CCA,” said Sue Molloy, chair of CCA’s Board of Directors. “I look forward to her insight and guidance.”

Readings

• The annual Food Price Report suggests a family of four may pay up to $800 more in groceries in 2025, according to news reports. The annual price report “used artificial-intelligence modelling, combined with expert input, to forecast overall food-price increases of 3 to 5 percent next year.” Evan Fraser, a member of the CCA’s Expert Panel on Atypical Food Production Technologies for Canadian Food Security, told the Globe and Mail that those projections don’t account for additional uncertainties. “Events over the past five years have made me really worried that sometimes we’re underestimating the scale of the problem that we’re facing,” said Fraser. “The only thing that will be surprising is stability.”
• Global Affairs Canada recently announced its Arctic Foreign Policy, a multi-pronged diplomatic strategy that will see new consular offices in Alaska and Greenland and the appointment of an Arctic Ambassador. “For many years, Canada has aimed to manage the Arctic and northern regions cooperatively with other states as a zone of low tension that is free from military competition,” said Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at a recent launch event for Canada’s Arctic Foreign Policy. “However, the guardrails that we have depended on to prevent and resolve conflict have weakened.”
• The 92nd annual Acfas Congress will take place from May 5 to 9 at the école de technologie supérieure?in Montreal. Find Acfas’s preliminary program and calls for paper proposals here.
• “Canadians aren’t worried enough about superbugs,” Emily Baron Cadloff writes for Maclean’s. But that doesn’t apply to all Canadians. Cadloff interviews Jon Stokes, a biochemistry professor at McMaster University, who explains how artificial intelligence might hasten the development of targeted molecules to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “With machine learning, we can run through millions—or billions—of chemical structures that have the potential to kill those bacteria, in a fraction of the time it would take in the laboratory,” Stokes says.
• “There is no conclusive evidence of a strong positive or negative relationship between AI adoption and short-term productivity improvement,” The Dais, a public-policy think tank based at Toronto Metropolitan University, writes in a new report. Waiting for Takeoff draws on Statistics Canada data gathered before the launch of ChatGPT. Researchers with the Dais emphasize that “AI is a long game, not a quick fix,” and that “companies must integrate it thoughtfully into their operations to see real gains.”
• In Alberta, fewer than half of all rural households have access to broadband internet that meets the federal government’s targeted speeds, with Saskatchewan and Manitoba not far behind. In Policy Options, Michael McNally and Gregory Taylor detail ongoing challenges to rural broadband connectivity in the province–some of which feature in the CCA’s 2021 report, Waiting to Connect.