Nation building needs research

Opinion

Living through the second Trump administration as a Canadian has been likened, by one commentator, to a teenager being kicked out of the house. We must grow up fast and deal with the fact that we can now only rely on ourselves. So, the federal government is moving fast on files related to security, sovereignty and connectivity. The Liberals passed Bill C-5 to expedite projects that will help Canadians live on our own. Wonderful.

But.

In our rush forward, we cannot overlook the power of nation-building research, which must go hand-in-glove with these infrastructure projects. Research and infrastructure are not competing priorities: they are essential partners in nation-building.

Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, grants the federal government sweeping powers to quickly build large projects that help goods move faster and more easily. This act intends to strengthen our security, autonomy, resilience and advance the interests of Indigenous Peoples. But there can be no nation-building without nation-building research.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has prioritized a project to enhance the Port of Churchill in Hudson Bay. A developed Hudson Bay region can open a stable and sustainable global supply-chain hub, bringing with it transformative socioeconomic change. But research funding is needed to bolster and protect this investment, or our rare deepwater Arctic port risks falling short of its potential, or, worse, causes harm to the communities it aims to serve.

Take beluga whales. An estimated 55,000 whales use the Hudson Bay area in the summer and we are still learning where they calve and how they affect the biosphere. We need to know what the optimal frequency of shipping should be — how many ships and what types of ships, can pass before belugas are affected. Or caribou: on land, we need to better understand how pipelines and increased rail traffic to the port would affect caribou and the people who hunt them. We also need to understand how railways can run over thawing permafrost.

Thankfully, these are not insurmountable questions, and what is more, we can answer them relatively quickly. The University of Manitoba built the only lab in the world to run controlled experiments in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding areas. The Churchill Marine Observatory is critically important to developing the North.

For example, current communication and satellite coverage in the Arctic is spotty. This poses issues not only to locals, but to our defence forces concerned with increasing Russian and Chinese military activities in Arctic waters.

Yet, researchers, like those at UM’s Space Technology and Advanced Research Laboratory (STAR lab), are collaborating with the people of Chesterfield Inlet in Nunavut to develop community-operated satellites and drone technologies. These burgeoning systems incorporate Indigenous knowledge to enhance the community’s security, connectivity, and sovereignty by providing them with reliable communications services. Search and rescue teams will gain reliable comunications tools. Hunters can also leverage this tool to access data about ice and weather, while community members can see data about what ship floats off their shore and why.

Research impacts are always multi-pronged, and this research can bring more equitable access to health care. Limited health infrastructure — such as reliable connectivity — as well as lack of diagnostic equipment and human resources have contributed to current inequities. Northern patients frequently travel to Winnipeg and other southern centres for care at great expense and stress. But the high-speed data network UM researchers are building can address issues by providing the digital infrastructure to allow for stable e-health delivery, including virtual health technologies, monitoring, and care co-ordination, while protecting health data.

These are everyday examples of research providing Canadians with security and autonomy while supporting their resiliency and sovereignty.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s infrastructure vision and the $9-billion defence investment announced in June create unprecedented opportunities for our country to strengthen itself on numerous fronts. But infrastructure without knowledge creates vulnerability, and research comes comparatively cheap. The crucial projects mentioned here require roughly $5 million annually over four years. In the case of the Port of Churchill, we need sustained funding for marine ecosystem monitoring, terrestrial conservation research, permafrost engineering solutions, Indigenous knowledge integration and community-based surveillance technologies. These are not add-ons to infrastructure development; they are prerequisites for success.

We may have lost our ability to trust in our oldest ally, and that is forcing us to move with urgency. As we move fast and build things, though, we must not break what is already there. Research can illuminate our path forward. We’re on our own right now. Scientifically grounded development offers us the best chance to land on our feet.

» Mario Pinto is vice-president (research and international) at the University of Manitoba. This column was previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press.