NDP proposing federal science watchdog
Plan developed in response to alleged muzzling of scientists
Federal New Democrats are using allegations of the muzzling of government scientists to spearhead a proposal to create a science watchdog to monitor whether the government is gathering and using evidence to shape its policies.
The opposition party’s science critic, Vancouver-area MP Kennedy Stewart, said he developed legislation to deliver the plan after he was approached by a number of scientists in government and the academic world.
He said they told him the time has come for the legislation creating the parliamentary science officer to promote transparency and integrity in government scientific research.
“Some of them have come to me in confidence because they’re federal employees and they’re worried,” Stewart, a professor on leave from Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy, said in an interview with Postmedia News.
“Their numbers are being cut, people are losing their jobs, their funding is shifting away from particular areas to other areas.”
Under Stewart’s proposal, a bill to be introduced next week in Parliament, the officer would review government scientific issues in the same way the auditor general looks at finances to see whether taxpayers are getting value for money.
Private member’s bills introduced by opposition parties rarely make it through Parliament, but Stewart, who will introduce his plan at a science policy conference Thursday in Toronto, said he had the backing of the NDP caucus and was pushing for his proposal to be included in the party’s 2015 election campaign platform.
When asked if he supported Stewart’s proposal in principle, Greg Rickford, the federal minister responsible for science and technology, sent Postmedia News a statement explaining that the government had created an advisory council in 2007 to provide “external policy advice on science and technology” and “measure Canada’s performance” in regular reports.
“We are delivering concrete results for Canadians,” Rickford said in the statement.
But Stewart said the watchdog was needed in response to recent allegations about muzzling and funding cuts targeting important areas of federal scientific research.
“So there is what I would consider a chill in both the scientific community within government agencies and also outside — more of a confusion outside within academia and even within industry — people are wondering what’s happening to science in Canada,” said Stewart.
A draft version of the bill, released to Postmedia News, calls for the officer to report to Parliament “on all aspects related to science and technology in Canada” including efforts to encourage co-ordination between federal departments and agencies doing scientific or technical research and also to raise awareness about government scientific and technology issues among Canadians.
Gary Corbett, a Natural Resources Canada scientist who is president of the union representing government professionals, said he believed the NDP bill was a “great idea” that improves upon a national science adviser position to the prime minister, previously held by scientist and former National Research Council president Arthur Carty — a position that was created by former prime minister Paul Martin and later abolished by Harper.
Stewart said the officer would have a salary equivalent to other officers of Parliament, agreeing it could cost a few million dollars per year to operate, comparable with the Parliamentary Budget Officer. But he said he believed it would be important for the government to give the proposed office adequate resources to deliver on its mandate.