OCOL - 5. Conclusion

5. Conclusion

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5.1 Conclusion

Information gathered through an extensive document analysis, interviews with researchers and representatives of federal research funding agencies, as well as content from a day-long forum with both groups has led to a myriad of excellent ideas and several promising best practices. This could help address the limitations of funding presently allocated to researchers from official language minority institutions and those who conduct research in subject areas related to the development of their communities and the promotion of linguistic duality. This effort should inspire federal research funding agencies to initiate concrete measures reflecting the new obligations of federal institutions under Part VII of the Official Languages Act. Indeed, after participating in this project, federal research funding agencies should be willing to introduce improvements that would benefit researchers concerned with official languages and linguistic duality.

Simply stated, the fundamental question addressed in this study was one of equity, both horizontal and vertical. A guarantee of horizontal equity ensures that equals are treated equally. In this respect, statistics reflecting federal government support of English-language university research in Quebec confirm that Anglophone minority-language researchers, particularly those in the pure and applied sciences, fare as well as their majority official language colleagues elsewhere in Canada. An identified exception to this kind of equity treatment is the historically poor reception reserved for research proposals involving official language minority communities and linguistic duality, whether submitted in English or in French, by researchers working inside or outside Quebec, not to mention the lack of research conducted on the Quebec Anglophone minority.

The barriers to equitable federal support by minority Francophone researchers outside Quebec also points to a problem of vertical equity. In these cases, researchers in unequal situations are not treated equitably. This inequity stems from a one size fits all approach, where federal government research funding sources fail to acknowledge the differences that put researchers in small bilingual and official language minority institutions at a disadvantage relative to their colleagues employed in majority official language universities.

5.2 Recommendations

The Commissioner of Official Languages recommends that federal research funding agencies:

Recommendation 1
Develop a targeted promotion strategy to better inform official language minority community researchers and institutions, in a timely and direct manner, of the types of funding programs to which they can apply, as well as the total amount of funding available by program.

Recommendation 2
Ensure adequate evaluation in both official languages by:
a) having both official language groups properly represented and an adequate number of members who are highly proficient in French and who can fully comprehend and review applications submitted in French;
b) establishing quality control mechanisms to objectively assess the language capabilities of peer review committee members; and
c) establishing a recourse mechanism to which researchers can turn if they consider their application was not adequately processed because of language barriers.

Recommendation 3
Establish a specific funding mechanism, in addition to other basic funding (e.g., for research capacity building), targeted at small bilingual and official language minority universities to help sustain research capacity at the professor and student levels, and provide adequate administrative support.

Recommendation 4
Set aside a specific funding envelope for small official language minority universities to:
a) create research centres, based on their strategic plans; and
b) increase their capacity to partner with existing and well-known research networks.

Recommendation 5
Continue to streamline their application processes in consultation with university researchers.

Recommendation 6
Develop a strategy to increase the awareness, knowledge and comprehension of peer review committee members about the particular circumstances and obstacles of researchers at small official language minority universities.

Recommendation 7
In collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage, examine how to set aside stable funding to be used exclusively for government and university research on official languages issues and for dissemination of the results of that research, as part of the renewal of the Action Plan on Official Languages.

Recommendation 8
In collaboration with other organizations (such as Statistics Canada and CAUBO), keep disaggregated data on funding to official language minority institutions and for research on official languages issues, including:
a) separate data for total research grants awarded to official language minority universities, majority universities and bilingual universities;
b) separate data for the number of English and French grant applications; and
c) separate data on amounts allocated to research chairs for official language minority and bilingual universities.

The Commissioner of Official Languages recommends that the Canada Research Chairs Program:

Recommendation 9
Create and fund research chairs related to Anglophone and Francophone official language minority communities and linguistic duality, taking into account in the selection, assessment and renewal process and the special circumstances in which these research chairs will operate. Universities should keep separate data for research chairs allocated to researchers who study official languages issues.

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