Chief Science Advisor - Government of Canada

The Government of Canada appointed Dr. Mona Nemer as Chief Science Advisor on September 26, 2017.

This fulfills a commitment in the mandate letter for the Minister of Science, as well as one of the items in the Open Science commitment in the 2016-2018 Open Government Plan (in both it is described as "Chief Science Officer").

The Office of the Chief Science Advisor is hosted at Innovation, Science and Economic Development.  Although the website lists a brief mandate, more detail on the key functions of the position can be found in the backgrounder to the Prime Minister's announcement:

The Chief Science Advisor’s key functions will be as follows:

• provide advice on the development and implementation of guidelines to ensure that government science is fully available to the public and that federal scientists are able to speak freely about their work;

• provide advice on creating and implementing processes to ensure that scientific analyses are considered when the Government makes decisions;

• assess and recommend ways to improve the existing science advisory function within the federal government; and

• assess and recommend ways for the Government to better support quality scientific research within the federal system.

Furthermore, the Advisor will:

• deliver an annual report to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Science on the activities of the Office of the Chief Science Advisor and the state of federal government science, including the federal science workforce and federal scientific infrastructure;

• provide and coordinate expert advice to the Minister of Science and members of Cabinet, as appropriate and requested, on key scientific issues, including the preparation of research and foresight papers for public dissemination; and,

• promote a positive and productive dialogue between federal scientists and academia, both in Canada and abroad, and raise awareness of scientific issues relevant to the Canadian public.

I have highlighted "guidelines to ensure that government science is fully available to the public" due to its overlap with Open Science.

The annual report mentioned above will be made public (this is stated in the Prime Minister's announcement).

This is primarily an advisory role to Cabinet.  The Chief Science Advisor reports to both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Science.  The term of office is three years.

Contact information for the Office of the Chief Science Advisor is available on the office website.

Dr. Nemer has also begun tweeting using official account @ChiefSciCan

Previously:
March 23, 2017  Chief Science Advisor in Budget 2017
December 5, 2016  Canadian National Chief Science Advisor competition announced