Independent Sen. Rosa Galvez chaired the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources in the 42 Parliament and currently serves on the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance, which oversaw the federal economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In November 2020, she published a white paper on Building Forward Better: A Clean and Just Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic proposing a transformative vision to achieve greater overall collective well-being and solidarity among all Canadians.

Originally from Peru, she is one of Canada’s leading experts on pollution control and its effects on human health. She has a PhD in environmental engineering from McGill University and has been a professor at Université Laval à Québec since 1994, heading the civil and water engineering department from 2010 to 2016. She specializes in water and soil decontamination, waste management and residues, and environmental impact and risk assessment.

Throughout her career, she has been requested by private, governmental and community organizations to offer expert advice. She has also advised a number of international organizations, including on Canada-U.S. and Quebec-Vermont agreements regarding the protection of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. She also conducted an important study on the catastrophic oil spill at Lac-Mégantic.

Senator Galvez is a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, a Fellow of Engineers Canada and a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. Her research has led her around the world to countries such as France, Italy, Belgium, Japan and China.

She was appointed to the Senate on December 6, 2016, representing Québec (Bedford).