Technical Advisory Committee on Science and Knowledge: Membership

Members

The Technical Advisory Committee on Science and Knowledge provides the Government of Canada with expert advice on topics related to impact assessments, as well as regional and strategic assessments. These topics include scientific, environmental, health, social, and economic issues, as well as Indigenous knowledge.

Dr. Patricia Fitzpatrick (co-chair)

Patricia Fitzpatrick (she/her) is a Professor in the Department of Geography, and an Instructor in the Master's of Development Practice – Indigenous Focus – at the University of Winnipeg. She is a settler on Treaty 1, the territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene Peoples, and on the Homeland of the Red River Métis. Dr. Fitzpatrick's research and teaching focuses on environmental governance surrounding energy and mineral development in Canada, including meaningful engagement, multi-jurisdictional assessment and post-approval practices. As part of this work, she has been involved in 13 project-specific and one regional assessment.

Ryan Barry (co-chair)

Ryan Barry has more than 15 years of experience as an impact assessment practitioner and has led or directly participated in a great number of impact assessments in Nunavut and regulatory improvement initiatives throughout the North, Canada, and the circumpolar Arctic. Formally trained as a biologist, Ryan holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Prince Edward Island and has extensive experience in public outreach, northern policy development and impact assessment theory and practice. From his home in Prince Edward Island, Ryan currently provides technical writing, professional facilitation and other consulting services for clientele primarily in Canada’s North. He also serves as Chair of the Secretariat for the Hudson Bay Consortium, a collaborative effort among communities, rights holders, Indigenous organizations and all levels of government to work together towards a shared vision for the stewardship of the greater Hudson Bay region.

Dr. Gillian Donald

Dr. Gillian Donald founded Donald Functional & Applied Ecology Inc. in 2009. She provides technical services to clients in Western Canada to address reclamation, revegetation, ecological restoration, Indigenous knowledge research, regulatory applications, and consultation and engagement initiatives. As an oil sands environmental policy analyst and technical advisor, she has consulted on provincial environmental monitoring and management programs and contributed to oil sands and land use policy development addressing environmental and cultural interests. Dr. Donald has managed multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder projects, including a climate change adaptation decision support tool for oil sands mine reclamation, long-term environmental monitoring programs, technical reviews of regulatory applications, and five reclamation guidance documents for the Athabasca oil sands region submitted as recommendations to the Government of Alberta. She has participated in federal, provincial and regional consultation and engagement initiatives for oil sands and pipeline project regulatory applications, land use planning, and climate leadership.

Marie-Hélène Gauthier

Marie-Hélène Gauthier completed her law studies at the Faculty of Law at Université de Montréal in 1993, was called to the Quebec Bar in 1994 and obtained a graduate degree in management from École des hautes études commerciales in 1995. She also became a member of the Institut de médiation et d'arbitrage du Québec as an accredited mediator in 2017. From 2011 to 2020, she was a lecturer in the Department of Legal Sciences at Université du Québec à Montréal. She was also a lecturer in the Faculty of Planning of the Institut d'urbanisme at Université de Montréal. A full-time member of the BAPE since June 2018, Ms. Gauthier was also a part-time member from 2012 to 2018. She has held the position of Vice President since September 2021 and was appointed Interim President in July 2022 until July 2023. She currently works as a consultant in project approval and implementation processes, public participation and sustainable development.

Dr. Robert Gibson

Robert Gibson is a professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. Since the mid-1970s, he has worked with communities, governments, public interest organizations and informal collaborations as a practitioner, advisor and academic on environmental and sustainability matters. His recent scholarly and applied efforts have centered on how best to give serious attention to sustainability imperatives in a range of applications, including sustainability-based next generation impact assessment law and practice, and individual assessments at the project and strategic levels. During the law reform process leading to the Impact Assessment Act, he served on the Minister’s Multi-Interest Advisory Committee.

Dr. Kevin Hanna

Dr. Kevin Hanna grew up on his family's ranch in the southern interior of British Columbia. He is an alumnus of the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Toronto, where he obtained his PhD. Dr. Hanna teaches natural resources management and environmental assessment, and leads the Centre for Environmental Assessment Research at UBC's Okanagan Campus. He is also an Associate Member of the Faculty of Forestry. Dr. Hanna has served on the BC government's Environmental Assessment Advisory Committee, and the province's Environmental Assessment Implementation Committee. His research focuses on integrated natural resources management, impact assessment, and energy systems and resources. In addition to many peer-reviewed papers, he has published five books, including The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Impact Assessment.

Marie Lagimodiere

Marie Lagimodiere has more than 25 years of experience with environmental assessment (EA). She is an integrator, project manager and EA practitioner across disciplines and jurisdictions. Her perspective includes all aspects of the EA process from field studies to managing comprehensive large-scale EAs, regulatory hearings, and serving as an expert witness. She has assessed oil sands, petrochemical, diamond, pulp and paper, quarry, and pipeline projects. Marie's technical specialty in fish and aquatic resources includes EAs, fish habitat, compensation plans and monitoring. She managed an aquatic ecology group of thirty for a large consulting firm, participated in the development of watershed and landscape management plans, studied use and occupancy mapping, managed a First Nation community-led EA and edited an EA toolkit for First Nations. A professional biologist with a Masters of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, Marie is an owner/principal in a specialty consulting firm, Lagimodiere Finigan Inc. based in Victoria, BC.

Janice Linehan

Based in Calgary, Alberta, Janice Linehan brings extensive experience and capacity working with multi-stakeholder groups to inform and develop key pieces of environmental policy and regulation and advance environmental monitoring and management programs. Her experience and expertise include the design and implementation of site-specific and regional monitoring programs, and the development of environmental management frameworks and regional planning. She also has experience in supporting regulatory applications and on-going engagement with Indigenous communities, industry, and government. Janice is currently the Director of Environmental Policy on the Sustainability team at Suncor Energy Inc. Over her 25-year career, Janice has spent 19 years working in Alberta’s oil and gas industry with various roles in regulatory approvals and sustainability. Janice has also worked in various roles in the Alberta and federal governments including as a Research Biologist with both the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment and Climate Change Canada and as Fisheries Biologist for the Alberta government. Janice has a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology and a Masters of Environmental Science from Memorial University in Newfoundland.

Alistair MacDonald

Alistair MacDonald, M.A., co-founder of the Firelight Group, is an Edmonton-based environmental assessment (EA) specialist with 15 years of experience running and participating in environmental assessment processes for government, assessment bodies, industry, and primarily with indigenous communities. Alistair's areas of expertise include socio-economic, cultural and Aboriginal and Treaty rights impact assessment, the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge, and EA process management. He was the primary drafter of the Mackenzie Valley Review Board's Socio-economic Impact Assessment Guidelines. He is the content lead for the Environmental Stewardship Technical Team for the First Nations Major Projects Coalition. Alistair has also presented and written extensively on the corporate mining sector, cultural impact assessment, and building sustainability into project development, assessment, and methods.

Steve Morck

Steve Morck brings over 35 years of experience working in the energy industry in electrical, oil and gas projects, as well as numerous and diverse development projects on Indigenous lands in close collaboration with Indigenous leadership. He is a principal of Elements Network Inc. providing environmental, regulatory and operational expertise to clients. He most recently provided leadership to a client environmental team for a large, complex, federally regulated project providing support to community and Indigenous engagement as well as managing species at risk issues and a 3 year regulatory application and approval process. Steve has worked on development projects, planning and operations across Canada. Prior to consulting, he was a regional biologist in the Province of Alberta before taking on roles in the energy industry, including leadership of a large corporate group responsible for environment, land, community and Indigenous relations. Steve is a registered professional biologist in both the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.

Darcy Pickard

Darcy Pickard (MSc., P.Stat.) is the President and founder of Pickard Environmental Consulting Inc., based in Kingston, Ontario. A Professional Statistician with over 20 years of experience developing and applying statistical methods to environmental management problems. Her areas of expertise include: design of monitoring and evaluation programs, restoration planning and implementation, development of indicators and thresholds, impact assessment, cumulative effects assessment, adaptive management, fisheries sciences, technical review, data analysis, simulation modeling, and technical facilitation. Ms. Pickard brings a statistical mindset to projects, using systematic and transparent approaches to explicitly address uncertainty thus helping decision-makers grapple with complex environmental and social problems. Cumulative effects assessment and management is a priority for Ms. Pickard who has supported the development of numerous provincial, federal and Indigenous led initiatives. She has successfully applied her analytical and facilitation skills to over 200 projects throughout Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.

Dr. Bill Ross

Bill Ross is an emeritus professor of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary. His scholarly expertise is the professional practice of impact assessment. He has been teaching graduate level courses in impact assessment since 1973 and has served on eight Canadian environmental assessment panels from 1978 to 2015. He has taught impact assessment training courses around the world, published many papers and professional publications, and received awards for contributions to impact assessment especially in the areas of follow-up and cumulative effects assessment. From 1997 to 2015, he served on the Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency, a body that was a watchdog for good environmental management at the Ekati Diamond Mine in Northern Canada.

Helga Shield

Helga Shield brings over 25 years of experience working in the oil and gas industry. She is the manager of environment, regulatory and socioeconomics at Imperial Oil. In her current position, she leads a group of senior engineers and subject matter experts who provide technical advice and policy support to exploration, development projects, planning and operations across Canada. The group collaborates with Indigenous communities on a common vision for progress, prosperity and environmental stewardship as it relates to natural resource development. Her academic background includes a BSc from the University of Alberta, and an MSc in Environmental Design from the University of Calgary. Helga is a professional biologist registered in the province of Alberta.

Dr. James Tanner

Dr. James Tanner is currently an independent consultant who has been advising on and conducting impact assessments for Indigenous Peoples across Canada for 24 years. His PhD specializations were in Economics, Anthropology, and Indigenous Law. In the late 1990s he managed a foreign aid project for Canada in the Colombian oil and gas sector on economic and environmental regulation and policy. He also ran a small oil and gas company in Alberta and Saskatchewan which was involved with co-generation, gas conservation, regulatory well abandonment liabilities and recovery of by-passed oil.

Jim's roles over the last 24 years have included negotiations for compensation, mitigation, monitoring and benefits agreements related to the impacts on Indigenous values. He is particularly interested and involved in the legal and economic implications of cumulative impacts as a part of regulatory assessment. Jim has served as an expert witness in Joint Panel oil sands hearings and coordinated intervenor panels in front of the NEB. In his impact assessment work, he translates traditional Indigenous knowledge and values into relevant ecological and livelihood impacts from conventional oil and gas, oil sands mining and SAGD, hydro-electric dams, pipelines, oil spills, refinery and battery emissions and the health of major deltas.

Dr. Faiza Waheed

Dr. Faiza Waheed is an Environmental Health Scientist working at the intersection of public health and the built environment. Faiza specializes in the field of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and leads the HIA Team at Intrinsik Corp. Faiza has experience conducting health assessments of major resource development and infrastructure projects both at the provincial and federal levels. Faiza has co-authored guidance documents for both the federal and provincial governments in the use of HIA and HIA-like frameworks. Faiza has a PhD in Cell Biology and a Master of Environmental Science from the University of Toronto. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in HIA from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. As part of the HIA framework, Faiza also specializes in the application of Gender-Based Analysis Plus. She is the co-chair of the Built Environmental Work Group at the Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA), and a member of the Board of Directors at OPHA.

Dr. Meinhard Doelle, In Memoriam

Dr. Meinhard Doelle, Canadian Chair, Marine Environmental Protection, World Maritime University, Professor of Law, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Associate, Marine & Environmental Law Institute (MELAW), Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) has served as policy advisor to the federal government during the development of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and was a member of the Regulatory Advisory Committee. Dr. Doelle co-chaired the Tidal Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment in 2007, served on the Lower Churchill Joint Federal-Provincial Review Panel from 2009–2011, and co-chaired the Nova Scotia panel on aquaculture from 2013–2014. He has written on a variety of environmental law topics, including climate change, energy, environmental assessments, and public participation in environmental decision-making. His books include Environmental Law: Cases and Materials (Carswell, 2019), The Paris Climate Agreement: Analysis and Commentary (Oxford, 2017), and The Federal Environmental Assessment Process: A Guide and Critique (LexisNexis, 2009).