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.

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.

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.

Colin Webster

Colin Webster has over 25 years of experience in managerial, operational and consultancy roles within the mining industry in Canada. He has extensive experience within the environment and community relations portfolios. As a proud member of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, Mr. Webster holds a keen interest in fostering meaningful and proactive relationships between Indigenous communities and the resource industry. Webster is the Vice President, Sustainability and External Affairs for Alamos Gold. Formerly, he was vice president of sustainability at Noront Resources Ltd. He also served as the director of Aboriginal, government and community relations for the Canada and US regions at Goldcorp Inc. Webster was a founding partner at Blue Heron Solutions for Environmental Management (an environmental consultancy firm in northern Ontario that provides technical and professional services to the resource development industry). He holds a BSc in Mining Engineering from Queen's University and a diploma in Environmental Technology from Fanshawe College.

Darcy Pickard (co-chair)

Darcy Pickard (MSc, P.Stat.) is a Professional Statistician with over 15 years of experience developing and applying statistical methods to environmental management problems. She is currently the environmental assessment / cumulative effects assessment team lead for ESSA Technologies Ltd. Her areas of expertise includes the design of monitoring and evaluation programs, cumulative effects assessment, environmental assessment, development of indicators and thresholds, adaptive management, data analysis, technical review, simulation modeling and technical facilitation. She has worked with a wide variety of clients and collaborators including Indigenous communities, provincial and federal governments, NGOs, industry, and academics. Darcy joined ESSA in 2005 as their Senior Statistician. Since then, she has successfully applied her analytical and facilitation skills to over 150 projects throughout Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean.

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.

Dr. Glennis Lewis

Dr. Glennis Lewis lives in Brandon, Manitoba, where she teaches Environmental Impact Assessment at Brandon University. She has a multidisciplinary academic background with two degrees in law (LLB, LLM) and three degrees in science (BSc, MSc, PhD). Her diverse career has included work as a federal civil servant, consultant, researcher, and lawyer with a focus on the development of environmental and public health law and policy. Dr. Lewis has considerable experience with regulatory hearings. Most recently, she was a member of a panel reviewing the Regional Cumulative Effects Assessment for Hydroelectric Development on the Churchill, Burntwood, and Nelson River Systems. This work was part of her duties as a Commissioner with Manitoba's Clean Environment Commission from 2015 to 2018. She is an active volunteer with conservation and natural history organizations in Manitoba, and is copy editor and proofreader for books on the flora and birds of Saskatchewan.

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. Kevin Hanna (co-chair)

Dr. Kevin Hanna grew up on his family's ranch in the southern interior of British Columbia (BC). 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 centres on integrated approaches to natural resources management, impact assessment, and energy systems and resources. In addition to many peer-reviewed papers, he has published four books, including Environmental Impact Assessment: Practice and Participation (Oxford University Press).

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.

Mark Shrimpton

Mark Shrimpton is a Principal with Stantec, based in St. John's, NL. Mark has over 35 years of experience assessing, planning, monitoring, and managing the socio-economic effects of resource development and infrastructure projects. He has played a lead role in preparing Socio-Economic Impact Statements and management plans for upstream petroleum, pipeline, hydro-electric, mining and transportation projects across Canada, and has provided related advice to proponent companies, regulators, industry groups and NGOs in the US, Greenland, Iceland, UK, France, Russia, and Australia. Mark has also completed policy-related studies of resource development activity, including for the governments of the Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador and for the UN International Labour Office. He is a member of the Pool of Experts for the UN Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects, a Professional Associate of the Harris Centre for Regional Policy and Development at Memorial University, and has published and presented widely on his research.

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.

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).