IAIA WNC Happenings British Columbia
For more
information,
contact BC
Regional Director
Susan Wilkins.
Int'l Association for Impact Assessment
Western & Northern Canada Affiliate
2215 19th St. S.W.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2T 4X1
(403) 245-6404    IAIA-WNC@praxis.ca
COMING EVENTS in BC

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colleagues who you think may be interested in attending
any of these sessions or who may wish to receive IAIA
WNC news for BC
View west from the Cheakamus to the
Tantalus Range about 10 km north of
Squamish, BC   (photo by Graham
Seagel)
Recent BC Events
Excellent presentations by
Caren Helbing (University of
Victoria) and Graham Van
Aggelen (Environment
Canada) at the IAIA BC
meeting on April 4, 2008 on
the theme “Genomes and
EA”, gave food for thought
about the role genomics
could play in
environmental
assessment.

Click here for an outline of
the potential role, interpreted
from the presentations
From  WNC's BC Chapter
in conjunction with CEAA and the BCEAO
Dialogue on EIA Implementation:
Practitioners' Workshop
April 29, 2010, Vancouver BC

The BC Chapter of IAIA's Western and Northern Canada
Affiliate  hosted an exciting one-day workshop for
environmental impact assessment practitioners.

The purpose of the workshop was to explore current issues
in EIA, including:
-Cumulative effects
-First Nations consultation
-Scoping
-Improving process efficiency

Speakers from the BC Environmental Assessment Office and
Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency provided context
for topics of current interest. Practitioners discussed topics, shared
insights and provided feedback to the regulators to help improve
current practice. This included networking and discussion among
practitioners from a range of areas, including government,
industry, First Nations and consultants.
  • Feb. 2008  New Developments in CEAA and BC Environment
    Assessment Act
  • Feb. 2008 Gavin Dirom, Mining Association of BC, spoke on Mining and
    Environmental Assessment
  • March 2008  Careers and Environment Industry Needs
  • April 2008  Graham Van Aggelen and Caren Helbin on Genomics and
    Environmental Assessment
  • April 2008 Training course by Rabel Burdge: Making Social Impact
    Assessment Count for Planners and Resource Managers
  • May 2008 Andrew Robinson and Charlie Palmer present on Windpower
    and Environmental Assessment
  • May 2008 Social Networking Event at Steamworks Pub, Vancouver
  • Fall 2008 Field Trip:  Esquimalt, & Royal Roads, Meeting with Victoria EA
    practitioners
  • Nov. 2008 Participation in IAIA International Conference on Cumulative
    Effects, Calgary AB
  • April 2009  David Lawrence on Significance Determinations in EIA
  • Dec. 2009 Two groups in Vancouver participated in a remote seminar by
    Rebecca Chouinard: Bridging knowledge systems:  Two-way talk about
    mining and regulation in communities
On Oct. 13, 2010, Dr. Carl Schwarz, of
the Department of Statistics and Actuarial
Science, Simon Fraser University,  
presented on
Environment Impact Assessment -
the top 10 statistical aspects.
This talk will reviewed the 10 (or so) most
important aspects of the design and analysis of
impact studies from a statistical perspective.   It
was a non-technical talk illustrating the good/
the bad/ and the ugly and hints on how to move
your design in the first category!

Dr Schwarz’s research program focuses  in two
areas: capture-recapture experiments and
statistical consulting in environmental impact
studies. It is motivated by real problems
encountered by ecologists and health
researchers.

Click here for the handouts from the
talk
The BC Chapter of the International Association for Impact Assessment's Western and Northern
Canada Affiliate (IAIA WNC) is hosting an exciting one-day workshop on
Adaptive Management and Impact Assessment
Adaptive management is a hot topic among impact assessment practitioners.
When it is used appropriately, this tool has enormous potential to help
manage project impacts and cumulative effects.

This workshop will include training by Carol Murray of ESSA Technologies on the basics of
adaptive management:
  • What adaptive management is, and how it differs from other similar approaches
  • How to do adaptive management – key steps and elements
  • When adaptive management is most useful, and when it may not be necessary or
    appropriate

The workshop will also explore:
  • Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency policy on adaptive management
  • Case study of adaptive management in environmental assessment
  • Applying adaptive management to impact assessment (group discussion)

Please join us to network with fellow  practitioners and explore this exciting topic!
When:           January 12, 2011, 9:00AM – 5:00PM
Where:         SFU Downtown campus, Rooms 1400-1410,
                   515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver BC
Registration: $125
Register at https://event-wizard.com/events/iaiaworkshopam/
Note that the maximum registration is 50 people, so register early.
Demystifying the Federal
Environmental Assessment Process
with
Transport Canada in the Pacific Region

A pilot seminar in Vancouver
June 27th, 2011

Click here for details
The BC Chapter of the International Association for Impact Assessment's Western and Northern Canada
Affiliate (IAIA WNC) is hosting an exciting one-day workshop on
Perspectives on “Professional Reliance”
in Impact Assessment - June 23, 2011

What is professional reliance? One definition is “the practice of accepting
and relying upon the decisions and advice of professionals who accept
responsibility and can be held accountable for the decisions they make and
the advice they give.”

The impact assessment process relies on professionals and practitioners from a
wide variety of technical disciplines. Yet the characteristics of an effective impact
assessment process are often more related to communication and the
interrelatedness of ecological, socio-economic, health and political systems-- areas
in which most professionals have limited formal training.

Some of the questions that this workshop will address include:
  • What are the roles, responsibilities and expectations of professionals in the impact
    assessment process?
  • How does reliance on professionals work in other regulated processes?
  • Are there opportunities for professional reliance to make a contribution to delivering
    more efficient, effective and consistent impact assessments?
  • Could the credibility of the impact assessment process benefit from a more defined
    role for professionals?
  • Could the impact assessment process benefit from standards for practitioners?
  • Is there a role for certification of impact assessment practitioners?
  • What are the education and professional development needs for practitioners?

The workshop will include a variety of speakers from government and industry, and a
breakout session to allow participants to voice their thoughts. Our keynote speaker will be
Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland, Associate Deputy Minister, BC Environmental
Assessment Office.

When: June 23, 2011, 9:00AM – 4:00PM
Where: Room 1400, Simon Fraser University Vancouver, 515 West Hastings
Street, Vancouver BC
Cost: $125.00 – Lunch is included.

Click here for registration and more information