Who is On Trudeau’s Environmental Assessment Panel?

"Who is On Trudeau's Environmental Assessment Panel" - INACenergy.com - August 19th, 2016

Trudeau recently announced the creation of an Environmental Assessment Review Panel, this is who is on it.

Johanne Gélinas — Panel Chair

Johanne is a partner at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton’s Strategy and Performance Consulting Groupspecializing in environmental assessments . At RCGT, Johanne holds the position of Sustainability and Greenhouse Gas Management. Before her time at RCGT, she held the position of Sustainable Development and Climate Change Practice at Deloitte, from 2007 to 2012.

From 2000-2007, Johanne was the Canadian Commisionner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. At this position, she handled various environmental issues affecting the country, and ensured the environmental performance of federal agencies.

Johnne has been teaching at the Collefe des Administrateurs de Societes since 2011, and is a certified Global Reporting Initiative Trainer.

She recently led the think tank and public consultation on the social acceptability issue for the Ministère de l’Énergie et des Ressources naturelles du Québec. Johanne is the Chair of the Board at Protogez-Vous magazine and is on the Board of Directors at the Espace Libre Theatre in Quebec.heatre. She was Chair of RECYC-QUÉBEC’s Board of Directors, and was the Commissioner with the Quebec BAPE from 1990-1999.

In 2009, Johanne was awarded the UQAM Recognition Award for her dedication to sustainable development. She won the 2012 Korn/Ferry Award for Enterprise Governance Excellence.  She has also been awarded the Prix Femmes d’affaires du Québec, and has been recognized by the Première en affaires as one of the top eight individuals in Quebec’s governance industry.

Doug Horswill — Panel Member

Until he retired in 2014, Doug spent 20 years at Teck Resources Ltd where he led the sustainability program. During his time at Teck Resources, Doug developed global partnerships between the International Zinc Association and UNICEF to create “Zinc Saves Kids” and the “Zinc Alliance for Child Health”.

Before his time at Tech Resources, Doug served as British Columbia’s Deputy Minister of Finance and Corporate Relations as well as the Deputy Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources. Mr. Horswill graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Mineral Engineering, and a Master’s in Economics.

Doug is the Director of the Sunny Hill Health Center for Children and the Director of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. Doug was also Chairman of the Mining Association of Canada, and the Mining Association of British Columbia. Doug has held past positions as the Director of the Business Council of British Columbia, and Director at St Paul’s Hospital Foundation. He is an Executive in Residence for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

For his contributions to the international development charitable sector, Doug was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee medal.

Rod Northey — Panel Member

Rod Northey is an environmental lawyer and partner in the Toronto office of Gowling WLG. He is now in his 27th year of private practice and certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a specialist in environmental law.

Rod is currently serving as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Toronto’s Osgoode Hall Law School’s Municipal Law LLM program for a graduate course on environmental protection

Rod is the current author of the 2016 Guide to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (LexisNexis), a 1994 annotation of federal environmental assessment law and panel reviews, and law journal articles on infrastructure planning, and federalism and environmental law.

Rod has also received much recognition by his peers in national and international listings, including Lexpert, Canada’s Best Lawyers, and Who’s Who Legal: The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers.

Throughout his career, Rod has been active in environmental law reform. He has been retained by the federal government to deal with the precautionary principle, apply environmental assessment to Crown corporations, and apply environmental assessment to projects outside Canada. He has also appeared before parliamentary committees on constitutional law and environmental assessment. In Ontario, Rod has served on the 2004 task force to establish the Ontario Greenbelt, and also on the 2005 advisory committee to reform environmental assessment to better address green energy, transit and waste management projects.

Outside his legal practice, Rod is currently chair of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation and the Greenbelt Fund.

Renée Pelletier — Panel Member

Renée Pelletier is the managing partner at Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, one of Canada’s leading Aboriginal rights law firms. Renée is Maliseet and grew up in Falls View, Nova Scotia. Renée practices environmental law and  regularly advises and represents her Indigenous clients on consultation matters, regulatory and environmental matters, reserve land management, environmental assessments, impacts and benefits agreements.

Her current practice includes work on Aboriginal and treaty rights litigation and specific claims. Renée was cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in the high-profile case R. v. Ipeelee, 2012 SCC 13. She has litigated multiple judicial review applications and has appeared before various levels of courts. Renée is especially passionate about assisting her Indigenous clients in achieving greater self-determination, and strives to incorporate the legal traditions of her Indigenous clients into the environmental assessments she performs on their behalf.

Renée has worked at Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, volunteered for the Native Women’s Resource Centre, and worked with the Innocence Project about the case of Native American Activist Leonard Peltier. Renée was also a Native Court Worker at College Park Criminal Court.

Renée is currently  member of the New Brunswick and Ontario Bars. She is French Acadian, and she is fluent in both French and English. Renée is also a member of the Indigenous Bar Association.