December 5, 2019
ECO Canada IA Training
I really enjoyed putting on the Impact Assessment course for ECO Canada. We hosted two events in November 2019: one in Calgary and one in Toronto, with almost 50 enthusiastic participants. I started developing the course about a year ago, and did a major update based on the new Impact Assessment Act. I introduced it as “exploring the basics, in terms of the IA process, and the history and evolving legislation in Canada.”
My feeling was that the IA process can be overwhelmingly complex for new practitioners and with associated legislation continuing to evolve, it can be difficult to keep on top of the emerging changes and challenging to convey all of the important nuances to staff tasked with implementation.
The two-day interactive course began with an overview of IA, from its foundation in systems theory and rational planning theory, to the step-by-step process of project scoping, data gathering, public/Indigenous engagement, and methods of assessing project effects, cumulative effects, mitigation and monitoring. It also included information on IA legislation, including the evolution of the federal process, the IS, a description of the new federal act, and an overview of the provincial process.
One aspect I focused on was the use of lots of case studies and group sessions to work through examples of how to apply the various training modules. One of the benefits of being in the industry for more than 30 years is that I have a fairly deep pool to draw from and there was lots of good discussion.
The feedback seemed to be really positive, so we’ll likely be continuing to host sessions in the new year.