Steering Committee

Our Steering Committee is comprised of experts drawn from a range of sectors and from locations across Canada. The Committee provides high-level guidance, strategy and oversight for the project.

 

Mark Cameron

Mark Cameron has over 15 years experience working in government, consulting, and industry, with a focus on public policy. Mark has worked for several MPs and cabinet ministers, including the Hon. David Anderson and the Hon. Stephane Dion and in the Privy Council Office, and also worked as federal director of the High Park Group, a consultancy with a focus on environmental and energy policy. From 2006 to 2009 he served as Director of Policy and Research and Senior Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Rt. Hon Stephen Harper. He later worked for Ontario Power Generation as Director, Corporate Affairs and recently joined Research In Motion as Director, Global Public Policy. Educated at McGill University and the University of British Columbia, Mark holds a BA (Hons.) and MA in Political Science from UBC.

Mark also serves on the Boards of the Canadian-American Business Council, the Canada-India Business Council, and the Advisory Committees of the Pembina Institute and the Munk Debates.

Michael Cleland

Mr. Cleland is a private consultant with extensive experience in energy and environment policy. He is currently Nexen Executive in Residence at the Canada West Foundation.

He is formerly President and CEO of the Canadian Gas Association. Prior to joining CGA, he was Senior Vice President Government Affairs for the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA). In 2000 he was Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM), Energy Sector in the Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), formerly Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) and before that, Director General of the Energy Policy Branch. From 1987 to January 1990, he was Assistant Director, Resource Policy Division in the Department of Finance. Before joining the federal government in 1987, Mr. Cleland worked in Nova Scotia where, he was a principal in the firm of Cleland, Dunsmuir Consulting Ltd., lecturer in business/government relations at the school of Public Administration at Dalhousie University and academic editor of Plan Canada, the journal of the Canadian Institute of Planners. From 1982 to 1985, he was Associate Director of the Centre for Development Projects at Dalhousie University where he was responsible for various management training projects in Zimbabwe and the countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Prior to joining Dalhousie University, he occupied a number of positions at the Nova Scotia Departments of Development and Municipal Affairs.

Mr. Cleland was born in Quesnel, British Columbia, and educated at the University of British Columbia (BA in political science 1972) and Queens (MPL urban and regional planning 1974).

 

Stewart Elgie (Chair, Sustainable Prosperity)

Stewart Elgie is a professor of law and economics at the University of Ottawa, and director of the University’s interdisciplinary Environment Institute. He received his Masters of Law from Harvard, and his doctorate (J.S.D.) from Yale (thesis on forest carbon markets). He is also the founder and chair of Sustainable Prosperity, Canada’s major green economy think tank and policy-research network. His research involves many aspects of environmental and economic sustainability, with a particular focus in recent years on market-based approaches.

Elgie started his career as an environmental lawyer in Alaska, litigating over the Valdez oil spill. He returned to Canada and founded Ecojustice, now Canada’s largest non-profit environmental law organization. He was later hired by Pew Trusts as founding executive director of the multi-stakeholder Canadian Boreal Initiative. Prior to his faculty position at University of Ottawa (2004), Elgie held appoints (part-time) at several Canadian universities (U.B.C., Alberta, York). He has served on or chaired many advisory bodies in the environment/sustainability area. In 2001, Elgie was awarded the Law Society of Upper Canada medal for exceptional lifetime contributions to law – the youngest man ever to receive the profession’s highest honour.

 

Daniel Gagnier

Mr. Dan Gagnier was appointed Chief of Staff to Quebec Premier Jean Charest in 2007, and stepped down from the position in September, 2009. Mr. Gagnier was formerly Alcan Inc.'s senior vice president, Corporate and External Affairs. In this position, his responsibilities icluded corporate communications, government relations and environment, health and safety. Prior to joining Alcan in 1994, Mr. Gagnier held a number of senior positions with the governments of Canada, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Mr. Gagnier was Chair of the International Organization's technical committee on Environmental Management (ISO/TC 207). Mr. Gagnier is the past Chairman, Board of Directors, for the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, past chair of the Canadian Standards Association, and past chair of the International Emissions Trading Association. He is currently the Chairman of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a member of the Board of Governors, McGill University, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Asia-Pacific Foundation as well as Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

Andrew Heintzman

Andrew Heintzman is the President of Investeco Capital Corp, the first Canadian investment company to be exclusively focused on investing in environmental sectors (www.investeco.com). Andrew was co-editor of Fueling the Future: How the Battle Over Energy is Changing Everything, and Feeding the Future: From Fat to Famine, Solving the World’s Food Crises, critically acclaimed books published by The House of Anansi Press. Prior to Investeco, Andrew was the founder and publisher of Shift Magazine, an award-winning consumer magazine about technology. He was also a founder of d~Code, a youth-marketing firm. Andrew is a director of The Sustainability Network, Lotek Wireless Inc., Triton Logging and Rowe Farms Inc.

Jane McDonald

Jane McDonald is a Senior Business Analyst at Manitoba Hydro. She was the previous Executive Director of Sustainable Prosperity. Before that, she served as the Director of Competitiveness and Carbon Markets for Environment Canada and negotiator for the Canadian delegation to the UN climate negotiations. She was recruited to government from her role as Associate Vice-President of international carbon brokers CO2e.com—Cantor Fitzgerald. She has served as Adjunct Professor of Environmental Finance at the University of Toronto and as a board member for the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Clean Air Canada and the Research Network for Business Sustainability at the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario. In 2007-2008 she was awarded an Action Canada Fellowship for leadership in Canadian public policy.

Ms. McDonald started her career in Austin, Texas as Conservation Director for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. She has served as Adjunct Professor of Environmental Finance at the University of Toronto, and as a board member for the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Clean Air Canada and the Research Network for Business Sustainability at the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario.

In 2007-2008 she was awarded an Action Canada Fellowship for leadership in Canadian public policy.

Preston Manning

Mr. Manning served as a Member of the Canadian Parliament from 1993 to 2001. He founded two new political parties – the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance – both of which became the official Opposition in the Canadian Parliament. Mr. Manning served as Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2000. In 2007 he was made a Companion of the Order ofCanada. Since retirement from Parliament in 2002, Mr. Manning has served as a Senior Fellow of the Canada West Foundation and as a Distinguished Visitor at the University of Calgary and University of Toronto. He is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors and is an Institute Certified Corporate Director. Mr. Manning is currently a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute and President and CEO of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy.

Velma McColl

Velma McColl joined Earnscliffe in February 2004. Ms. McColl served as both senior policy and communications advisors to federal Cabinet Ministers across four portfolios – Environment, Industry, Health and Fisheries & Oceans. In these capacities, she played a leading role in issues such as climate change, energy, regional economic development, Canada’s competitiveness and innovation challenges, and sustainable development. She has an interest in alternate dispute resolution and has worked to find creative solutions across federal/provincial/territorial and international boundaries. Ms. McColl has experience across the public policy spectrum from business to not-for-profit organizations to the public sector. Her career includes success as an entrepreneur as well as projects in the arts, fisheries, conservation, and communication.

Alan Nymark

Alan Nymark served as Deputy Minister in the departments of the environment, customs and revenue, and human resources and social development. He held senior executive positions in the fields of health, industry and science policy, trade negotiations, and the Privy Council Office. He also worked at the IMF, the Royal Bank, the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects and Finance Canada. Mr. Nymark consults widely in the areas of growth and sustainability.

Nancy Olewiler

Nancy Olewiler is a Professor in, and the Director of the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University. She spent much of her career in economics departments at Queen’s University and SFU. Her PhD is in economics with a specialization in Resource and Environmental Economics from the University of British Columbia. She has published in academic journals, edited books, has written two widely used textbooks (The Economics of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Economics (3rd ed. Forthcoming), and produced numerous reports for the Canadian federal and provincial governments on a wide range of environmental and natural resource issues, including studies in the energy field, natural capital and ecological fiscal reform, policies for GHG mitigation, and federal business tax policy. She is an advisor for the Environment and Economy Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) and Latin America and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program (LACEEP) where she helps supervise research undertaken by Asian and Latin American researchers on environmental and natural resource economics. Nancy is on the Board of Directors for TransLink and Powertech.

 

David Runnalls (Acting Executive Director, Sustainable Prosperity)

David Runnalls was President of International Institute for Sustainable Development for the last 11 years. He has served as Co-Chair of the China Council Task Force on WTO and Environment. Runnalls was the Leopold Fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a member of the federal External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation (EACSR). He serves as Chair of the Adjudication Panel for the ALCAN Prize for Sustainability. He is a member of the Board of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the United Nations University. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Partnerships to the Minister for International Cooperation; a member of the Environment Canada Cross-Cutting Issues table and a member of the Advisory Council for Export Development Canada. He also serves on the Inquiry Team for Tomorrow’s Global Company.

Research Network Committee

W.L. (Vic) Adamowicz - Co-chair, Ecosystem Services

Vic Adamowicz is Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences, former Canada Research Chair (Tier 1), and currently University Professor in the Department of Rural Economy, University of Alberta. He obtained his BSc and MSc from the University of Alberta and his PhD from the University of Minnesota.

Adamowicz’s research interests are in developing methods that integrate environmental goods and services into economic analysis and designing policies and institutions that help capture the importance of environmental services in economic decision-making. His main research areas include environmental valuation, economic assessment of environmental changes, and consumer choice modeling. His research interests also include the incorporation of economic perspectives into sustainable forest management and the development and implementation of economic instruments for environmental protection.

Adamowicz was the Scientific Director of the Sustainable Forest Management Network of Centres of Excellence, one of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence, from 1998 to 2004. He was awarded the J Gordin Kaplan Award for Excellence in Research in March 2005 and the Canadian Institute of Forestry’s Canadian Forestry Scientific Achievement Award in October, 2004. He was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy II – Social Sciences, in 2007. In 2001-2002 Adamowicz was a Gilbert White Visiting Fellow at Resources for the Future in Washington DC and in 1998/99 he was a Killam Annual Professor at the University of Alberta.

Kathryn Harrison - Co-chair, Low Carbon Economy

Kathryn Harrison is a Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia. She has a Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Western Ontario, Master's degrees in political science and chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in political science from UBC. She is also a Fulbright scholar. Before entering academia, she worked as a policy analyst for both Environment Canada and the United States Congress.

Dr. Harrison’s current research focuses on environmental regulation in the context of economic globalization, the efficacy of alternative policy instruments, and comparative politics of climate change. She is the author of Passing the Buck: Federalism and Canadian Environmental Policy (UBC Press, 1996), co-author of Risk, Science, and Politics: Regulation of Toxic Substances in Canada and the United States (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994), co-editor of Managing the Environmental Union (Queen’s University School of Policy Studies, 2000), and editor of Racing to the Bottom? Provincial Interdependence in the Canadian Federation (UBC Press, 2000). She has published recent articles in Global Environmental Politics, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the Canadian Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Harry Kitchen - Co-Chair, Sustainable Communities

Harry Kitchen is Professor Emeritus in the Economics Department at Trent University. Over the past twenty years, he has completed more than 100 articles, reports, studies, and books on issues relating to local government expenditures, finance and governance in Canada and abroad. In addition, he has served as a consultant or advisor for a number of municipal and provincial governments in Canada, the federal government, foreign governments in Russia and China, and some private sector institutions.

Nancy Olewiler - Co-chair, Economy-Wide and Emerging Issues

Nancy Olewiler is a Professor in, and the Director of the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University. She spent much of her career in economics departments at Queen’s University and SFU. Her PhD is in economics with a specialization in Resource and Environmental Economics from the University of British Columbia. She has published in academic journals, edited books, has written two widely used textbooks (The Economics of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Economics (3rd ed. Forthcoming), and produced numerous reports for the Canadian federal and provincial governments on a wide range of environmental and natural resource issues, including studies in the energy field, natural capital and ecological fiscal reform, policies for GHG mitigation, and federal business tax policy. She is an advisor for the Environment and Economy Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) and Latin America and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program (LACEEP) where she helps supervise research undertaken by Asian and Latin American researchers on environmental and natural resource economics. Nancy is on the Board of Directors for TransLink and Powertech.

Nic Rivers – Co-chair, Low Carbon Economy

Nic Rivers is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the Institute of the Environment at the University of Ottawa. His research involves the evaluation and analysis of environmental and energy policies, and is conducted using a variety of methods, including simulation models and econometric analysis. He has written academic articles for energy, environment, and economics journals, and has co-authored Hot Air: Meeting Canada’s Climate Change Challenge. In addition, Nic has conducted research on behalf of all levels of government, industry, and non- governmental organizations on issues related to energy efficiency and climate change program evaluation, policy analysis and development, and economic modeling. He has received major national awards for his research from the Trudeau Foundation and the National Science and Engineering Research Council. He currently holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.

Enid Slack - Co-Chair, Sustainable Communities

Dr. Enid Slack is the Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance and an Adjunct Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. She teaches a graduate course in urban public finance to the planning students. Enid chairs the Intergovernmental Committee for Economic and Labour Force Development in Toronto (ICE) and is a member of the Associations Advisory Committee of the Ontario Municipal Knowledge Network (OMKN), the Policy and Research Advisory Council of The LearningPartnership, and the Advisory Board of the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI). In 2009-10, she chaired the Municipal Port Property Taxation Fairness Commission in Metro Vancouver. Enid has co-authored three books, co-edited two books, and published numerous articles on urban public finance in Canada and abroad.

Marian Weber – Co-chair, Ecosystem Services

Marian Weber has a PhD in economics and leads Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures Environmental Planning and Economics Program and has worked with researchers, governments and NGOs across Canada to develop and test market based approaches for managing land and water resources, and for stewardship and conservation on private and public lands. Marian has authored a number of reports and peer reviewed publications, and has been instrumental in shaping stewardship policies in Alberta through her involvement with the Land Use Framework, the Beaver Hills Initiative, and Alberta’s Water for Life Strategy. Through research funded by the Sustainable Forest Management Network she proposed and investigated a new tool, Tradable Disturbance Permits, for cumulative effects management on public lands. She also developed a proof of concept for a conservation offset market in Alberta’s boreal forest area for Alberta’s Land Use Secretariat, and is currently examining how conservation offsets could encourage progressive and enhanced reclamation in Alberta’s oilsands area. In 2006, Marian worked with Strathcona County and the Beaver Hills Initiative (BHI) on a feasibility study for Transferable Development Credits. As a result of the project, Strathcona County and BHI stakeholders initiated a pilot program to test implementation options for this instrument. Other experience includes the evaluation of water allocation and trading rules in the South Saskatchewan River Basin to address economic, social, and environmental objectives, and assessing the costs of Beneficial Management Practices for water quality improvements in Manitoba’s South Tobacco Creek Watershed. In 2009 Marian initiated the Center for Market Based Instruments, a Canadian network to support developers and users of market-based approaches to conservation through knowledge transfer, research, and practice.

Staff

Executive Director - Mike Wilson

Raised in New Brunswick, Mike began his career as a lawyer in Toronto, left to become senior policy adviser to the federal Environment Minister, and then went on to hold a series of increasingly senior roles in the Government of Canada working at the intersection of the environment, economy and innovation. For example: he spearheaded a successful public-private initiative to strengthen the role of sustainability in investment decisions, partnering with financial leaders; he led a partnership with the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine to annually rank the sustainability of Canada’s largest companies; and he was one of the principle architects of the Government’s initiative to create Sector Sustainability Tables for mining, energy, chemicals and forestry sectors. Mike’s skills as a manager and innovator earned him rapid promotion in government – most recently, leading a staff of 80 with a $10 million budget. Mike has long held a firm belief that ‘green’ and ‘growth’ can go hand in hand and a passion for making that happen. He will bring this passion and experience to his new role at the helm of Sustainable Prosperity.
.

Acting Executive Director - David Runnalls

David Runnalls was President of International Institute for Sustainable Development for the last 11 years. He has served as Co-Chair of the China Council Task Force on WTO and Environment. Runnalls was the Leopold Fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a member of the federal External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation (EACSR). He serves as Chair of the Adjudication Panel for the ALCAN Prize for Sustainability. He is a member of the Board of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the United Nations University. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Partnerships to the Minister for International Cooperation; a member of the Environment Canada Cross-Cutting Issues table and a member of the Advisory Council for Export Development Canada. He also serves on the Inquiry Team for Tomorrow’s Global Company.
.

Senior Director, Policy and Markets - Alexander Wood

Alex brings extensive experience in the integration of economic and environmental issues in both the U.S. and Canada and joins Sustainable Prosperity from TD Bank Financial Group where he served as Special Advisor, Corporate Environmental Affairs. Before helping to position TD as a leader among North American financial institutions on the issue of climate change, Alex served as Acting Chief Executive Officer and President of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE). In his tenure at NRTEE he also developed a national program examining the role of fiscal policy in promoting the long-term reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Alex started his career with the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C., where he worked on issues related to international financial institutions.
.

Director, Research - Brandon Schaufele

Brandon has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Ottawa as well as an MA in economics and a PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Alberta. He completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and previously worked in corporate finance specializing in mid-market mergers and acquisitions. Brandon’s research spans disciplinary boundaries, focusing on political economy, wetland conservation and agricultural policy. Brandon was raised in the city of Medicine Hat located in the Southeast corner of Alberta. He is also cross-appointed to the University of Ottawa’s Department of Economics and Institute of the Environment.
.

Senior Advisor - Stephanie Cairns

Stephanie was the sustainable policy analyst for the Official Opposition from 1991 to 1993, and returned to Parliament Hill in 1997 to be a strategic policy advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office. She founded the Pembina Institute’s Ecological Fiscal Reform program in 1994, and took a lead role in early policy debates on ecological fiscal reform, climate change and energy policy. From 1999 to 2008 she worked as a consultant in the field of sustainable development, providing policy analysis and strategy to think tanks, federal government departments, leadership corporations and non-government organizations, making a major contribution to the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy’s programs on Ecological Fiscal Reform and Long Term Energy and Climate Change Strategies. Stephanie serves on the Boards of the International Institute for Sustainable Development and of Training Resources for the Environmental Community; is a Trustee Emeritus and Past President of the Board of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society; and was a member of the President's Advisory Council of the Royal Society of Canada. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto and of the industrial environmental economics program at Lund University, Sweden.

Director, Sustainable Communities - David Thompson

David Thompson is Director of Sustainable Communities for Sustainable Prosperity, and Principal of PolicyLink Research and Consulting – an Edmonton-based public policy consultancy. He co-authored Sustainable Prosperity’s “Smart Budget: A Background Paper on Environmental Pricing Reform for Local Governments,” and was the principal researcher for “The Smart Budget Toolkit”. He has also prepared briefing documents on EPR for the City of Edmonton and the Toronto City Summit Alliance. He has worked as a lawyer in government and in the civil society sector, in management, as a small business owner, and as a researcher and organizational development consultant. He has postgraduate degrees in law and environmental economics.

Communications Manager - Jennifer Wesanko

Jennifer Wesanko brings 15 years of experience in strategic communications in the private, political and NGO sectors. Prior to joining Sustainable Prosperity, Jennifer worked as a senior manager at Hoggan & Associates where she advanced and supported several innovative and forward-thinking projects for clients in the clean energy, urban sustainability and transportation sectors. Jennifer served for several years as an advisor to senior federal ministers, including the federal Environment Minister. Jennifer has also been a guest lecturer in communications at Ryerson University.

Research Associate - Dana Krechowicz

Dana has five years of international experience working at the intersection of business and environmental sustainability. Prior to joining Sustainable Prosperity, Dana worked in the capital markets research team at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington DC. While at WRI, Dana co-authored a series of reports examining the financial impacts of environmental risks on key sectors in South and Southeast Asia, working closely with HSBC's Climate Change Centre of Excellence. She also analyzed the financial impacts of comprehensive cap and trade legislation on the US chemicals sector, with Standard and Poor's. Prior to WRI, Dana worked as an equity analyst in the Paris and Toronto offices of Innovest (now MSCI), rating the exposure of companies in a variety of sectors to environmental, social and corporate governance risks and opportunities. Dana graduated from the Schulich School of Business with an International MBA specialized in sustainability and holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University. During her MBA studies she completed an internship with MBAs Without Borders in Warsaw, Poland, where she evaluated the corporate sustainability reporting practices of 150 companies in 15 emerging economies. Dana also undertook a semester exchange at a leading French business school, École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (ESSEC).
.

 

Network Coordinator - Danielle Perreault

Danielle is a recent graduate of an Honours Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing from the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. She has organized conferences and workshops on sustainable business, and received the Alterna Savings Social Responsibility Leadership Award. Being part of the CO-OP Program has given her the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in marketing, project management and consulting with sustainability-focused employers such as Transport Canada’s Environmental Protection Group and TerraChoice/EcoLogo. She coordinates research projects, activities and events for Sustainable Prosperity, among other communications projects and administrative tasks. Her main project will be a collaborative online platform that will foster environment-economy ideas.
.

Executive Assistant - Sarah Van Stiphout

Having grown up in Northern Ontario's Boreal forest, Sarah developed an interest early on for working on the protection, preservation and sustainability of our natural resources. She has an extensive background in law, including past work with Ecojustice (formerly Sierra Legal Defence). This experience, as well as her involvement with environmental and social justice issues, has shaped her current interest in Sustainable Prosperity’s goal of working towards a greener economy. Sarah is eager to have a hand in the development of SP, and is excited to collaborate with staff and network members to ensure its success.

.

Online Communications and Administrative Assistant -- Brittany Richardson

Brittany recently completed her Honours Biology degree at the University of Ottawa with a specialization in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour. Her research interests include the effects of current environmental policy on ecosystem management, and its interaction with the economy. In 2011, she brought these two interests together while doing her honours research project on national protected areas in Canada. At SP, Brittany maintains the contact database, updates website content, assists with financial management and provides various technical support.
.
.

Research Intern - Jessica McClay

Jessica McClay is a law student entering her second year at the University of Ottawa. She discovered an interest in environmental law and policy as she completed her Bachelor’s in Public Affairs and Policy Management and minor in Geography at Carleton. As a student, she worked with Alberta Environment’s Environmental Policy Branch and with Industry Canada. Upon graduation was hired on at Industry Canada. Her work at Industry included assisting in the preparation of a survey on Canadian manufacturers’ readiness for a low-carbon economy and leading a research project on the standardization of renewable energy technologies. She has also worked as an assistant project manager at the Canadian Solar Industries Association. In her spare time, Jessica enjoys singing, cycling, and staying active.

 

National Student Working Group

 
The National Student Working Group (NSWG), active since Summer 2009, provides a space for student researchers working on environment-economy issues in Canada and beyond to network, and provide support, feedback, ideas, contacts and resources to each other. These students will have opportunities to build strong collaborative partnerships with an excellent national roster of mentors, advisors and collaborators, to participate in national and international events, to receive training in green economy issues, and to undertake small research, writing and editing contracts.

 

Rupert Allen

Rupert Allen is currently pursing graduate studies in public policy at Carleton University where he focuses on issues of Sustainable Development and Climate Change. Prior to this he obtained his Masters in Art Theory and Philosophy from the University of Essex, and his BA from Carleton. Mr. Allen presently works for Industry Canada where he focuses on the economic repercussions of carbon regulation scenarios and the possible effects that these will have on industry and business. He also works on the intersection between sustainable development and the financial markets, and the factors of influence between the two. Rupert is also a research assistant at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation where he concentrates on issues of responsible investing and shareholder engagement. Rupert’s research interests include looking at how the financial markets value and use ESG indicators, as well as Climate Risk, how Canadian companies are screening for it and incorporating it, and emission trading systems.

Robb Barnes

Robb Barnes is currently pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Based on past experience with the environmental NGO community, he has developed a strong interest in issues of energy, ecological economics and related policy. Combined with his experience with geographical information systems and interest in municipal and regional planning, this has led him to pursue research on public finance mechanisms to curb urban sprawl. His master’s research project on this subject was recently accepted to be presented at the International Society for Ecological Economics’ June 2012 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Amanda Card

Amanda is a graduate student in the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University. She previously obtained a BA in International Development and a BA in History from the University of Calgary. In the summer of 2011, Amanda worked as a research assistant with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on their Climate Justice Project, co-authoring three publications on social and economic implications of climate change for Canada. Her Master’s research project investigates the relationship between corporate GHG emissions reduction policies and performance of emissions-intensive industries in BC. She currently holds a CGS Master’s scholarship from SSHRC.

Alastair Fraser

Alastair Fraser earned his B.Sc. in Honours Physics at the University of Victoria, before moving to the University of Alberta to complete a M.Sc. in Condensed Matter Physics. While at the University of Alberta, he helped lead a delegation of student leaders to learn about the oilsands industry in Fort McMurray, and coordinated three student groups in organizing a novel speakers' series addressing the future of Alberta's oilsands resource. After completing his M.Sc, Alastair worked as a researcher studying nanomagnetism through nanotechnology, a research assistant investigating implications of technological progress on alternative energy adoption, and as a manager of a water filter factory in Kenya. These experiences motivated Alastair to leave physics for an MA in economics at Queen's University, where he currently is. Alastair intends to continue studying economics at the PhD level with a focus on sustainability issues.

David Gordon

David Gordon is a PhD student in the department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Currently in his second year of studies in the fields of International Relations and Comparative Politics, he is also a member of the Dynamics of Global Change collaborative program based at the Munk Centre for International Studies. He holds a Masters degree in Political Science and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Manitoba. Prior to graduate school, David was the Managing Partner of ViewSource Media Inc, a Winnipeg‐based design and communications firm. David’s research interests lie at the intersection of global and local politics, and specifically in the governance responses to climate change that are emerging across scales. Current research underway looks at the impact of governance networks on climate change policy in Canadian cities, the representation of local interests in global climate adaptation institutions, and the evolution of city networks as transnational climate governance institutions. Other interests include the evolution of Multilevel Governance as a theoretical framework, and the role of ideas and norms in politics.

Jonathan Holmes

Jonathan Holmes is an undergraduate student studying Economics and Political Science at the University of Ottawa, and is expected to graduate in 2011. After graduating, he plans on pursuing postgraduate work in the field of environmental economics. As an undergraduate student, Jonathan’s research interests are broad. He is particularly interested in environmental valuation and natural capital, the effects of a carbon tax in the Canadian context, and the impact of agricultural policy on sustainable farming practices. Jonathan is a recipient of the Loran Award, administered by the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation.

David Houle

David Houle is a PhD candidate (ABD) at the Department of Political science and the Centre for Environment at the University of Toronto. He holds a master’s degree in policy analysis (2007) and a bachelor’s degree in economics and politics (2005) from Université Laval. He was awarded several graduate scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC), and the University of Toronto.

His research focuses on climate change and atmospheric pollutant policies in federal and provincial governments in Canada. Other research interests include Canadian politics, public policy, comparative politics, and qualitative and quantitative methods. David’s recent publications are “Climate compared: Sub-federal Dominance on a Global Issue” (with Barry Rabe and Erick Lachapelle, In Canada Compared, UBC press, forthcoming), “Comprendre le choix des instruments de politique publique en matière de changements climatiques au Canada” (with Douglas Macdonald, in Télescope, 2011), “L’utilisation du volontarisme afin de contrôler les émissions de gaz à effet de serre du secteur industriel au Québec et au Canada: les cas des programmes VCR et ÉcoGESte” (with Douglas Macdonald and Caitlin Patterson, in Crête, Jean, ed., Politiques environnementales et accords volontaires. Le volontarisme comme instrument de politiques environnementales au Québec, Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2011), and “Trente ans d’interventions du ministère de l’Environnement du Québec. Un premier inventaire” (with Carole Beaudoin et Jean Mercier, in Globe - Revue internationale d'études québécoises, 2006).

James Lin

James Lin is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Alberta. He has a Bachelor’s degree from McGill and a Master’s degree from Queen’s, both in economics. James’ thesis topic is the economics of carbon capture and storage for fossil fuel-based electricity production, focusing on the strategic market power aspects of introducing CCS into the Alberta electricity market. This topic revolves around the ability of electrical suppliers to withhold capacity and the relevance and timing of the CCS decision. James has worked with the Canadian Building Energy End-Use Data and Analysis Centre, analyzing energy efficiency. He was also a contributing author to the report “Nuclear Energy in Alberta: What You Need to Know”, and a speaker in the accompanying panel discussion.

 

Dana Medianu

Dana Medianu is a research assistant with the Centre for the Study of International Economic Relations (CSIER) at the University of Western Ontario. She has been involved in projects focusing on Brazil, China and India and on environment and growth. Her research interests include topics such as natural capital and productivity, sustainable growth and environmental quality. Dana Medianu will graduate with an honours degree in Economics in 2012 and then she plans to pursue graduate studies in Economics. On her spare time, she enjoys watching movies, hiking and travelling.

Marcel Oestreich

Marcel Oestreich is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Guelph specializing in the fields Microeconomics and Empirical Finance. He obtained his Masters in Economics from York University in Toronto and he holds a University Diploma Degree in Business and Economics from the University of Cologne in Germany.

Marcel’s dissertation examines topics on the efficient design of market-based environmental policies. Currently, he is finishing a research project wherein he develops a game-theory model designed to optimize audit decisions for an underfunded regulatory agency. Efficient audit decisions are integral to implementing tax systems, such as emissions tax, without wasting public resources. Concurrently, Marcel is involved in a research project about the European Emission Trading Scheme. The goal of this project is to evaluate empirically the impacts of the value of carbon credit certificates on the stock returns of affected companies.
Marcel is a 2011-2012 OGS scholarship holder and he won the research award of the German Association of Experimental Economics in 2010. Marcel will receive his Ph.D. Degree in Economics in 2013.

Laurel Pentelow

Laurel Pentelow is a Doctoral Candidate in the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.  During this degree she will be under the supervision of Stewart Elgie. She obtained her Honours BES and MA at the University of Waterloo, where her focus was on environmental issues and their integration with business and policy.

Laurel’s research interests cross the disciplines of environment, economics, general business and law. While her progression of degrees may appear slightly unorthodox she believes their diversity will help achieve her career goal of being an academic who specializes in understanding and integrating disciplines which historically have had challenges working together. More specifically, her current research interests are in market mechanism policies and how they can be used to mitigate environmental challenges – in particular the protection of biodiversity. She has also done work in climate policy with a focus on aviation and tourism, climate change and economics, largely looking at valuing non-market goods.

Laurel currently holds a CGS doctoral Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council scholarship and was the recipient of Ontario Graduate Scholarships throughout her Master’s studies. She worked as a research assistant for the Adaptation and Impacts Research Group of Environment Canada while receiving her Master’s degree and for them as a coop student while completing her undergraduate education.  Her work there ranged from topics of Agricultural odour standards and bylaws across Canada to estimating impacts and damages from lightning strikes and reviewing literature on climate change, weather and economics.

Ekaterina Petropavlova

Ekaterina Petropavlova is a Doctoral student in Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. Ekaterina’s research takes an integrative behavioural approach to design acceptable and effective climate change policies in Canada, an issue that concerns Canadian governments and the scientific community alike. Ekaterina holds a Bachelor’s degree with Honours in Management from St. Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics (Russia) and a Master’s degree with Distinction in International Business from Aston University (UK). Ekaterina is a recipient of multiple Federal Research Grants in Russia, a graduate scholarship of the Canadian Association for Energy Economics, and a research grant from Sustainable Prosperity. In addition to her academic life, Ekaterina is a member of the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association, the International Association for Energy Economics, and an alumnus of the world’s biggest student-run organization, AIESEC, that helps gifted students become successful leaders.

Dave Poulton

Dave is a graduate student in the Natural Resources, Energy and Environment program at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law. His research interests include market-based conservation, parks and protected areas and land-use planning. Dave is also a consultant on environmental strategies to organizations and businesses, with has a special interest in fostering cross-sectoral collaborations. Dave served as Executive Director of the Calgary/Banff (now Southern Alberta) Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society from 2000 to 2008, and Conservation Director of that organization from 1999 to 2000. Prior to joining CPAWS, Dave practiced law in Calgary for 11 years. He holds a B.A. and M.A., in political science from the University of Calgary, and LL.B. from Dalhousie University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Environmental Law Centre in Edmonton, Alberta.

Joshua Prowse

Joshua Prowse is a law student at the University of Victoria. He previously completed a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Political Science at Carleton University, where he wrote an honours thesis on the politics of carbon taxes. Joshua serves on the Board of Directors of the Government of Canada’s Katimavik youth volunteer program. He previously worked for the Government of the Northwest Territories, working for their Department of Industry, and has spent time living throughout Canada’s north – including in Labrador and Nunavut. Joshua is an avid canoeist and cyclist, and has volunteered with the Ottawa-based NGO ‘The Otesha Project’ to bicycle through Canada while putting on a play about the environment. Joshua’s research interests are in the area of strategies for cultivating popular support for environmental reforms in Canada’s north.

Jonathan Voegele

Jonathan is a J.D. Candidate at Vermont Law School where he is ranked in the top three percent of his class of over two-hundred students. He is a research associate at the Environmental Tax Policy Institute and the Institute on Energy and the Environment, giving him a unique perspective on market-based instruments and how they can be used to meet modern energy challenges. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Vermont Law Review. Jonathan received his M.A. in international politics from New York University and his B.A. in political science from The University of Chicago. His academic interests include the use of market-based initiatives to support the private sector in its role as the major agent for solving a broad range of energy and financial challenges.