Strategic Conference Program 2024
Wednesday 25 September 2024
Thursday 26 September 2024
09:00 10:00
10:00 10:15
Emelie Wood-Forsberg
Senior Conference Producer
dmg events
Irene Compton
Manager, Cultural Program
Minwaashin Lodge
10:15 10:30
Nahuel Arenas Garcia
Chief of the Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
10:30 10:45
Honourable Trevor Jones
Associate Minister, Emergency Preparedness and Response
Government of Ontario
10:45 11:30
The Canadian National Adaption Strategy (NAS) presents a shared vision for climate resilience in Canada and a framework to measure progress nationally and represents a major leap towards a coordinated and effective nationwide respons...(Read More)
Moderator:
Kathryn Bakos
Managing Director, Finance and Resilience, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation
University of Waterloo
Panelists:
Ryan Ness
Director, Adaptation
Canadian Climate Institute
Beth Gooding
Director of Public Safety Service
City of Ottawa
Joanna Eyquem
Managing Director, Climate-Resilient Infrastructure, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, Faculty of Environment
University of Waterloo
11:30 11:45
Host:
Ron Hoffmann
Vice President, Business Development and Public Relations
Alexander Chemical Ltd
Speaker:
Kathryn Bakos
Managing Director, Finance and Resilience, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation
University of Waterloo
11:45 12:00
Henry Seywerd
Program Manager, Earthquake Early Warning
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
12:00 13:30
13:30 14:30
Disasters in Canada are increasing in frequency and severity across the country, and events such as flooding in Nova Scotia to wildfires across Canada, 2023 was dominated by climate-change-induced disasters, which overwhelmed authori...(Read More)
Moderator:
Jodi Manz-Henezi
President
Canadian Risk & Hazards Network
Panelists:
Bernie Derible
Deputy Minister and Commissioner
Emergency Management Ontario
Adam McAllister
National Chair
UN-ARISE Canada
Michel C. Doré, PhD, CEM, CGU
Associate Professor
Université du Québec à Montréal
Leon Gaber
National Leader, Critical Infrastructure Resilience & Emergency Management Practice
KPMG Management Services LP
14:30 14:45
Host:
Ron Hoffmann
Vice President, Business Development and Public Relations
Alexander Chemical Ltd
Speaker:
Adam McAllister
National Chair
UN-ARISE Canada
14:45 15:30
Canada’s emergency management strategies are being hindered by silos where there is a lack of clear communication between policy makers, practitioners, nonprofits academia and the private sector. This panel will provide viewpoints fr...(Read More)
Moderator:
Shawna Bruce
Director & Owner
M.D. Bruce & Associates Ltd.
Panelists:
Josh Bowen
Vice President
Team Rubicon
Eustace (Sam) Roberts
President
The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM)
Nick Sealy-Thompson
General Manager
ATCO Frontec USA
Jason Wigton
Director, Technical & Emergency Services
Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council
15:30 16:00
Sponsored by Canadian Disaster Response Organization (CDRO)
16:00 16:45
The 2023 wildfire season consumed seven times more forests than any other on record and destroyed hundreds of homes across Canada, saddling communities with complex recovery projects that many weren’t equipped to manage. Building up...(Read More)
Moderator:
Michael Higgins
Director, Climate Readiness and Community Recovery
Colliers Project Leaders
Panelists:
Derek Sutherland
General Manager, Community and Protective Services
Columbia Shuswap Regional District
Sean Strang
Director of Recovery and Mitigation
City of Merritt
Brittany Seibert
Regional Emergency Manager
City of Kelowna
16:45 16:50
Emelie Wood-Forsberg
Senior Conference Producer
dmg events
08:00 09:00
09:00 09:00
Emelie Wood-Forsberg
Senior Conference Producer
dmg events
09:00 09:30
This session will provide an overview of how communities are impacted by wildland fire, and how they can be built/designed or adapted to reduce their risk and become more resilient.
Speakers:
Magda Zachara
FireSmart Canada Program Manager
Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre
Glenn McGillivray
Managing Director
Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
09:30 10:15
While Canada is no stranger to the challenges of disasters and the impact of climate change, the knowledge, experiences, and ideas of small, rural, and Indigenous communities are often overlooked, leaving gaps in preparedness. Our pa...(Read More)
Moderator:
Dr. Henry Penn
Senior Research Fellow
The Resilience Institute
Panelists:
Sarah Sargent
Vice-President – Risk Reduction & Resilience Programs
Canadian Red Cross (CRC)
Dr. Jeff Baker
Knowledge Mobilization, and Education Lead
The Resilience Institute
Brooklyn Ruston
Senior Lead, Mountain Communities
The Resilience Institute
Jillian Mullowney
Advisor, Disaster Risk Reduction-Climate Change Adaptation
Canadian Red Cross
10:15 10:45
Sponsored by Canadian Disaster Response Organization (CDRO)
10:45 11:30
The work of the emergency management professional is rewarding, but also challenging. First responders can witness life changing events, are under intense workloads and can oftentimes spend long periods of time separated from family....(Read More)
Moderator:
Josh Bowen
Vice President
Team Rubicon
Panelists:
Danielle Trudeau
Founder and Executive Director
TopShelf Emergency Management
Tim Conrad
President
Butterfly Effect Communications Inc.
Caitlin Buxton-Carr
Manager Health Emergency Management
First Nations Health Authority
Rahul Singh
Founder and Executive Director
GlobalMedic
DJ Lawrence
President
Pretect Protection Services
11:30 12:00
Financial institutions are carefully planning how climate risk is being quantified and a more robust approach to climate risk assessment is being taken. Banking institutions are also working on mortgage portfolios to look at data to...(Read More)
Moderator:
Tyson Dyck
Partner
Torys LLP
Panelists:
Syzan Talo
Managing Director
Guy Carpenter
Rebecca Zentner-Barrett
Director
ESG Global Advisors
12:00 12:15
Host:
Dr. Jeff Donaldson
Principal Researcher
Preparedness Labs Incorporated
Speaker:
Susan Henry
Chief
Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA)
12:15 13:30
13:30 14:15
- Highlighting the best practices in the USA and Germany when it comes to a national civilian response agency?
- How could the Canadian model be governed?
- What would be the pros and cons of incorporating this mode...(Read More)
Moderator:
Jim Montgomery
President and CEO
Canadian Disaster Response Organization (CDRO)
Panelists:
Brock Long
Executive Chairman
Hagerty Consulting
Dr. Jeff Donaldson
Principal Researcher
Preparedness Labs Incorporated
Eva Cohen
Founder & President
Civil Protection Youth Canada
Tim Riecker
Founder, Partner, and Principal Consultant
Emergency Preparedness Solutions
14:15 15:00
By harnessing the power of new and innovative technologies, emergency recovery efforts can be accelerated, resources can be optimized, and communities can rebuild and recover more resiliently and sustainably. These technologies provi...(Read More)
Moderator:
Ron Hoffmann
Vice President, Business Development and Public Relations
Alexander Chemical Ltd
Panelists:
Myrna Bittner
Founder and CEO
RUNWITHIT Synthetics
Ben Kerr
Chief Executive Officer
Foundry Spatial
Mike Morrow
Account Executive
Juvare Canada Ltd.
Jasneet Mander
Social Emergency Manager
Anishinaabeg of Kabapikotawangag Resource Council
15:00 16:00
The United Nations (UN) have called Biodiversity, our strongest natural defense against climate change, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change includes wide-ranging steps to tackle the causes of biodiversity loss worldwide...(Read More)
Moderator:
Dylan Hemmings
Vice President, Regional Leader Ontario
Stantec
Panelists:
Valérie Tremblay-Gravel
Head of the Riverbanks Section, Nature-Parks Management, Biodiversity and Riverbank Division
City of Montreal
Kerry-Ann Charles
Environment Partnership Co-ordinator
Cambium Indigenous Professional Services
Lisa MacTavish
Project Lead – Resilience
City of Toronto
Elise Paré
National Practice Lead, Climate Risk & Resilience
WSP Canada
16:00 16:05
Emelie Wood-Forsberg
Senior Conference Producer
