• Thanks for 25 Great Years

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    By Bill Leedham, P.Geo, CESA
     
    As I sit in my Calgary hotel room nearing the end of another training course, I can't help but think of all the wonderful people who help to make AESAC such a great organization. This blog is dedicated to all those people who have participated in our 25 years of su ccessful training courses. If I have forgotten to list anyone here, I offer my sincere apologies. First off I would like to thank AESAC's founding members; Bruno Luzak (President) and Rob Power (Past- Director) for initiating this Association and guiding it through the formative years. Our membe rs are assisted in so many ways by the always helpful Jane Clark, our Office Administrator, who will be sorely missed after her pending retirement. I couldn't teach these courses without the hard work and dedication of AESAC's Training Director Erik Luzak - thanks for all your marketing, organization, planning and logistics that keep things running smoothly; and for always making our road trips fun.
       
    Over 25 years of cross-Canada training there have been a series of great instructors and guest speakers from a variety of environmental sectors. These individuals and their companies have always provided our attendees with excellent instruction, and their real world experience has brought a wealth of local knowledge and expertise. AESAC's Western Canada courses, especially the Upstream Oil and Gas course wouldn't be the same without the input of Rani Wiedemann, Gerard Testa, and Rob Wiedemann, all of McElhaney Consulting. Many other instructors and AESAC member speakers have provided their keen insight and local knowledge, including: Thomas Ha of Troy Environmental Consulting in Calgary, George (Bud) Ivey of Ivey International in Vancouver, Lisa Wilkinson of Ambleside Environmental in Vancouver, Scott MacKnight of OCL Group in Halifax, Valeriy Tyshchuk of Pinchin in Winnipeg; as well as past instructors John Fortier of TrekMatics in Port Elgin, and Lou Locatelli formerly with Gartner-Lee, and now with Trinity Consultants in Toronto.
     
    AESAC is also very grateful for our industry partners who promote our courses and provide our students with their invaluable services, products and specialized knowledge. Over the sixteen years I have been teaching with AESAC these companies and individuals are too numerous to list in a single blog, but I'll try my best to acknowledge as many as I can. Kudos and cheers to: Carolyn Inglis and Mike Chester of Ecolog ERIS for their talks, sample ERIS reports and ongoing support; Justin Clarke of Maxim Environmental and Safety for bringing all sorts of sampling and monitoring equipment to play with; all the reps from AGAT Laboratories and ALS Environmental for their expertise in analytical testing; Mike Slocki of Profile Drilling for his real world take on environmental drilling; Glenn Ferguson of Intrinsik Environmental Sciences for his enlightening information on conducting Risk Assessments; Jacquie Stevens of Willms & Shier and Janet Bobechko of Norton Rose, Fulbright for providing their excellent legal advice for consultants; and Anil Sharma of AKS Geosciences for his informative presentations on geophysical investigations and oil spill response. AESAC is also grateful to all the hotels and conference centres in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Vancouver, Ottawa, Portage La Prairie, Lindsay and St. John's that have hosted us, fed us, provided accommodations, and tolerated groups of AESAC course attendees trooping through their boiler rooms, common areas and mechanical rooms conducting mock site inspections. Lastly, a big shout-out to all the past trainees, current members, and AESAC members who have obtained Certified Environmental Site Assessor status; for their continued participation and contribution to the association. It's been a great first 25 years, here's to 25 more! 

    About the Author:

    Bill Leedham, P. Geo., CESA

    Bill is the Head Instructor and Course Developer for the Associated Environmental Site Assessors of Canada (www.aesac.ca); and the founder and President of Down 2 Earth Environmental Services Inc. You can contact Bill at info@down2earthenvironmental.ca