Professional Development

Odonaterra is an organization committed to ongoing learning and professional development.  

As a team, we are dedicated to meeting the highest ethical and professional standards, and individually, hold designations and certifications that similarly require us to align our conduct with the granting institutions’ principles.  

To meet our responsibilities and requirements for continuous professional learning in our fields and specializations, we regularly engage environmental assessment colleagues to discuss changes to relevant legislation and explore best practices through conferences and networking. We also complete ongoing training to stay current with trends and deepen our understanding of environmental impact assessment processes, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, lands and resources planning, and engagement and consultation strategies, to increase our capacity in these areas. This enables us to continually apply innovative solutions when helping clients to plan, study, assess, and monitor projects. 

Ontario Association for Impact Assessment (OAIA) Conference 2021 

Earlier this fall, we attended the OAIA Conference 2021 which focused on achieving common goals for engagement, project management, and impact assessment following uncommon pathways. Themes included collaborative consultation practices with Indigenous Peoples that respect free, prior and informed consent and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Discussions further looked at best practices for Indigenous-led impact assessment, an approach that is increasingly used to support holistic project evaluation and that our team regularly endorses and facilitates.  

Regulatory effectiveness and lessons learned from the evolution of multijurisdictional approaches, including regional and strategic level effects assessment, were also presented as tools to better inform decision-making. Additionally, the growth of equality, diversity, and inclusion analyses, and opportunities for integrating science and Indigenous Knowledge into impact assessment, were considered. The future of impact assessment and the need to consider climate change moving forward were also discussed.  

Although offered online, the conference provided opportunities for conversations about problems and solutions to support impact assessment processes. Participants included environmental impact assessment professionals, researchers, Indigenous people, lawyers, government officials, and students from many backgrounds providing diverse insights and visions for impact assessment in the coming years.  

Each team member had unique highlights and takeaways from the event based on their areas of interest and responsibilities that will be applied to continually improve our service delivery and client experience while contributing to best practices in the field of impact assessment. 

OCAP® Training 

Our team is also currently completing OCAP® training which is offered online through Algonquin College to introduce the First Nations principles of ownership, control, access, and possession. 

OCAP® asserts that First Nations have control over data gathering processes and how the information collected can be accessed and used. These principles are intended to ensure that data is shared to benefit communities while minimizing potential harms and supporting meaningful, participatory, and respectful research.  

However, as noted in the training, legislative barriers exist for preventing the full application of OCAP® principles. These include the Privacy Act, the Access to Information Act, and the Library and Archives of Canada Act which do not include community-level privacy protections. This can make First Nations vulnerable to information sharing without permission as government institutions may be subject to Access to Information and Privacy requests. Departments and institutions subject to these Acts may be required to release information held about First Nations without the consent of communities thus undermining ownership, control, access, and possession. 

Our goal is to integrate these principles into What we do to support the interests and well-being of First Nations and encourage policy amendments to better align legislation with OCAP® principles and community privacy. 

We continue to develop as individuals and as a team in this space, and depend on the ongoing guidance, advice, and collaboration of our clients, partners, and colleagues to stay abreast of trends and innovations. We are looking forward to conferences and other professional development opportunities in 2022 to continue our learning! Let us know if there are other courses or conferences you believe could strengthen our future professional development so that we may better serve you. 

Every Child Matters: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation & Orange Shirt Day

On June 3, royal assent was given to Bill C-5 making September 30 of each year the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. 

This step responds to Action 80 of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action, which states: “We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, to establish, as a statutory holiday, a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.” 

Although the statutory holiday has been established for federal employees, the Government of Ontario has not recognized September 30 as a provincial holiday.

September 30 has also been recognized as Orange Shirt Day since 2013. Orange Shirt Day similarly recognizes the harm caused by the residential school system to children’s self-esteem and well-being and provides affirmation to the Survivors that Every Child Matters, even into adulthood.  

Orange Shirt Day draws on the experience of residential school Survivor Phyllis Webstad. As an excited 6-year-old, Phyllis wore a new orange shirt her grandmother had gifted her for her first day at residential school, but when she arrived, she was stripped of the shirt and never saw it again. This painful memory reflected the experiences of many Survivors who were stripped of their rights, cultures, languages, and identities while attending residential schools. The orange shirt now symbolizes hope and reconciliation.  

Today, in honour of residential school Survivors, their families, and communities, Odonaterra team members are wearing orange shirts and reflecting on our roles in the journey towards truth and reconciliation. We also take time to acknowledge the devastating discovery earlier this year of countless unmarked graves of children that never returned from residential schools. We are collectively committed to working in partnership with Indigenous peoples to ensure this dark and painful legacy is never forgotten and the systemic racism that permitted the separation of children from families is dismantled. 

Through our work, we further endeavor to close the social, cultural, economic, and environmental gaps that persist in Canada by contributing to decolonized laws, policies, and processes.  

To learn more about the significance of today’s observance and steps you can take to contribute to a more equitable Canada, visit the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day websites.  

Every Child Matters. 

Timiskaming Dam-Bridge of Quebec Replacement Project and community engagement post-COVID-19

Earlier this summer, members of the Odonaterra team travelled to Mattawa, Ontario, to work with Antoine Nation. The focus of the visit was a series of interviews documenting how Antoine Nation members use and value the lands, waters, and resources of their territory, as part of an Indigenous Knowledge and Land Use Study (IKLUS) on the potential human environmental impacts of the Timiskaming Dam-Bridge of Quebec Replacement Project.  

The Timiskaming Dam-Bridge crosses the Ottawa River, connecting the provinces of Ontario and Quebec at Temiscaming, Quebec, and regulates water levels on the river. The dam-bridge was first completed in 1913 and rebuilt in 1934. The Ontario section of the structure was replaced in 2017 with the replacement of the Quebec section currently undergoing a federal impact assessment.  

Engagement on the project is occurring with a number of Indigenous communities that have occupied the Ottawa River watershed since time immemorial, in both Ontario and Quebec.

The Timiskaming Dam-Bridge crosses the Ottawa River, connecting the provinces of Ontario and Quebec at Temiscaming, Quebec, and regulates water levels on the river. The dam-bridge was first completed in 1913 and rebuilt in 1934. The Ontario section of the structure was replaced in 2017 with the replacement of the Quebec section currently undergoing a federal impact assessment.  

Engagement on the project is occurring with a number of Indigenous communities that have occupied the Ottawa River watershed since time immemorial, in both Ontario and Quebec.

Upon arriving in the community, Odonaterra was welcomed by the Chief and community engagement liaison who took the team on a tour of Antoine Park and discussed general issues of concern for the Nation. Later in the week, the team was invited to a fish fry to connect with community members on a more personal level to exchange ideas, identify concerns in a relaxed setting, and foster a sense of partnership.  

The Odonaterra team was excited about this opportunity for in-person consultation as part of a 2-week engagement in the community that had not been possible during the pandemic. While our partners and clients demonstrated resilience throughout the health crisis, moving to online meetings, and reorganizing work, it was refreshing to have in-person meetings and valuable to building relationships.  

Although in-community consultations remain essential to impact assessment processes, a perhaps not surprising result of the COVID-19-related lockdowns, was an increase in virtual meetings coupled with improvements to virtual conferencing tools and innovative strategies for continued engagement. Being flexible, agile, and innovative became essential and offered many learning opportunities that will likely continue to be leveraged in future consultations to support ongoing conversations. 

Regular and timely meetings are perhaps more possible now that large portions of the population have been pushed to learn how to use remote working tools. Additionally, the Government of Canada recognized that the pandemic – and resulting dependence on online communications – reflected an increased need for reliable internet access across the country, especially in rural households and remote and isolated Indigenous communities, which may facilitate reaching universal connectivity targets of 50 Mbps download / 10 Mbps upload speeds earlier than anticipated in the High-Speed Access for All: Canada's Connectivity Strategy. 

Odonaterra was grateful for the warm welcome received from community members of Antoine Nation, and their participation in interviews with our team to inform the project’s Impact Assessment Statement. We look forward to similar consultation activities with other communities in the project area.  

We are also excited for the future and are committed to remaining adaptable to new tools, technologies, and engagement strategies to facilitate regular communications with clients, partners, friends, and family, both in-person and online.

Indigenous Peoples Day

As we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, we recognize and reflect on:  

• Our privilege to live, work and play on Indigenous land,

• The need to share natural resources revenues to close the gaps in socio-economic conditions that are unacceptable and have resulted from colonial influence,

• The need to educate all Canadians about cultural genocide and the need to eradicate systemic racism from this country's healthcare, legal, education, political and other institutions

• The incredible diversity of Indigenous cultures in Canada and the outstanding contributions of Indigenous people to Canadian society, and

• Our shared responsibility to work towards reconciliation every day.

We are all treaty people.

Bill C-15: An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

If Bill C-15 comes into force it would require that new legislation is aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to which Canada is a signatory. It has been a recommendation from both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and was promised by the Liberal government in 2019.