Dr. Trish Fitzpatrick is Professor of Geography and Acting Chair at the University of Winnipeg, and Co-Chair of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada’s Technical Advisory Committee on Science and Knowledge.
All Sessions by Patricia Fitzpatrick
Day 1
09:45
Opening Panel
09:45 - 10:30
This panel will explore the place of impact assessment within the project lifecycle. It will explore the various stages from identification of project needs to project delivery by considering design choices, risk management, and implementation strategies. The panelists will consider the optimization of assessment in the context of the lifecycle.
2(B) - Impact Assessment in an Era of Resource Development & Co-operative Federalism
14:15 - 14:45
Drawing on experience from major projects, panelists will discuss how effective IA creates value before regulatory decisions are made. Well-designed assessment processes can improve project design, identify and manage risks, strengthen relationships with rights holders and stakeholders, support adaptive management, and contribute to better long-term outcomes. Rather than asking how assessments can simply be streamlined, this panel will explore how they can be designed more intelligently to gain efficiencies from processes that are coherent, well-scoped, collaborative, and grounded in lived experience. The opportunity now is to build an IA system that is lighter where it should be, stronger where it must be, and ultimately more resilient for the peoples and environments it is meant to safeguard.
This panel will examine how the 2026 OAIA Conference was able to consider the full lifecycle of a project and how assessments can be a tool for shaping resilient, implementable, and outcome-driven projects.
