CLRA Alberta Chapter President's Update
March of 2020 will forever be remembered as the month the Province of Alberta shut down due to the pandemic. Thankfully, environmental services were mandated as “essential services” in the province and all of us spent the next few weeks navigating the safety concerns our industry was faced with. It was also the same month the Alberta Government announced the Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP).
On April 29 the CLRA Alberta Chapter Board sent a letter to the Honorable Sonja Savage, Minister of Energy voicing our members’ concerns. We understood the size of this program and the large logistical undertaking the government had in trying to coordinate it, however many applications for surface reclamation work and final closure activities were rejected due to minor errors, contract discrepancies, or even a lack of consistency in Alberta Energy’s review process. We were also concerned that reclamation was taking a back seat to abandonment activities. Our members were frustrated and we needed to voice their concerns.
The CLRA Board sent another letter to the Minister on July 20, 2020, requesting Alberta Energy to add Reclamation specialists to the IAC as well as designate more funding to closure. The Chapter President Kelly Zadko was also interviewed by CBC on July 20th and again by CHQR Radio on July 30, 2020. On July 30th the Environmental Service Association of Alberta (ESAA), our sister organization that represents businesses within the Environmental Industry within Alberta, announced that their President would be added to the IAC committee. Due to the CLRA Alberta Chapter’s close working relationship with this organization we felt that it was the “win” we needed as a profession. ESAA also put together an IAC subcommittee and Marissa Reckmann, our CLRA Past President is currently representing the voice of our Chapter at those meetings.
This fall the CLRA Board had a follow-up strategy session to continue the movement of the Alberta Chapter from an Operational Board to a Strategic Board. We have an 18-month plan to continue the development of our Operational Sub Committees which include:
Communication Committee
Professional Development and Networking Committee
Sponsorship Committee
Membership Committee
Student Relations Committee
We also started our fall virtual webinars and announced our virtual AGM on “Looking Forward” for February 24 & 25, 2021. Our Sponsorship committee is also in the development of an annual CLRA sponsorship package that will encompass all of our events such as the CLRA AGM and Conference, Charity Golf Tournament, Webinars, and our Fall Tour which would allow for our members to budget accordingly in these times and have access to events for networking.
We are also working with our Educational partners, University’s and Colleges on student relations and will be announcing a new student engagement framework in the next quarter.
Coming into 2021 we will be looking for an additional Board member to sit on the executive as well as volunteers for our Operational Subcommittees. Although we haven’t seen you all in person since our February AGM we are working hard behind the scenes for our members and our industry.