Current Newsletter: Winter 2007

Recognizing a need to more effectively and efficiently manage the large variety and volume of projects being undertaken, FMA has expanded and reorganized internal capacity to reflect the broad variety of needs identified by clients across northern and western Canada. This is enabling FMA to better serve its clientele by partnering specialized staff members with particular types of projects. FMA now offers services in: Environmental Assessment Archaeology, Non-Environmental Assessment Archaeology, Community and Aboriginal Affairs, and Palaeontology.

A New Addition

As a result of FMA’s growing number of people and resources, we’ve added a second location to house the Community and Aboriginal Affairs Division.  It’s located down the street from the main building at:

1925 10th Ave SW
Calgary, Alberta T3C 0K3

Cultural Heritage

Jennifer Tischer, M.A., leads a team dedicated to assessing the environmental impacts of developments on historical resources. Some of the Environmental Assessment projects that FMA has participated in recently include:

• Conoco-Philips Surmont Project
• Fort Hills Energy Corporation Fort Hills Oil Sands Project
• North American Oil Sands Corporation Kai Kos Dehseh Oil Sands Project
• Petro-Canada Sullivan Field Development
• Shell Muskeg River Mine Expansion Project
• Total Deer Creek Joslyn North Mine Mitigation
• TransCanada Keystone Pipeline Project

Kate Peach, M.A., leads a team delivering rapid response and efficient mobilization services for overviews, assessments, mitigative excavations, constraints mapping, management plans and documentary research, with the flexibility to provide a full range of heritage resource services to meet client needs.

Alison Landals, Ph.D. (candidate) will now be overseeing all of FMA’s projects where archaeological mitigative excavations are required. The provision of a dedicated mitigation manager will ensure efficient deployment of experienced staff and maintenance of our high quality scientific standards. Some of FMA’s recent mitigation projects include:

• AIT Stoney Trail Expansion
• ATCO Pipelines Ltd., Jasper Lakes Dunes Pipeline Replacement/Relocation
• ATCO Pipelines Ltd. Wildwood to Keyera Paddle River Pipeline Project
• Little Bow Reservoir Mitigation Project (as a joint venture with the Peigan Nation/Treaty 7 Coalition).
• Tirion Properties North Cochrane Area Structure Plan

Palaeontology

Palaeontological studies are increasingly being required, particularly in Alberta. To meet this demand, FMA has expanded its capacity to conduct palaeontological studies. Lisa Bohach, Ph.D., manages a team of three staff members, with a variety of expertise across western and northern Canada. Some of the recent projects for which FMA has conducted palaeontological studies include:

• Canadian Natural Resources Limited Horizon Project (Palaeontology Education Program)
• Petro-Canada Sullivan Field Development
• TransCanada Keystone Pipeline Project ( Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba)
• Milner Power Inc. Mine No. 14 Project (coalmine)
• City of Medicine Hat Atlee East Developments
• EnCana southern and central Alberta wellsites and gathering systems

Community and Aboriginal Affairs

The Community and Aboriginal Affairs Division is very busy working with projects involving Aboriginal Consultation; in part related to the introduction of the Government of Alberta’s First Nations Consultation Guidelines. These guidelines delegate procedural aspects of consultation to project proponents and require consultation efforts with First Nations who may be potentially adversely impacted by proposed projects. The Guidelines are currently applicable only to First Nations communities. The Guidelines can be triggered by different requirements for various Government of Alberta departments, including: International, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs; Alberta Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture; Sustainable Resource Development; Alberta Environment; and Alberta Energy.

The Community and Aboriginal Affairs Division has an experienced team of 17 Traditional Knowledge Facilitators and Aboriginal Affairs staff. FMA is able to provide a full range of support to clients in developing meaningful consultation practices and procedures and carrying out traditional knowledge studies.

Aboriginal Consultation

The objective of consultation, as defined by the Canadian Courts, is the middle ground between the rights and interests of aboriginal peoples and the rights and interests held by non-aboriginal people. The Canadian Constitution recognizes and affirms Aboriginal and treaty rights, and gives them special protection. Aboriginal peoples of Canada include First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. Aboriginal and treaty rights include rights to hunt, trap and fish for food in traditional territories. When a government decision has the potential to negatively impact those rights, consultation is triggered.

The Courts have given governments the responsibility to consult with aboriginal people when government decisions have the potential to negatively impact aboriginal and treaty rights. Governments are managing that responsibility by delegating certain aspects of consultation to project proponents. Before projects are approved, proponents must show that adequate aboriginal consultation has taken place.

Over the past twelve months there have been a lot of exciting changes in the Geomatics team within FMA. Robin Woywitka has taken on the lead role of developing more business applications and streamlining the Geomatics department. We now have one GIS team servicing the Cultural Heritage and Paleontology departments and another GIS team for the Community and Aboriginal Affairs department.

In January 2007, Keith Wilford took on the lead role in the GIS group for the Cultural Heritage and Palaeontology divisions of FMA. Keith has worked with FMA as a GIS technician for over 3 years and is now leading a team of two other GIS technicians: Eddie Fung who joined FMA in February 2007 and Brian Beaulieu who came on board in April 2007.

Kathrin Janssen joined FMA in October 2006 and is managing the GIS team for the Community and Aboriginal Affairs division of FMA. Adena Dinn joined the CAA GIS team in April 2007.

The Geomatics group provides all varieties of report maps, field maps, interview maps and artifact photography. They also provide constraints mapping and predictive modeling for the Archaeologists, Palaeontologists and Traditional Knowledge Facilitators. The GIS team of the Community and Aboriginal Affairs division also provides GIS and GPS training to Aboriginal communities.

Our recent growth is reflected in the many faces at FMA. Since our last issue we’ve welcomed new staff while existing staff have taken on new responsibilities within our organization.

We welcome Matt Moors to our staff as a Senior Archaeologist.

Alison Landals filled the role of Heritage Resources Manager of the Non-Environmental Assessment Archaeology division, while Kate Peach was on maternity leave. We welcome Kate back and are pleased to have three Heritage Resource managers on our Archaeological team.