Backgrounder
Federal Review Panel - Biographical Notes

Robert (Bob) Connelly

Mr. Connelly is a consultant who has worked in the field of environmental assessment for much of his career. He graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1970 as a civil engineer.

Mr. Connelly has devoted most of his career to public service and has wide-ranging experience with environmental assessment. He worked for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and its predecessor, the Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office, for 27 years. He was appointed as Acting President of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and served in this capacity for 17 months before his retirement in 2005. Prior to this, Mr. Connelly served as Vice-President, Policy Development for ten years and was responsible for policy and regulation development under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, research and development, inter-governmental affairs, relations with Aboriginal organizations, as well as international programs. In 2006, the International Association of Impact Assessment presented him with the Rose-Hulman Award in recognition of his contribution and leadership in the field of environmental assessment.

Mr. Connelly has extensive experience chairing federal and joint environmental assessment review panels across Canada. He chaired federal review panels examining issues related to the problem of diseased bison in Wood Buffalo National Park, and the twin tracking program for a CN Rail corridor in British Columbia. Mr. Connelly co-chaired the joint federal-provincial panel reviewing the construction of a second nuclear reactor at Point LePreau, New Brunswick and is currently chairing the joint review panel reviewing the natural gas drilling project proposed in the Canadian Forces Base Suffield National Wildlife Area in Alberta.

Bill Klassen

Bill Klassen is a private consultant with extensive experience in natural resource management and environmental assessment in northern Canada. He has a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Management from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and obtained a Master of Forestry degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He resides in Whitehorse.

Mr. Klassen has lived and worked in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Alaska for the past 40 years and has held senior administrative positions in the Yukon Government. He has served as both Deputy Minister of Renewable Resources and Deputy Minister of Health and Human Resources for the Yukon Government. He worked as a consultant for government, First Nations and the private sector on a wide range of projects and has facilitated the engagement of Aboriginal communities in resource development projects. He was the federal member on the Environmental Fund Board for the Anvil Range Mine for ten years.

Mr. Klassen has broad experience with environmental assessment in northern Canada. He represented the Yukon Government in negotiations related to the drafting of the Yukon Environmental and Socioeconomic Assessment Act. He was appointed by federal Order-in-Council to chair the Environmental Impact Screening Committee, the committee that screens all development projects, for the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the western Arctic. He served as Yukon member of the Environmental Impact Review Board for the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.

Nalaine Morin

Ms. Morin has worked for a number of years as a metallurgist and environmental supervisor in mining and resource development in Manitoba and British Columbia. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of British Columbia, a Mechanical Engineering Technology Diploma from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and is currently working on a Masters of Applied Science degree from the University of British Columbia. She resides in Sparwood, British Columbia.

Ms. Morin has lived and worked in Manitoba and British Columbia and she is currently the manager of the Tahltan Heritage Resources Environmental Assessment Team where she has developed processes for the inclusion of Tahltan knowledge in the environmental assessment and permitting processes for resource development projects in Tahltan territory.

During her time at Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Ms. Morin was successful in gaining experience both as a metallurgist in milling, smelting and hydrometallurgical operations and as a supervisor where she was responsible for the environmental water and air monitoring programs.