SWANA Pacific Chapter AGM Agenda
Time: 12:05 PM Call to Order
- Appointment of Chairperson and Secretary for Meeting
- Call to Order (Karen Storry, Chairperson)
- Minutes of Last AGM December 1, 2021 (Andrew Marr, Secretary of Meeting) – Details in AGM package and link on the website
- President’s Report (Karen Storry)
- Report from Training Committee (Nicole Steglich)
- Report from Advisory Board Representative (Karen Storry)
- Report from Scholarship Committee (Mike Stringer)
- Report from Membership Committee (Al Lynch)
- Report from Regulatory Committee (Scott Hoekstra – Virtual)
- Report from Conference Committee (Tauseef Waraich)
- Report from Safety Ambassador (Lynne Vidler)
- Report from YP Committee (Mani Massah)
- Treasurer’s Report (Deacon Liddy) – Details in AGM package and link on website
- Appointment or Waiving of Auditor (Deacon Liddy)
- Election of New Chapter Directors (Allen Lynch)
- Other Business
- Next Board Meeting Scheduled – Thursday, January 19, 2023 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
- Adjournment
Board Member Bios
New Board Members
Ben Routledge
Ben has worked for the Regional District of Nanaimo’s Solid Waste Services Department for more than 13 years. In that time, he has been responsible for the daily operation of the Regional Landfill and the Church Road Transfer Station, as well as managing the district wide Curbside Collection Program. In March 2022 he became the Manager, Solid Waste Services for the RDN. He is currently enrolled at Royal Roads University in the Master of Environmental Practice program, with program completion planned for March 2023. He is also a certified Manager of Landfill Operations.
Executive
Karen Storry – President, Advisory Board Representative
Karen is a Senior Engineer for Metro Vancouver Solid Waste services. After graduating from Civil Engineering at UBC, she worked on the construction of the Canada Line before transitioning to solid waste planning at Metro Vancouver. Karen has been a member of the region’s Zero Waste Implementation Team for over 10 years. In that role, Karen has worked on a variety of waste reduction and prevention programs and policies. Her focus is on circular economy and the 3Rs.
In her spare time, Karen is completing her MBA in the Circular Economy from Bradford University. She also volunteers as her local chapter’s International Advisory Board Member for the Solid Waste Association of North America.
Before joining SWANA, she ran a public solid waste agency with a landfill and transfer station; worked as a consultant and as a local government recycling coordinator. After 10 years on the Board of Directors, she served as SWANA’s International President in 2011 at which time she helped organize the first steps in the Young Professionals Initiative.
Tauseef Waraich – Vice President, Conference Committee
Tauseef Waraich has over twenty years of experience in the waste management industry, working in both private sector and public office. He has developed, implemented and administered long range master plans, including Solid Waste Management plans, Zero Waste Initiative and sustainable asset management plans. He has managed efficient regional transfer stations, recycling centres and composting facilities. As a consultant, he has worked with many municipalities and regional districts throughout BC and Alberta providing services in Recycling and Waste Management planning, Priority based budgeting, Zero Waste, Contaminated Sites, landfills management, monitoring and sampling, auditing, and Risk Assessment. Tauseef plays Cricket and enjoys outdoor activities including exploring different cultures and languages.
Deacon Liddy – Treasurer
Deacon Liddy is a Professional Engineer working in the civil and environmental engineering industry. Leader in solid waste management facilities and systems, First Nations infrastructure, and greenhouse gas assurance/consulting.
He has been with GHD for over 16 years.
In his free time, he likes to grow grapes in the Similkameen Valley.
Mark Watt – Past President
Mark started his environmental career with the City of Kelowna where he held several positions over 30 years. His expertise areas are: wastewater, environmental planning and implementation, analytical program development, infrastructure planning and solid waste.
He was instrumental in the development of Ogogrow and Glengrow at the Glenmore Landfill – a safe compost made by combining biosolids (Ogogrow) and coarse wood chips and fiber for residential garden use. He is SWANA certified and an instructor of MOLO, landfill gas, landfill operations basics, waste screening, HHW and composting.
He continues his solid waste and environmental career as a consultant and is currently SWANA Pacific’s Chapter President.
Directors
Mircea Cvaci
Mircea L. Cvaci, P.Eng., MBA, is the Vice President and Senior Civil Engineer with Sperling Hansen Associates and the co-founder and Director of Business Development of DroneX Survey Inc. He is a BCIT lecturer for the Landfill Design Course and builds on his passion for sharing knowledge and giving back to the community. He has over 15 years of experience in solid and liquid waste management
He has been an active member of the SWANA Pacific Chapter since early 2009.
Heidi Gerlach
Heidi Gerlach is a solid waste management specialist with extensive experience in municipal and regional solid waste planning and contract management in British Columbia. Her expertise includes stakeholder and community consultation, program evaluation and waste management policy analysis. She has over 20 years’ solid waste program management experience, 15 of those as a staff member with BC local governments (City of Chilliwack and Fraser Valley Regional District).
As a Project Manager at Dillon Consulting, Heidi oversees multiple waste diversion/recycling remediation projects in the Metro Vancouver region and throughout BC and Canada. Her team develops strategic framework, vision and targets for zero waste strategies and a circular economy.
In her free time, Heidi takes her dog for trail walks and wonders if she can put her empty toothpaste tube in the flexible plastic packaging bag.
Paul Henderson
Paul Henderson is a Professional Engineer with more than 30 years’ experience in the municipal sector.
As the General Manager of the Metro Vancouver Solid Waste Services Department, Paul leads the team responsible for waste reduction and recycling as well as residuals management for Metro Vancouver’s approximately 2.5 million people.
He has a degree in Bio Resource Engineering, a Masters of Applied Science in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia and a Masters of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University.
Scott Hoekstra, Operations & Regulatory Chair
Mr. Hoekstra is the Manager of Landfill and Compost Operations at the City of Kelowna and oversees the Glenmore Landfill and Regional Composting Facility. Mr. Hoekstra is a Professional Chemist and MOLO Certified, and has been involved in the British Columbia environmental industry for more than 25 years. After starting a career with Environmental Laboratories, he worked with HAZCO (later known as Tervita) on sites including large contaminated sites remediation projects, Industrial Oil Sands Landfills in Alberta, hazardous waste facilities, privately owned Construction and Demolition Debris landfills, and municipally owned Sanitary Landfills in British Columbia. In addition to being a Director with the SWANA Pacific Chapter, Mr. Hoekstra is the Past President and Board Member for the Association of Chemical Profession of British Columbia.
When not working, he spends time skiing with his daughters and enjoys golfing.
Calvin Jameson
Calvin Jameson is from Lil’wat Nation (Mount Currie) but originally hails from the Vernon, BC area. He has been the Lil’wat Nations Public Works Superintendent in Mount Currie for over 5 years. Calvin is also the President of the Indigenous Zero Waste Technical Advisory Group (IZWTAG) and the first Indigenous Zero Waste Operations trainer.
When he’s not in the office or in the field, he and his wife Jaclyn are parents to 3 boys and 3 foster daughters. He’s a part time coach to 2 of his boys’ ice hockey teams in Whistler (WMHA). His goal is to use his skills, knowledge and experience to improve the water and solid waste systems for all nations.
Kevin Johnstone
Kevin Johnstone has been involved with SWANA for 6 years, first as a student member, then as a YP, and now as YP committee head. He has been working as an Environmental Engineering Technologist for Ecowaste Industries for 4 years. He became involved with SWANA after connecting with some members at a networking session after a conference. Those connections helped Kevin complete his undergraduate thesis at BCIT, graduate, and find his first job in the industry doing waste audits.
Kevin values SWANA as an organization that allows him to continue to make new connections, learn about the industry, and participate in conferences. He looking forward to serving the SWANA BC/Yukon chapter throughout his career in solid waste.
Allen Lynch
Al worked in the solid waste industry for 30 years, 7 for private haulers and the last 23 as the Manager of the North Shore Recycling Program (NSRP), a tri-municipal agency in North Vancouver, B.C. Canada. Al was the Manager of the NSRP from 1990 to 2013 and was responsible for planning and administering all waste reduction, composting and recycling programs. Al represented the municipalities on various regional government committees and producer responsibility groups and made many presentations on a variety of subjects at national and regional conferences, including WASTECON. In addition, he sat on the Board of Directors for the National Zero Waste Council.
Al has been a member of SWANA since 1990. He served on the SWANA International Board (IB) from 1995 to 2005, was International President of SWANA in 2004, and was the Canadian Representative to the IB from 2011-2014 and again from 2017-2019. He is currently a member of SWANA International’s Recycling Task Force and has served all of the roles on the Executive of the Pacific Chapter. He is currently the Past President.
Andrew Marr
Andrew Marr has been with Metro Vancouver for over 30 years, mostly in solid waste but with some years in water, liquid waste and environmental management. He recently retired as the Director of Solid Waste Planning, overseeing a group of engineers, planners, and others to implement the 3Rs activities in the region’s solid waste master plans. This included the policies (e.g. regional disposal bans and regulations, input into provincial and national waste reduction and recycling policies) and programs (e.g. input to regional public education and behaviour change campaigns, interfacing with provincial EPR programs, participation in Canada-wide waste programs such as co-chairing a Plastics Advisory Panel for the National Zero Waste Council).
Prior to joining Metro Vancouver, Andrew spent 7 years in the private sector in rechargeable battery R&D, and in hazardous waste management. From 2004 to 2020, he also taught waste reduction and recycling technology at the BC Institute of Technology. He is a registered Professional Engineer (Environmental) from the University of BC.
His spare time interests include hiking, travel, swing dancing and martial arts.
Nicole Steglich, Training Committee Chair
Nicole Steglich is a Professional Engineer with over 14 years of experience in the solid waste industry. The majority of her experience was gained with the City of Vancouver’s Transfer & Landfill Operations Branch, where Nicole managed environmental projects and programs to ensure compliance with applicable regulations. In 2020, Nicole took a temporary role with the District of Squamish as the Integrated Solid Waste Specialist to gain experience managing curbside collection and zero waste programs.
Outside of the office, Nicole enjoys practicing yoga, spending time in the beautiful outdoors with friends and family, and trying new recipes.
Mike Stringer, Scholarship Committee Chair
Mike worked in the solid waste department of Metro Vancouver (formerly GVRD) between 1989 and 2012 following 5 years with the provincial Ministry of Environment and 15 years in private industry with Kodak Canada. His work in solid waste included regulation development and administration and liaison with municipal, provincial and federal agencies and the private sector.
Mike has been an active SWANA member since 1990 serving as a director at large for most of the time. He helped to establish and continues to administer the chapter scholarship program and currently is the chair of SWANA’s international scholarship committee.
Lynne Vidler – Safety Ambassador
Lynne is a Lead Senior Engineer at Metro Vancouver with more than 13 years of experience in the Solid Waste field. In her current role she is primarily involved in capital planning and asset management, data analysis and weigh scale operations. Prior to starting with Metro Vancouver, Lynne spent 10 years in the pulp and paper industry, working at mills in Port Alberni, Powell River and Delta. Throughout her career she has been actively involved in safety and emergency management, and she is a firm believer in putting safety first. She is currently the Safety Ambassador for the SWANA Pacific Chapter.
Wilbert Yang
Wilbert Yang is an environmental engineer with 30 years of experience in the environmental and waste management field. His experience can be summarized in the following manner:
- As a regulator, he assessed waste discharges and developed regulations and guidelines for the waste management industry.
- As a municipal planning engineer, he developed waste diversion programs and worked with cities to implement and improve those programs.
- As a consultant, he works with cities across North America developing solid waste master plans, implementing organic waste management programs and benchmarking solid waste management systems.
Wilbert loves solid waste planning because it influences the way we live – hopefully for the better. He also recognizes that in the world of solid waste management “one size does not fit all” and the best system is one that suit the community’s values and ultimately something that its members would use”.
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