Speaker Biography: Thomas Gunton

Dr. Gunton is a resource planner specializing in public policy. He has had extensive professional experience including holding the positions of Deputy Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks, Deputy Minister of Cabinet Policy Secretariat and Deputy Minister of Finance/Treasury Board for the Government of British Columbia. He has also held senior positions with the Government of Manitoba, including Assistant Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines. Dr. Gunton regularly provides advice to private sector and public sector clients. His work includes benefit-cost analysis of resource investments, regional and community sustainable development strategies and negotiation techniques for resolving resource and environmental conflicts. While working for the B.C. provincial government he managed the development and implementation of a number of major environmental initiatives including a new Environmental Assessment Act, a new Forest Practices Code, a forest sector strategy, a new regional land use planning process, a major expansion of the provincial parks system, a redesign of the regulatory system for oil and gas development and new air pollution regulations. He was also the chief negotiator for the province on a number of issues. Dr. Gunton co-chaired a national committee of the Canadian Council of Environment Ministers developing a national air quality plan and was a member of the Canada/U.S. Environmental Cooperation Council and the Fraser Basin River Council.

Dr. Gunton's work has included management of problems in a number of resource sectors including forestry, land use, energy, mining and fisheries. His recent academic work has been in the area of shared decision-making techniques in land use and environmental management. He is currently managing a major research project evaluating the innovative collaborative planning system used for land use planning in British Columbia.

Most recently he completed a comprehensive report on environmental research priorities for the B.C. government The report entitled Environmental Research Priorities for British Columbia, coauthored with Catherine Ponsford is the first report completed in B.C. to rank environmental issues and identify key knowledge gaps.ent.