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.
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