Media Backgrounder

August 8, 2007

MEMBERS OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TRANSBOUNDARY SCIENCE SUPPORTING ONTARIO’S COMMENTS TO THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

David Balsillie, MSc., Ph.D. (Chair) – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Balsillie is an Adjunct Professor with the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto. As a former Assistant Deputy Minister at both the Ontario Ministries of the Environment and Natural Resources, he brings a wealth of public sector experience to the committee, including extensive work on the long-range transport of air pollution and acid precipitation files. Dr. Balsillie is currently on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Forestry Association and is the Forest Policy Examiner for the Ontario Professional Foresters Association. He was recently appointed as a part-time Board Member of the Ontario Energy Board.

David Besner, Ph.D., P.Eng. – Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
A former Assistant Deputy Minister with New Brunswick’s Department of Environment and Local Government, Dr. Besner is currently the president of the environmental management firm D. Besner and Associates Inc. A member of the Premier of New Brunswick’s Round Table on Environment and Economy, Mr. Besner is a former member of the International Joint Commission’s Air Quality Advisory Board and has authored several papers on the effects of air quality on public health.

Jeremy M. Hales, Ph.D. – Pasco, Washington, United States
Dr. Hales is the principal of Columbia Geosciences, an unincorporated association dedicated to carrying out contract research and offering consulting services in the environmental and earth sciences. Based in the state of Washington, his company provides technical consulting in air quality and atmospheric sciences, including large, combined monitoring, modeling, and data analysis programs, and pollutant-removal processes for U.S. federal and state agencies, federal laboratories, and the private sector.

Geoffrey Westcott Harris, Ph.D. – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Harris is the Guy Warwick Rogers Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry and Professor of Chemistry at York University’s Chemistry Department. As the Director of the Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry, his areas of expertise include tropospheric ozone and the chemistry of the background atmosphere in connection with climate change processes.

Brian Magee, Ph.D. – Westford, Massachusetts, United States
Dr. Magee is currently the Vice President and Principal Toxicologist at AMEC Earth & Environmental, Inc., an environmental risk assessment firm located in Westford, Massachusetts. A former toxicological chemist with the US EPA, he has written and evaluated environmental laws and regulations and has provided expert testimony regarding the risks posed by numerous toxic substances, including coal-fired power plants.

L. David Pengelly, M.Sc., Ph.D., P.Eng. – Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Pengelly is currently Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, a member of the McMaster Institute of Environment and Health, and Professor Emeritus, Department of Engineering Physics at McMaster University in Hamilton. In addition, he is Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. He has worked in the field of air pollution research for over 40 years as an engineer, physiologist and most recently using the tools of epidemiology and has served as chair or member on committees of non-governmental organizations and government agencies relating to issues of environment and health, including the Advisory Committee on Environmental Standards in Ontario.

Lesbia F. Smith, MD – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Smith is currently an Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, Gage Occupational and Environmental Health Unit, and Associate of the Centre for Environment at the University of Toronto, as well as Clinical Research Associate of the Institute of Environment and Health, McMaster University. She has vast Ontario government experience, in particular with the Ministry of Health where she was an acknowledged leader in quantifying the relationship between human health and the environment.

Douw Steyn, Ph.D. – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Dr. Steyn is professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, and member of the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, and The Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia. He has an extensive background in the use of integrated atmospheric pollution transportation and transformation models as tools for the development of pollution abatement policy.

Peter Victor, Ph.D. – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Victor is Professor of Environmental Studies at York University, and from1996 to 2001 was Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies. This followed several years as Assistant Deputy Minister of the Environmental Sciences and Standards Division in the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. He was the first economist to apply the physical law of the conservation of matter to the empirical analysis of a national economy and was one of the founders of the emerging discipline of ecological economics.

James W.S. Young, Ph.D. – Kincardine, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Young is currently president of Jim Young Atmospheric Services Inc., affiliated with the global environmental firm SENES Consultants Limited, where he has worked on numerous international air quality projects since 1990.  He also served as Director General, Research at the Atmospheric Environment Service of Environment Canada for over 12 years and was Chief of the Air Quality Section for the Province of New Brunswick.  Dr. Young’s global experience spans issues from climate change and meteorology to acid rain and pollution abatement at all scales, local to global.  He also served as the Canadian Co-chair of the Air Quality Advisory Board, International Joint Commission from 1985-1997 and is a past president of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.

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For further information:
Anne O’Hagan             Minister’s Office 416-325-5809	Kate Jordan Communications Branch (416) 314-6666
Contact information for the general public: 416-325-4000 or 1-800-565-4923/ www.ontario.ca/environment

 

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