Keynote Speakers

1. 

   Neal Bolton

   Neal Bolton has more than 42 years of experience in the solid waste industry. In 1988, Mr. Bolton formed his own consulting company – Blue Ridge Services. His team provides operational consulting services for a wide range of private and municipal solid waste/recycling facilities, landfills, transfer stations, collections operations, material recovery facilities, and green waste facilities throughout North America and abroad. He is the author of The Handbook of Landfill Operations and created the industry’s most comprehensive safety training program for transfer stations, landfills, and collections. He and his team have pioneered the use of process improvement tools in the solid waste industry and have broken new ground with the use of drone technology for waste management mapping and planning.

2. 

   Barbara Bowes

   Barbara Bowes is an accomplished speaker, trainer, coach, writer and professional strategist/consultant. Barbara is also the President of Legacy Bowes Group, Winnipeg’s premier HR Solutions provider and is a highly regarded authority and author on Human Resource related matters. Her popular “Working
   World” column appears every Saturday in the Careers section of the Winnipeg Free Press and she is the host of Bowes Knows, a weekly radio show airing on CJOB in Winnipeg.

Speakers

1. 

   Alex Singbeil

   Alexander Singbeil is an environmental engineer and in his current role as the Waste Reduction Consultant at the City of Lethbridge, he leads the implementation of the CoL’s Buisness Waste Reduction Strategy. Alex has worked most of the last 15 years in environmental engineering initially with Bio-Terre Systems and DGH Engineering on small scale, low cost, on farm anaerobic digesters; then with City of Winnipeg and lately with the City of Lethbridge primarily on Solid Waste projects and program implementations . Despite a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace) Alex was never taught how to recycle an airplane, so instead he is happy to be back home in Winnipeg to talk to SWANA delegates about organics management.

2. 

   Anderson Assuah

   Anderson Assuah is a PhD Candidate at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba. He holds a master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from this same university, and a BA in Sociology and Geography from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Anderson’s PhD research focuses on solid waste governance, management, and learning. His research examines the role of, and potential for, Aboriginal and social learning through community-based solid waste management in First Nations. Anderson’s general research interests include: community-based natural resources and environmental governance, rural community development, waste management and sanitation, community forestry, and Aboriginal and social learning.

3. 

   Art Goudy

   Art Goudy has been in the solid waste business for 25 years as an independent contractor. During that time, he has been responsible for the management operations of one landfill, which reached its limit and was closed three years ago. He has also designed and managed two transfer stations for the R M of Rockwood; one in Balmoral for 22 years and one near Stonewall for 18 years. While working for BFI from 1987 to 1990, he was disappointed with the amount of reusable and recyclable materials going into the landfill. As a result, at the age 35, he went back to university and studied solid waste trends around the world. He graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies and Physical Geography. When rumours started that the local landfill was closing, he decided to do a presentation to the R M of Rookwood on the value of transfer stations. Two weeks later he was hired to clean up the site and create his first transfer station. He is still operating the two transfer stations mentioned previously, which have received praise as some of the best in the Province. His transfer stations are designed to be user friendly and include one stop shops such as E waste, household hazardous, oil recovery and a host of reusable items.

4. 

   Ashley Keep

   Ashley has worked for the Province of Manitoba since 2005. Within the Department of Sustainable Development she was an Environment Officer focusing on wastewater and solid waste management, then as the Solid Waste Management Coordinator where she was responsible for the delivery and implementation of the Waste Management Facilities Regulation and developed the Manitoba Landfill Operator Certification Program. Ashley is currently the Public Alerting Program Coordinator for the Manitoba Emergency Measures Organization located in Winnipeg. Ashley has a Bachelor of Science degree from Brandon University in Geography, Geology and Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies. She is also a Canadian Certified Environmental Professional (EP) in Policy, Legislation and Waste Management.

5. 

   Becky Raddatz

   Becky Raddatz is an environmental planner at the City of Winnipeg, Water and Waste Department, Solid Waste Services. With a Master of City Planning and a Bachelor of Science, Becky spends her time providing technical advice on local developments, parks and secondary plans, long term planning for City utility assets, and developing innovative programs to manage multiple City residual streams to improve environmental outcomes. Becky is the planning lead on the City’s three year biosolids soil fabrication pilot project.

6. 

   Cheryl Dixon

   Cheryl Dixon is both a landscape architect and public engagement specialist with Scatliff+Miller+Murray in Winnipeg. Through her work engaging communities across Manitoba, Cheryl has established herself as a leader in meaningful public engagement. Cheryl has created and implemented numerous public engagement strategies and communication plans and excels at delivering workshops, stakeholder meetings, visioning sessions, open houses, and online events. She has extensive experience related to planning to determine a community’s wants, needs and interests and has the ability to translate highly technical projects for consumption, input, and feedback.

7. 

   Dale Schmidt

   Dale has been in the recycling industry for the past 8 years and is currently the facility process manager for Loraas disposal north the largest waste and recycling company in saskatchewan.

8. 

   Daniel Mireault

   Daniel Mireault is a waste diversion specialist with the City of Saskatoon. He oversees the residential recycling programs and other waste diversion initiatives.

   Daniel holds a Master of Environmental Studies degree from the University of Waterloo. In his free time, he enjoys reading, recycling, and riding his bike.

9. 

   Eldon Wallman

   BIO – ELDON WALLMAN
   • MANAGER OF SOLID WASTE FOR CITY OF STEINBACH FOR 14 YEARS
   • 31 YEARS IN MANAGEMENT IN THE RETAIL GROCERY INDUSTRY
   • 4 YEARS AS A VOLUNTEER EMT LEVEL 1 EMS ATTENDANT
   • AVID SNOWMOBILER AND OUTDOORS PERSON
   • SWANA FACULTY MEMBER SINCE 2013

10. 

    James Mickle

    James Mickle, M.Sc., P.Geoph. (AB), is a senior geophysicist with Tetra Tech Canada, based in Calgary. Over the past 14 years, James has been involved in numerous projects across western and northern Canada and the western and southern US. Among other industrial applications, many of these projects involved using geophysics for buried waste mapping in brownfields, measuring landfill cap thickness, periodic monitoring of property perimeters for contaminant migration off-site, liner leak detection, and stratigraphic studies for landfill siting. In 2014, James turned his attention to developing an internal UAV-based high-resolution mapping capability at Tetra Tech Canada and currently serves as UAV Operations Manager, with landfills comprising about half of this work. In 2017, James began development of an advanced visualisation and collaborative analysis environment for complex multi-disciplinary geospatial data. Due to his love of all things high-tech, James’ current job satisfaction is off the charts.

11. 

    Jessica Floresco

    Mother Earth Recycling (MER) is an Indigenous social enterprise that delivers a variety of recycling services in Winnipeg, Manitoba while also offering jobs and training opportunities to community members who face multiple barriers to employment. The act of recycling has cultural significance for Indigenous communities. Embedded within traditional Indigenous worldviews is the concept of collective responsibility to respect and maintain the natural environment, and use only what is needed for sustenance (Seven Generations Principle).
    MER is focused on our three key objectives: PEOPLE – Providing meaningful training and employment to individuals facing personal and systemic workplace barriers; PROFITS – Generating income through profitable operations to ensure the sustainability of the business and reinvest our profits in promoting our social objectives; PLANET – Enhancing local and global environments.
    Jessica Floresco is the General Manager at Mother Earth Recycling and a proud member of the Metis community. Jessica is dedicated to environmental justice issues and promoting corporate social responsibility in the Winnipeg Business Community. While spending a significant amount of time working with people who are affected by barriers to employment, Jessica has learned about the systemic and often crippling effects of racism and poverty in our community and feels that there is a way to combat some of these issues in our city through business and social collaboration.

12. 

    Jim Lapp

    When Jim started in the waste industry, our phones had chords connected to a wall, we sent our mail in the post office, and every town on the prairies had a dump just down a back road. Usually we could find it by the trail of litter and the plume of smoke. We didn’t talk about recycling or composting. Jim has seen a lot of changes in our industry since then. His first involvement in waste was with closing those old dumps, planning regional landfills and building transfer stations. He became interested in composting before municipalities viewed it as a waste diversion option. At that time, he had to visit mushroom farms to learn how large scale composting worked. His interest in composting eventually led him to the City of Edmonton where he supervised the City’s compost facility, the largest of its kind in Canada at the time. He retired from the City and immediately went back to work. Jim now works with Tetra Tech’s Solid Waste Practice and is working on a variety of waste management projects across western Canada, including a design to upgrade the City of Whitehorse compost facility.

13. 

    Joe Angevine

    Joe was born and raised around the Calgary area and has worked in the waste & recycling industry for 15 years. He completed a Bachelor of Management degree from the University of Lethbridge while working full-time for the City of Lethbridge and has been managing the Foothills Regional Landfill & Resource Recovery Centre for 6 years.
    Joe worked at the Foothills Landfill during the 2013 High River flood and saw the devastation and huge demands placed on the landfill after the disaster. He recently completed a Master’s Degree in Environment & Management from Royal Roads University and completed his master’s thesis: Come Hell or High Water: A Comparative Analysis of the 2013 High River Flood Response. This thesis focused on improving disaster debris management practices in Alberta.

14. 

    Karen Storry

    Karen Storry is a Senior Project Engineer for the Metro Vancouver regional government’s Solid Waste Planning Team. Karen’s work focuses on programs and policies to reduce and recycle materials currently destine for disposal including clothing waste. As part of her work on clothing waste reduction she co-wrote the white paper – “Unravelling the Problem of Apparel Waste in the Greater Vancouver Region”. You can find links to the paper and more about Metro Vancouver’s work on clothing waste reduction by searching “Metro Vancouver tackles clothing waste” or visit clothesarentgarbage.ca

15. 

    Kasia Caputa

    Kasia Caputa is a Professional Agrologist with SYLVIS Environmental Services in Edmonton. She manages consulting and operational projects using biosolids and other residuals as tools to solve environmental challenges. Kasia has been working with the City of Winnipeg since 2016 on the design and implementation of pilot projects to fabricate a growing media out of biosolids and other residuals for landfill closure. Kasia has a Master’s of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Northern British Columbia.

16. 

    Kristen Malec

    Kristen is a Composting Program Coordinator at Green Action Centre, spreading the word about the importance of composting through public education. She provides support to schools, workplaces, and individuals in getting started with backyard composting and vermicomposting. Kristen has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Winnipeg.

17. 

    Leah Seabrook

    Leah Seabrook has worked with Strathcona County for over 20 years. With a postgraduate degree in Environment and Management, Leah is currently the Manager of Waste Management and Community Energy Services for the County.
    During her time, she has launched the community’s Green Routine residential waste diversion program, which has been successful in diverting up to 60% of residential waste from landfill. In addition, she is responsible for overseeing a district energy and biomass system within the community.
    Because of her enthusiasm for waste minimization, Leah has been involved with a number of regional and provincial waste organizations, such as the Edmonton Metro Waste Committee, Recycling Council of Alberta and Alberta Recycling in an effort to enhance waste reduction programs and practices throughout Alberta.
    Leah strongly believes that waste management is beyond a public works function. To effectively tackle waste issues, municipalities need to take a people-first approach and must focus on shifting community behaviors as a way to instigate positive environmental and social change.

18. Linda Park

    Linda Park is the Manager, Operations Control for Recycle BC, providing oversight to the post-collection facilities across the province. With a degree from UBC and a Masters in Environment and Management from Royal Roads University, Linda has been working in EPR for the last 12 years. One area of specialty is her work with other EPR programs and stewards for material recyclability beyond the blue box. By working with the full supply chain, Linda and Recycle BC help to connect the dots between stewards, collectors, processors and end markets, allowing for the continued success of the BC program.

19. 

    Mark Kinsley

    I graduated from Red River College in 2004 from the Civil Engineering Technology Environmental Protection program and have been working in the environmental field ever since.

    I started in consulting and now have been with the City of Winnipeg for past 12 years, Supervisor of Waste Diversion for 2. Through my different roles in our environmental and waste diversion branches I have witnessed and experienced some interesting trends in the waste diversion industry and am now sharing in the challenge of the current recycling landscape where education, collaboration and technology have the ability to bring the improvements necessary to make waste diversion more sustainable.

20. 

    Martin Racicot

    Martin Racicot is the Director of Field Services for Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba (MMSM), and is a leading expert in the waste management and recycling industry. With over 30 years of experience across the Prairie Provinces, Martin has managed Material Recovery Facilities (MRF), marketed materials, set up recycling programs, and provided technical support and research for local communities.
    Over the years, he has developed long-term relationships with various stakeholders, assisting them in achieving their waste diversion goals.

21. 

    Michel Lefebvre

    Mr. Lefebvre is a member of both the SWANA Northern Lights executive (Vice President) and training faculty. Mr. Lefebvre is also the Solid Waste Practice Manager for Tetra Tech, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
    Mr. Lefebvre has 20 years’ experience in solid waste engineering and design (both nationally and internationally), and has supervised the construction of numerous landfill infrastructure projects, including storm water and leachate management systems, landfill gas collection systems, and lateral expansions of landfills. In addition, Mr. Lefebvre has developed numerous landfill integrated design and operations plans, environmental monitoring plans, and landfill risk assessments.

22. 

    Michelle Gowdar

    Michelle is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at ReGen Global Solutions. She has 25 years of experience in the field of sales, account management, and human resources management. Michelle Gowdar’s success has been through creating new processes which automate and clarify the work model to be more directed and efficient. In doing so the teams became cohesive and sales increased due to a stronger infrastructure. Michelle’s past sales experience provided her with the ability to guide new sales representatives to improve upon their presentations and professional approach. She has a passion for bringing out the most in the people she is surrounded by and has maintained a mentorship role with many of these past co-workers. She is a strategic thinker with the ability to zero in on what is required to succeed.

23. 

    Mikhael Metauro

    Mikhael Metauro has been a proud member of the Cascades Family for over 15 years. With his undergraduate degree in Strategic Selling & Marketing, Mikhael currently works within the Recovery+ division of Cascades as Director of Supply Development. Day in and day out Mikhael manages a national sales and account management team focused on securing recycled fibers and other materials to supply Cascades Mills and create new products. Mikhael has the opportunity to deal with a wide range of customers from different market segments and backgrounds with various types of discarded material recovery needs. “It’s amazing to see how more and more organizations are focusing on sustainable decisions making and circular economy and have put the people power in place to start thinking about better ways to recover more and waste less. For me this is where my focus has been and always will be, working with organizations to help them achieve their sustainability goals through coaching, planning and execution.” Mikhael is focused on creating a world where all materials have a positive end of life – a truly Circular Economy.

24. 

    Myron Moore

    Myron is a founding member of Stack’d Consulting and serves as our Public Sector Practice Leader. He has more than twenty years of professional services experience in management consulting, project management, and engineering. In particular, he has extensive experience within the municipal utility sector, including waste management, water and wastewater utilities, stormwater, community energy, and community broadband. For clients within this sector, Myron has delivered several engagements focused on strategic planning, organization design and governance, program and service delivery model reviews, funding model and fiscal policy reviews, full costing and rates analysis, and business transformations. He has worked with clients across Western Canada and gained a reputation for providing in-depth, comprehensive analysis to enable management decision-making. Within the field of waste management, Myron has worked on projects focused on collections, disposal, and diversion activities. Examples include assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of collection services, developing strategic plans for non-regulated (i.e. competitive) collection and waste management facility services, and developing funding models and implementation plans for new services. Myron has also perform detailed cost of service studies and built rate models for municipal collections, commercial fee-for-service work, and both diversion and disposal facilities. Myron regularly works with, presents to, and facilitates his clients’ leadership teams and is known for his ability to effectively and collaboratively work with client representatives at all levels.

25. 

    Natalie Lagasse

    Natalie Lagassé is a planner for the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region. She has over 10 years experience in environmental management working in the aviation industry. Much of this work focused on the management of solid waste, water quality, wildlife and land development. For the past three years she has focused on bringing this experience to municipal planning and has been working with metro region municipalities on several projects involving land use planning, solid waste management, economic development, and climate change initiatives. She holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from the University of Manitoba and currently completing her master’s degree in City Planning from University of Manitoba through the Faculty of Architecture.

26. 

    Neil Krovats

    Neil is a quintessential entrepreneur, who has developed Clearline Technologies into a hub for innovation with the primary focus on waste diversion. Clearline Technologies is known for bringing revolutionary and environmentally smart products to a large-scale market. This concept was proven with Neil’s first success, the C-Port, which is manufactured with 100% recycled rubber. Neil took discarded tires and turned it into a world class product line that is being sold into various construction industries. His inspired and “can-do” attitude is contagious and is threaded throughout the company’s culture and is always tied to the motto “The more life happens to it, the more valuable it gets”.

27. 

    Richard Bolton

    Richard Bolton has twelve years of experience in the environmental field working with First Nations and municipalities on a variety of natural resource management projects and community planning processes. Over the past three years, this work has focussed more specifically on regional solid waste management initiatives. He has worked in private consulting, for government agencies, and ENGOs; has a master’s degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of Manitoba; and a bachelor’s degree in environmental geography and anthropology from the University of British Columbia.
    Richard’s academic and professional experience provide him a foundation for working with stakeholders from diverse cultural backgrounds to reach a common goal. This is exemplified by the numerous environmental and municipal-type service agreements he has helped develop between First Nations and local governments across Manitoba. He is inspired by supporting sustainable partnerships with Indigenous communities and municipalities that is rooted in their distinct cultural identities and aspirations.

28. 

    Scott Theede

    Scott Theede is currently the Operations Engineer for the City of Saskatoon’s Water & Waste Operations Division, providing support to solid waste operations. Scott has a degree in Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan. With 8 years of experience at the City he has been involved with landfill gas, groundwater interception, airspace consumption and the communication of these important landfill issues to internal and external stakeholders. In 2018, he was the author of a public report called “Landfill Airspace Value” which the presentation will take an in-depth look at. Scott is also the treasurer of the Northern Lights Chapter.

29. 

    Stan Lozecznik

    Mr. Lozecznik is a Professional Engineer with over 9 years of experience, responsible for project management, coordination and undertaking of environmental fieldwork, analysis and interpretation of data, and report preparation for a variety of environmental projects, including Solid Waste, Mining, Water and Wastewater resources and Green Energy.
    For his contribution to Solid Waste Management, Mr. Lozecznik was awarded with several scholarships and bursaries in US and Canada during his graduate studies, but also obtaining funding to work on Research and Development (R&D) while working at KGS Group.

30. 

    Stephanie Sidler

    Stephanie Sidler is a leader in the recycling & waste management field in Canada. Over the past 9 years, she has managed and optimized large-scale municipal waste and recycling contracts across Canada for both the private and public sectors. At Canada Fibers Ltd., Ms. Sidler has been able to leverage her familiarity with the municipal sector to drive value for contract stakeholders by utilizing her understanding of waste management programs, government interfaces, as well as legislation and policy. Most recently, Stephanie has been a key contributor in Canada Fibers growth and geographic expansion by working to secure contracts which have added to the over 600,000 tonnes of recyclable material that the company processes and markets each year. Additionally, Ms. Sidler has served on several boards and advisory committees including the Municipal Waste Association (MWA) in Ontario, where she chaired the Markets, Operations and Contracts Committee. Stephanie is currently a member of SWANA’s Recycling Task Force.

31. 

    Stephen McCabe

    Stephen McCabe is the Regional Manager of Landfills & Soil Treatment Facilities for GFL Environmental. Stephen currently manages operations for GFL in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Stephen grew up in the landfill business after his father partnered with the RM of Ritchot in the late 1990’s to create Manitoba’s first soil treatment facility and turn the RM’s small municipal landfill into a large Class 1 landfill that accepts much of the ICI waste from the City of Winnipeg and southern Manitoba. Stephen has been working in the industry for 17 years and has been managing for GFL since 2011. He has been heavily involved in all aspects of the operations, design, compliance, construction and management of landfills, soil treatment facilities and transfer stations.

32. 

    Steve Johnson

    Steve graduated from the University of Alberta with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Engineering in Environmental Engineering. He has worked for Alberta Environment, Waste Management of Canada Corporation, and AECOM throughout his career specializing in waste management over the past 25 years.
    While at Alberta Environment he was an approval writer for landfills, water, and waste water treatment facilities and then the Provinces Landfill Specialist instrumental in the development of the Standards for Landfills in Alberta, the Guidelines for Landfills in Alberta, and initiating the Standards for Composting in Alberta. He also was the chair of the Alberta Landfill and Compost Operator Certification Committee, a member of the Technical Guidance for the Quantification of Specified Gas Emissions from Landfills, the Technical group for the Management of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials in Waste, and a variety of dead animal disposal committees.
    While at Waste Management of Canada Corporation Steve was the Site Engineer responsible for landfill capping, developing and operating a leachate treatment plant, waste acceptance approvals, regulatory reporting, gull control, and the upgrade to a landfill gas collection and flaring system, and the siting and regulatory application for a new landfill.
    At AECOM he is involved in solid waste management studies, landfill siting studies, landfill design, transfer station feasibility and design, landfill master plans, operations plans, environmental monitoring plans, fill plans, compliance audits, the National Solid Waste Benchmarking Initiative, and related environmental studies and regulatory applications. He recently has been appointed to be the Waste Services Manager for Canada.
    Steve is a SWANA Northern Lights Chapter instructor for the landfill operator basics course, Manager of Landfill Operations course, and the leachate management course.
    In his off time, Steve is an avid curler, runs community gardens, and tries to keep up with his two young daughter’s activities.

33. 

    Tammy Shields

    Tammy has been working with Cleanfarms as the Western Regional Coordinator since 2017. She is a Professional Agrologist for the last 10 years delivering Stewardship programs with agriculture producers. Tammy has been involved with recycling agricultural plastics in Saskatchewan since 2010. She works with Producers and the ag industry across prairies providing solutions for solid and hazardous waste management to farms. In this newly developed role as Western Regional Coordinator, Tammy seeks opportunities for Cleanfarms to provide solutions that directly benefit producers and the environment.