Mackenzie Valley Review Board

2025

More Efficient, More Fair: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Impact Assessment - https://youtu.be/X5hfYHeaES8

Delivered at: IAIA’25 International Conference, Bologna, Italy. May 1 2025 

This is the 2025 Presidential Address delivered by Alan Ehrlich in his role of President of the International Association for Impact Assessment. It focuses on the ways that AI could be used as a potent tool to increase impact assessment’s efficiency without sacrificing its effectiveness, while contrasting the roles of intelligence versus wisdom in impact assessment.

Alan Ehrlich is the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board’s Manager of EIA.

2024

Transforming Impact Assessment to Meet the Climate Crisis 

Click here for video

Delivered at: IAIA’24 International Conference, Dublin, Ireland. April 27 2024 

This is the presidential address delivered by Alan Ehrlich, the Mackenzie Valley Review Board’s Manager of EIA, in his role of President of the International Association for Impact Assessment. It focuses on the need to do impact assessment fast enough to meet the urgent challenge of global decarbonization, while still applying the lessons learned from over 50 years of impact assessment. 

2021

This paper describes an approach to assessing the multiple interconnected impacts of a project using systems thinking to see how the impacts fit together. It includes recent case studies from the Review Board’s environmental assessments.

2020

Evolving Environmental Impact Assessment in the Mackenzie Valley and beyond

2017

Presented at the 2017 IAIA conference in Montreal.

Author: Ruari Carthew, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer

Presented by: Ruari Carthew, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer

Presented at the 2017 IAIA conference in Montreal.

Prepared by: 

Alan Ehrlich, Manager of Environmental Assessment 

Brett Wheler, Senior Policy Advisor

Presented at the 2017 IAIA conference in Montreal.

Prepared and presented by Brett Wheler, Senior Policy Advisor

2015

The paper examines how significance determinations are made in impact assessment.  It uses a visual model, called the significance spectrum, to simply illustrate four basic steps for determining the significance of a predicted impact.  The highlights the need to use evidence-driven subjective informed judgement, reflecting societal values, when weighing the acceptability of predicted impacts.

This paper won an international award of "Best Paper of 2015" for the Journal of Impact Assessment and Impact Appraisal.  This was awarded by the International Association for Impact Assessment, the leading global authority on best practice in impact assessment.

2013

Presented at: International Association for Impact Assessment 33rd International Conference (2013), Calgary, AB

Prepared and presented by: Carol Luttmer, Chuck Hubert and Alan Ehrlich

2012

Presented at: International Association for Impact Assessment 32nd International Conference (2012), Porto, Portugal

Written and presented by: Alan Ehrlich, Manger of Environmental Impact Assessment, MVEIRB

Published in International Indigenous Policy Journal, Vol. 3, Issue 2 (July 15, 2012)

Written by: Alan Ehrlich, Manager of Environmental Impact Assessment, MVEIRB

2011

Poster presented at International Association for Impact Assessment, 31st Annual International Conference (2011), Puebla, Mexico

Written by:

Martin Haefele, Manager of Environmental Impact Assessment

Alan Ehrlich, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer, 

Chuck Hubert, Environmental Assessment Officer

Presented at: International Association for Impact Assessment, 31st Annual International Conference (2011) , Puebla, Mexico

Written and presented by Alan Ehrlich, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer

2010

Published in Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, Vol.28, Issue 4 (Dec. 2010)

Written by: Alan Ehrlich, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer, MVEIRB

2009

Written by: Martin Haefele, Manager, Environmental Impact Assessment, November 20, 2009.

2007

Presented at: 35th Annual Geoscience Forum (2007), Yellowknife, NT

Prepared and presented by: Alan Ehrlich, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer, MVEIRB

Written by:
Mary Tapsell, Manager of Environmental Impact Assessment
Alistair MacDonald, Environmental Assessment Officer

Presented by:
Mary Tapsell, Manager of Environmental Impact Assessment
 

Co-management through the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board
Presented at: IAIA 2007, Seoul, Korea
Written by:
Graham White, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto,
Vern Christensen, Executive Director,
Alan Ehrlich, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer
Presented by:
Gabrielle Mackenzie-Scott, Chairperson

2005

Presented at: IAIA 2005, Boston, USA
Written and Presented by:
Martin Haefele, Environmental Assessment Officer

Presented at: IAIA 2005, Boston, USA
Written and Presented by:
Renita Jenkins (Schuh), Community Liaison Officer
 

2004

Presented at IAIA 2004, Vancouver, BC
Written by:
Alan Ehrlich, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer,
Sherry Sian, Environmental Assessment Officer
Presented by:
Alan Ehrlich, Senior Environmental Assessment Officer

Presented at: IAIA 2004, Vancouver, BC
Written and Presented by:
Martin Haefele, Environmental Assessment Officer
Kimberley Cliffe-Phillips, Environmental Assessment Officer