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july 2015 BCBusiness 65 bcbusiness.ca Such anecdotal horror stories can't be extrapolated across the entire pro- fession, of course. Charles Lee* is an aquatic ecologist who has worked as an environmental consultant in B.C. for 18 years on a variety of projects, mostly relating to water use and aquatic envi- ronments. In that time, he says, his pro- fession has accepted more responsibility and still fulfils its role of being account- able to the public and the environment; "I'm surrounded by lots of people who take their job very, very seriously," he stresses. But like many others, he also acknowledges that accountability these days lies less with the regulators and more with qualified professionals as overseers: "It provides more leverage and power in the hands of proponents, who can push their consultants in ways they couldn't in the past." And there's the rub. As an environ- mental assessment practitioner, the proponent hires and pays you, but your ultimate duty is to provide decision- makers with valid and objective infor- mation to serve both the public interest and the environment. The consultants BCBusiness spoke to see myriad possible fixes to address that potential conflict of interest between a proponent's needs and their professional ethics. Charles Lee believes that stronger professional practices—akin to other certified pro- fessional bodies like engineers—is the best defence. Jake Trimble, meanwhile, suggests that government should order the environmental impact assessment itself, select the firm to conduct it and send proponents the bill. For Braden Robinson, the solution would be for proponents to select consulting firms' bids blindly. Several other consultants also cited the need for regulators to come up with clear guidelines and minimum stan- dards governing the scientific research conducted for an environmental assess- ment; currently, the quality of work is highly variable and ad hoc. The scope of what research goes into a provincial assessment is unclear and can vary proj- ect to project, says Angela Waterman, VP environment and technical affairs with the Mining Association of B.C.: "When the scope is unclear, that results in business uncertainty." Opinions may vary on what reform of the environmen- tal assessment process should look like, but on one point everybody agrees: the time for change is now. M onths after Braden Robinson first divulged his tales of sketchy work practices, he was fired from his job at the environ- mental consulting firm. He didn't sound too choked about parting ways with his employer. He seemed relieved to leave behind the compromised world of con- sulting—where advocating for his con- clusions and hewing to his professional ethics proved a constant, and losing, battle—and emboldened in his resolve to effect change. "As a consultant, seeing what's happening, I think I need to step up and get into politics myself to get some accountability," Robinson says. "Because of my experience, I can speak confidently about these injustices and say there's a need for political reform." Around the same time that Robinson got his pink slip, Moore and his col- leagues had concluded their study on the fish of the Skeena and were about to publish their results. While energy developments along the river were get- ting jostled by plummeting natural gas prices, the prospect of dramatic ecologi- cal change in the area still loomed large. The scientific process typically takes many years from fieldwork to publishing, but Moore and his co-authors keenly felt the urgency of their work and released a preprint of their study in April 2014. This past March, it was published in the peer- reviewed scientific journal PLOS One. Moore understands that CEAA was made aware of the study and seems mollified by his belief that "our sci- ence has fed into the process." While he has no way of knowing what impact his research will have on the project's final approval, he does know what he and his colleagues discovered in those sparkling, brackish waters: of all the sites they sampled in the river's estuary, the proposed area for development is exactly where the highest numbers of sockeye, coho and chinook fingerlings were found. ■ * NOT THE SuBJECT'S REAL NAME 1 888 755 6482 sales@nitalakelodge.com tranquility focus inspired by www.nitalakelodge.com Nita Lake Lodge 2131 Lake Placid Road Whistler BC