Water Engagement Initiative

Rahul Ray
Environmental Dynamics Inc
Lead Independent Facilitator

Rahul is the Chief Strategic Initiatives Officer and a senior environmental planner with EDI. In his project role, Rahul’s planning and facilitation work is supported by his education and experience in the biological and social sciences. He has facilitated major planning processes involving Indigenous communities; municipal, provincial and federal levels of government; and stakeholders designed to reach mutually-beneficial solutions. He has prepared baseline studies, led community engagement programs, and conducted assessments for major projects across western Canada over the past 15 years. Rahul is a Registered Professional Planner in British Columbia and a Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Michael Harstone, MSc, PEng
Compass

Michael Harstone is a Principal at Compass with over twenty years of experience working in the water sector as a decision analyst, environmental planner, water resources engineer, and facilitator. He has led the development and implementation of a number of regional, provincial, and transboundary water resource management technical and public planning processes and this work has included the modernization of the former BC Water Act, Metro Vancouver Water Shortage Response Plan, Elk Valley Water Quality Plan, Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Bilateral Agreements, BC Winter Flow Requirements, Township of Langley Water Management Plan, Site C Technical Advisory Committee process, and designed and facilitated the development of seven public Water Use Plans (WUPs) for BC Hydro and facilitated Metro Vancouver’s Joint Capilano – Seymour WUP. Michael also has led a number of other local water based planning assignments for local governments and communities including Wapiti River Water Management Plan (City of Grande Prairie), Moberly Lake Watershed Plan (Saulteau First Nation), Nicola Valley Water Use Management Plan, City of Merritt’s Integrated Source Water Plan, Salt Spring Island’s St Mary Lake IWMP, Columbia Basin Trust’s CRT community consultations, etc. In 2018, Michael facilitated the technical and public advisory process (and led the consulting team) on the Cowichan Water Use Plan for the CVRD, Cowichan Tribes, Catalyst Paper and the Cowichan Watershed Board. More recently, Michael was the lead analyst facilitating the technical advisory group processes for both the Regional District of Nanaimo (2019) and CVRD’s (2019-2020) Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Plans. And in 2021, Michael was the lead planner for the G2G Nicola Watershed Governance Project between the province and five participating First Nations towards the establishment of environmental flow needs (EFN) thresholds that would be protective of both environmental and cultural values based on flow releases to the Nicola River.

Michael has a Masters of Science in Environmental Resources Planning (SCARP) and a Bachelor of Applied Science in water resources engineering from the University of British Columbia (UBC). He was also a contributing author to the book Structured Decision Making: A Practical Guide to Environmental Management Choices (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) and is an instructor delivering Compass’ SDM training workshops.

Jayson Kurtz

Registered Professional Biologist

Jason is a Registered Professional Biologist with over 25 years’ experience in fisheries and aquatics sciences in both private consulting and government. He is well versed in resource management planning with industry, Indigenous Groups, government, and other stakeholders. Mr Kurtz has several years’ direct experience in Water Use Planning; he was the DFO representative on 8 BC Hydro WUPs in the Southern Interior and Peace Regions. In that role, he helped develop, author and edit various action plans and technical studies, specifically using adaptive management and value-based Structured Decision Making. Jayson’s Water Use Planning and general hydroelectric experience provides him with a broad understanding of environmental/ecological, social/cultural, and operational issues regarding hydroelectric facilities and river flow regulation. Mr Kurtz first worked on the Nechako River in 1994, electrofishing juvenile chinook salmon as part of the Nechako Fisheries Conservation Program, and has since broadened his experience and knowledge of the Nechako watershed and Rio Tinto operations from his employment with DFO (Prince George) and Ecofish (Terrace). Jayson has extensive experience working with Indigenous Groups, having participated in consultation, community engagement and knowledge-holder interviews, and is familiar with Indigenous and public interests and concerns regarding the Nechako watershed.