Announcing TAC’s Volunteer Contribution & Young Transportation Professional Award Winners

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

We’re proud to present the 2022 winners of TAC’s Volunteer Contribution and Young Transportation Professional Awards. Congratulations to these deserving individuals, and thanks to the many others that submitted nominations. Click on the award titles to learn more about each award and the past winners! 

TAC Distinguished Service Award

This award is TAC’s highest honour. It recognizes leaders who have had a tangible and enduring impact on the association’s progress toward its vision and mission, and thereby on Canada’s transportation sector. Recipients have contributed actively to TAC councils and committees for at least 15 years, among their 25 years or more of industry experience.

Gerry Chaput, IBI Group
Gerry has played a significant role in transportation design, construction, operations, and legislation in Ontario for 35 years, in positions with Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO), Metrolinx and now IBI Group. He has been an effective and committed volunteer on TAC’s technical committees including the former Chief Engineers’ Council, where he served as Chair. He has been a member of TAC’s Board of Directors for a decade, including as President (2014-2016) and Vice President. He is now a guiding force and President of the TAC Foundation. His contributions to transportation in Canada through his time at MTO and as a TAC volunteer are significant, and his steadfast efforts to shape the engineers of tomorrow will have an impact for many years.                                                      

Ruth Eden (late), formerly with Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure
Ruth began her engineering career with Manitoba in 1988 and rose through its ranks to become the Assistant Deputy Minister of Water Management and Structures in 2018, and then of Technical Services and Operations in 2021. In TAC, she volunteered for a decade and a half on the Structures Committee (including as Chair) and since 2019 on the Chief Engineers Panel. Ruth was an enthusiastic supporter of TAC’s pooled-fund projects and represented Manitoba on steering committees for projects on bridge sustainability, bridge traffic and combination barriers, and mechanically stabilized earth walls. She was an active volunteer in other engineering organizations both locally and regionally and had a close relationship with the University of Manitoba.

Anne-Marie Leclerc, ministère des Transports du Québec
Anne-Marie Leclerc has been a dedicated TAC volunteer for 30 years. From her involvement as a member of the Pavements Committee in the 1990s through her continuing role on the Association’s Board of Directors, she has always given generously of her time and expertise. She chaired the former Chief Engineers’ Council, currently represents her department on the Chief Engineers Panel, and was TAC President from 2001 to 2006. Over Anne-Marie’s decades of involvement, she could be relied on as a voice of reason and a strong champion for TAC and the merits of pan-Canadian collaboration. A highly decorated engineer, Anne-Marie has built a national and international reputation for excellence in transportation.

TAC Leadership Award

This award recognizes individual volunteers who have provided continuous, effective leadership during 10 or more years of active participation on TAC councils and committees, and who have earned a reputation among other TAC volunteers for their dedication, collaboration, knowledge and integrity.

Pedram Izadpanah, True North Safety Group
Pedram has volunteered with TAC’s Road Safety Committee since 2011, becoming its Chair in 2019 as well as being Co-Chair of two subcommittees. He has helped organize several well attended workshops, was instrumental in the initiation of TAC’s Online Road Safety Training project and served as Co-Chair of that project’s steering committee.

Shauna Lehmann, Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways
Shauna has represented Saskatchewan as an indispensable TAC volunteer and leader over the past decade. She is currently the Past Chair of the Environment & Climate Change Council and a former Chair of the Environmental Issues Committee as well as being a member of more than half a dozen other committees. She has been a force for change by developing tools, fostering discussions, leading conference sessions, and participating in a volunteer project on invasive species management.

TAC Individual Contribution Award

This award recognizes individual volunteers who have exhibited notable levels of initiative, creativity, effort and/or technical excellence in contributing to the work of TAC councils or committees over the preceding five years.

Stephen Legaree, Alberta Transportation
Stephen has been active on TAC’s Environment & Climate Change Council (ECCC) and its committees since 2017. He is now Secretary of the Environmental Issues Committee where he has conducted a review and update of the online issues tracker to improve the committee’s approach to categorizing priority technical issues. His efforts will be incorporated into the ECCC’s Strategic Framework to give the Council a clearer vision of its mandate and help it to better align its activities.

Bruno Marquis, ministère des Transports du Québec
Bruno has been an active TAC volunteer for two decades, with a focus on the Geometric Design Committee. As a member of the Revisions & Additions Subcommittee, Bruno played a critical role in creating TAC’s Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads; he conducted the technical review of the French translation of the entire 2017 update, plus the new chapter on special roads published in 2020, totalling many hundreds of pages of highly technical content. He also provided a similar service for the French version of the Canadian Roundabout Design Guide (2017).

Marian Mithani, City of Toronto
As the inaugural Chair of TAC’s Active Transportation Integrated Committee (ATIC), Marian provided effective leadership and developed new approaches to volunteer collaboration that TAC’s other integrated committees can replicate. During her tenure as an action-oriented chair, ATIC became a true interdisciplinary hub of active transportation expertise. It attracted over 50 new members from across the country, organized numerous conference sessions, developed five internal proposals to update TAC design guidance, and was an early adopter of Lunch & Learn events to benefit committee members.

TAC Committee Excellence Award

This award recognizes excellence and innovation by TAC’s volunteer committees, subcommittees, working groups and project steering committees. Recipient groups have contributed to TAC’s vision and mission through initiatives in the areas of knowledge building, professional development, or member engagement.

Connected & Automated Vehicles Task Force
Chair: Kenedee Ludwar, British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure

Since the Connected & Automated Vehicles (CAV) Task Force first met in 2019, it has successfully played four key roles – connect, inform, guide, and represent. Task Force members helped create important resources including a foundational discussion paper and municipal briefing on CAVs in Canada, a lexicon of CAV terminology, and an online inventory of CAV initiatives in Canada. At Task Force meetings, representatives of TAC member organizations, councils and external bodies exchanged vital information at a time when many stakeholders were working to establish and coordinate their complementary roles in Canada’s CAV ecosystem. The Task Force will now continue its work as an integrated committee reporting to TAC’s Technology Council.

Environmental Legislation Committee
Chair: Kimber Osiowy, AECOM Canada Limited

The Government of Canada launched a comprehensive review of environmental and regulatory processes in 2016, and since that time the Environmental Legislation Committee (ELC) has helped keep TAC member organizations abreast of changes to the federal Fisheries Act, Impact Assessment Act and Canadian Navigable Waters Act. The ELC membership maintained a dialogue with federal representatives to ensure a clear understanding of new procedures and requirements, and a volunteer project created a 14-page briefing on the new legislation that was published by TAC in 2021.

Public Utilities Management Subcommittee
Chair: Lawrence Arcand, 4Sight Inc.

In recent years, the Public Utilities Management Subcommittee (PUMS) has created several TAC technical publications through volunteer projects. In 2021, its efforts led to TAC’s new Guide to Utility Coordination on Public-Private Partnership (P3) Projects, which aims to improve utility coordination on P3 projects by helping project stakeholders create efficient and consistent processes for utility relocations. Not only did PUMS volunteers write this detailed synthesis of best practices, but they also attracted financial support that enabled free distribution of the report.

TAC Young Transportation Professional Award

This award recognizes an employee of a TAC member organization who is 35 years old or less, and who has demonstrated personal accomplishments, industry and professional contributions, and leadership.

Matt Pinder, WSP Canada
Matt specializes in active transportation facilities, complete streets and transit access with an overarching focus on designing streets for people. He has become a thought leader in active transportation and co-authored Ottawa’s Protected Intersection Design Guide, as well as the updated Ontario Traffic Manual, Book 18: Cycling Facilities. Matt regularly writes on transportation issues in his well-read blog, “Beyond the Automobile”, and has published articles in major daily newspapers. As a member of TAC’s Mobility Council and Vice-Chair of its Active Transportation Integrated Committee, Matt guided the innovative development of design update proposals as a means of collaborating with other TAC committees.

 


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