We’re proud to present the 2025 winners of the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC)’s Volunteer Recognition and Young Professional Awards. Congratulations to these deserving individuals! Click on the award titles to learn more about each award and the past winners.
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, Canada’s transportation sector. The recipient has contributed actively to TAC councils and committees for at least 15 years, among their 25 years or more of industry experience.
Peter Hackett, formerly with the Nova Scotia Department of Public Works
Peter graduated from Civil Engineering at the University of New Brunswick in 1994 and with five years of experience he joined the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal as a Project Engineer. After rising steadily through the organization, he was appointed Chief Engineer in 2016, Deputy Minister of Nova Scotia Public Works in 2021, and Deputy Minister of the Nova Scotia Joint Regional Transportation Agency in 2024. Peter has mentored numerous young engineers throughout his career, spoken in many conferences and classrooms, and actively supported projects by post-secondary students. He received the prestigious Engineering Award from Engineers Nova Scotia in 2020.
TAC has benefited from Peter’s involvement since 2007 through his participation on the Pavements Committee, Soils & Materials Committee, and Maintenance & Operations Committee. He sat on the Chief Engineers Panel from 2016 to 2021, and served as Vice-Chair of the Safety, Design & Operations Council for two years. In 2019 he was Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for the very successful joint TAC-ITS Canada Conference & Exhibition, then in 2021 he was appointed to TAC’s Board of Directors where his unwavering support and pragmatism were highly valued, and where he ultimately served as President and Board Chair from 2023 through 2024.
Brian Hollingworth, City of Hamilton
Brian holds engineering degrees from the University of Toronto and Ryerson Polytechnic University. He spent more than two decades with IBI Group in Toronto, becoming a partner in the firm and emerging as one of Canada’s leading transportation planning consultants. Brian played a pioneering role in integrating sustainability into transportation master plans, area plans, parking studies and development proposals – a practice that is now taken for granted, but that once was innovative and even controversial. He also mentored many new graduates and other young professionals who became leaders in their own right. He became the Director of Transportation Planning and Parking for the City of Hamilton in 2018, where he has shaped key initiatives including a new light rail transit line and city-wide parking plan.
Brian’s involvement in TAC goes back more than 20 years, including roles on the former Sustainable Transportation Standing Committee, Urban Transportation Council, and Green Guide for Roads Task Force. He recently served as Chair of the Mobility Council, where he played a key role in championing the project leading to the TAC publication Shared Micromobility Services in Canadian Communities, and also sat on the steering committee for the project that produced the report Road Pricing in Canada: Opportunities and Challenges. As a consultant for TAC, he led development of several Urban Transportation Indicators reports as well as the report Active Transportation: Making It Work in Canadian Communities; and as a volunteer he co-authored TAC briefings on sustainable transportation planning, and on urban transportation and air quality.
Troy McLeod, City of Calgary
Troy graduated from Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary in 1995, and holds a Master’s Certificate in Municipal Leadership from York University. As the City of Calgary’s Director of Mobility, he is responsible for a team of 1,430 staff; other positions he has held over his 30-year career include the Manager of Traffic Engineering for the City, and General Manager of the Calgary Parking Authority. He has been instrumental in shaping the city’s transportation policy and infrastructure, and takes personal responsibility for developing the next generation of transportation leaders within both the City of Calgary and TAC.
Troy has been a dedicated TAC volunteer and leader since 1996. He spent five years in Executive roles on the Transportation Operations & Management Committee, including that of Chair, as well as many years on the Road Safety Committee and the Joint Roundabouts Subcommittee. He has been a steering committee member for five pooled-fund projects that developed new traffic control devices, a dedicated member of TAC’s Chief Engineers Panel since 2014, and a member of the Safety, Design & Operations Council and Infrastructure & Asset Management Council since their inception in 2019. Outside of the office, he is a dedicated volunteer coach and administrator for multiple community sport organizations. Wherever he contributes, Troy consistently demonstrates a strong commitment to innovation, an unparallelled willingness to share information, and unfailing support for colleagues young and old.
Tim Smith, Cement Association of Canada
Tim is a graduate of the University of New Brunswick, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering. He spent his early career with Marine Atlantic and the New Brunswick Department of Transportation, followed by diverse roles with engineering consultants, Lafarge Canada, and the Cement Association of Canada where he is now the Senior Technical Director, Infrastructure & Specifications. He is affiliated with many national and international organizations focusing on technologies and products related to cement and concrete applications in the transportation sector, and has written numerous conference papers and other publications.
Tim has been involved with TAC for almost 30 years, and is a tireless contributor as both a regular and Executive member on a long list of volunteer groups including the Pavements Committee, Soils & Materials Committee, Maintenance & Operations Committee, Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Subcommittee, and the former Sustainable Transportation Standing Committee, Green Guide for Roads Task Force, Climate Change Task Force and Education & Human Resources Development Council. He has been a member of several steering committees for TAC pooled-fund projects, and regularly helps organize TAC conference sessions. He is known by his colleagues for his deep technical expertise, unfailing willingness to collaborate, and constructive contributions to initiatives both large and small.
Leadership Award
This award recognizes individual volunteers who have provided continuous, effective leadership during ten 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.
Melissa Cummings, New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure
Melissa has been an effective leader on TAC’s Environment & Climate Change Council for a decade. Throughout that period, she has contributed to regular initiatives such as conducting jurisdictional scans, reviewing award applications, and organizing and delivering conference sessions. At the same time, she has been a strong presence as an Executive member of both the Environmental Legislation Committee and the Environmental Issues Committee. She has also been a member of the project steering committees that supported two significant TAC publications – Managing and Enhancing Terrestrial Road Ecology, and Beneficial Practices for Compliance with the Migratory Birds Convention Act and Regulations.
Robin Taylor, Ausenco
Robin joined TAC’s Environment & Climate Change Council in 2013, and quickly volunteered to join its Executive. She also became an active participant on the Climate Change Integrated Committee, Environmental Legislation Committee and Environmental Issues Committee, on which she also served as Chair. Among her many accomplishments, she served as a volunteer author of the TAC briefing Understanding Changes to the Fisheries Act, Impact Assessment Act and Canadian Navigable Waters Act, and contributed to an upcoming briefing on invasive species. Notably, Robin has been instrumental in shaping the participatory culture of TAC’s environmental volunteer groups, particularly during the COVID‐19 pandemic.
Phil Weber, CIMA+
Phil has been a valuable technical contributor to TAC councils and committees for 15 years – as a leader and current Chair of the Joint Roundabouts Subcommittee, and also as a volunteer on the Geometric Design Committee, Road Safety Committee, and Traffic Operations & Management Committee. As an internationally known expert on roundabout planning, design and operation, he has lent his expertise to numerous conference sessions and working groups, and also led the development of a major upcoming project to update TAC’s Canadian Roundabout Design Guide, incorporating guidance that will benefit cyclists as well as pedestrians with sight loss.
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.
Dave Dulay, McElhanney
For over a decade, Dave’s deep knowledge and willingness to contribute have made him an important player on the Geometric Design Committee. He has a long history of contributing to improvements to the Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads (GDG), and is Chair of the Revisions & Additions Committee. He has also been instrumental in the development of revisions to the GDG chapter on interchange design.
Matthew Ivany, City of Edmonton
Matthew has sat on the Geometric Design Committee since 2018. Over that period he has actively championed updates to the GDG chapter on access management, and chaired the project steering committee that synthesized current practice. He is also a member of the Revisions & Additions Subcommittee, and the project steering committee that is overseeing creation of the Road Safety Guide for Canada.
Alex Izett, Izett Engineering
For almost 10 years, Alex has contributed his time and experience to both the Geometric Design Committee and its Revisions & Additions Subcommittee. He has been a champion of research on bridge finger joints for improved cycling safety that has been advanced for publication, and has served on the Geometric Design Committee’s Adaptation to Climate Change Working Group and on TAC’s Climate Change Integrated Committee.
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 knowledge building, professional development, and member engagement.
Project Steering Committee, Shared Micromobility Services in Canadian Communities
This committee successfully guided a pooled-fund project that researched and drew lessons from the Canadian experience with shared bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters. The Committee’s 15 members worked closely with the consulting team and played an instrumental role in shaping data collection efforts, mining the results, and developing effective guidance for a range of readers. The project was the first in-depth exploration of shared micromobility in Canada, and the resulting publication has been welcomed enthusiastically by stakeholders across Canada and beyond.
Project Steering Committee, Guide to Bridge Hydraulics, Third Edition
This committee played an essential role in scoping and undertaking a comprehensive update to a major national guide. The project deliverable incorporates two decades of advancements in research and practice, responds to many critical challenges presented by climate change and extreme weather, and represents a more practical tool for users. The Committee’s work included deliberations over resource allocation and technical priorities at several points in the project, as well as numerous reviews of major project deliverables.
Grant for Young Innovators in Transportation
This award provides an allowance of up to $5000 to help a young professional attend TAC’s technical meetings and annual conference. It is made possible through the generosity of Scott Stewart & Associates.
Daniel Weng, Parsons
Daniel is the AI & Digital Innovation Lead for Parsons’ North American infrastructure unit and a member of the firm’s AI innovation and governance teams. He views technology not as something to be implemented for its own sake, but rather as a tool to address immediate, mission-critical needs. As demonstrated by his co-leadership of a new transportation data plan and governance framework for the City of Mississauga, he enjoys the application of systems and design thinking to support organizational transformation.
TAC Grant for Young Professionals in Small Municipalities
This award provides an allowance of up to $4000 to help a young professional attend TAC’s technical meetings and annual conference. It is made possible through the generosity of Paradigm Transportation Solutions Limited.
Kalyna Cipywnyk, City of Melfort
Kalyna is the Director of Public Works for a small city in northeast Saskatchewan, a role that builds on her previous experience with the City of Saskatoon. In overseeing the operation and maintenance of roads and sidewalks, she manages Melfort’s efforts to grapple with the twin challenges of aging infrastructure and extreme weather. She enjoys the search for innovative ways to boost service levels while managing costs, which also feeds her passion for transportation engineering and municipal infrastructure.
Allan Widger Consulting Corporation Grant for Young Geotechnical Engineers in Transportation
This award provides an allowance of up to $4000 to help a young geotechnical engineer attend TAC’s technical meetings and annual conference.
Mustapha Abdellaziz, Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable du Québec
Having completed his PhD at the Université de Sherbrooke, Mustapha is now an engineer in his department’s Infrastructure Materials Division where he conducts laboratory assessments of soil properties, models the behaviour of soils and granular materials, and provides engineering opinions. Among other accomplishments, he has supported the development and use of oedometer and triaxial tests as a contribution to slope stability studies, and contributed to a revised model of frost heave in soil and granular materials.
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. This award will not be presented in 2025, although it continues to be an important part of TAC’s recognition program. We encourage future nominations to help TAC recognize emerging talent in Canada’s transportation sector.
