#CEC30: Join the 30th Regular Session of the CEC Council and Meeting of the Joint Public Advisory Committee
Fairmont Empress
721 Government Street, Victoria, British Columbia
Canada
28 and 29 June, 2023
Public
Mark your calendars for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)’s 30th annual Council Session and Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) Public Forum, to be held 28-29 June 2023 in Victoria, British Columbia. For nearly 30 years, the Governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States have worked together through the CEC to conserve, protect and enhance the North American environment. Since July 2020, these trinational efforts have continued through the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, alongside the USMCA/CUSMA/T-MEC.
Each year, the CEC convenes the top environmental officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States to engage with the public in a dialogue on pressing environmental issues facing our region. This year, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, will host his counterparts, United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Secretary María Luisa Albores González of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources Mexico (Semarnat).
The CEC’s Joint Public Advisory Committee will kick off the two-day event, by hosting a Public Forum on 28 June, which will offer public participants representing a diversity of stakeholders and Indigenous Peoples from the three countries the opportunity to engage in a dialogue on critical environmental issues, and share their perspectives within the framework of the Council Session.
Throughout #CEC30, participants can learn from and engage with subject matter experts, business leaders, youth, Indigenous and community leaders, and other stakeholders focused on enhancing trilateral cooperation to conserve, protect and enhance North America’s unique biodiversity and natural resources. Remote and in-person participants will also hear from the CEC Council during the Council Public Session on 29 June.
The 2023 CEC Council Session and JPAC Public Forum are open to the public and both will be live streamed in English, French and Spanish. The agenda and registration details will be announced in April 2023.
If you would like to know more about CEC initiatives and stay up to date, you can sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media.
Participation at the 2023 CEC Council Session is free of charge.
Agenda
Wednesday, 28 June 2023
JPAC Public Forum on Indigenous Approaches to Climate Adaptation
Climate change is impacting communities across North America, giving way to increased events such as flooding, coastal erosion, drought, fires, and heat waves, to name a few. For Indigenous communities, climate change also poses serious threats to their traditional way of life, including to their food, modes of transportation, cultural ways, and sacred sites. As North American communities face the reality of increasing climate variability, reducing vulnerability and building local resilience has become a shared priority for all three countries.
This JPAC hybrid forum will serve as a platform to showcase climate adaptation stories from Indigenous communities in the three countries and discuss the critical role of Indigenous Knowledge and perspectives in shaping effective climate adaptation policies and planning efforts.
Time Zone: Pacific Time (PT) (UTC-8)
(Palm Court, Fairmont Empress)
Registration of Public Participants
Welcoming Ceremony
Opening Remarks
Octaviana V. Trujillo
JPAC Chair
Octaviana V. Trujillo
JPAC Chair
Octaviana V. Trujillo (Yaqui), Ph.D., is the 2023 chair of the CEC’s Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC), having been first appointed as a member of JPAC by US President Barack Obama in 2015. She is founding Chair and Professor Emerita in the Department of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University and the former chairwoman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona. She has spent her career advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and developing educational courses, initiatives, and programs to support Tribal Nation Building and Indigenous communities, especially with regard to sustaining Indigenous languages, cultures and lifeways, and working with Indigenous youth.
She is a current Soros Equality Fellow and the 2021 American Educational Research Association, Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Research awardee for outstanding scholarship. She is also an advisory board member to Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras, whose mission is to affirm the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their right to self-determination, their collective human and civil rights, the rights of sovereignty and the protection of sacred sites, and their right to free and unrestricted movement across international borders. Trujillo also served as an active national member of the American Friends Service Committee and Farmworker Justice, working to foster community-based resources for promoting social justice.
Her extensive international experience as researcher, mediator, and advisor on the topics of human and Indigenous rights includes participation in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and serving on the EPA Governmental Advisory Committee, which helps to shape US policies that are intended to improve environmental and health conditions in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and the Global Diversity Foundation, which promotes agricultural, biological, and cultural diversity around the world through research, training and social action.
Welcoming Remarks
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEC Executive Director
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEC Executive Director
Executive Director
Jorge Daniel Taillant is a seasoned global advocate for environmental justice and environmental protection. His career spans several decades, working with international development agencies, as an advisor to governments and with civil society organizations in Latin America and around the world promoting innovative approaches to environmental protection, fostering sustainability criteria in international development finance, and by working to promote greater corporate accountability in the area of sustainable development.
He has worked for the last decade to tackle the escalating climate emergency through aggressively reducing the rate of global warming in the short term by phasing out the most intense climate pollutants, such as methane, black carbon and HFCs, while building climate resilience and strengthening adaptive capacity in the most climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
Most recently, Mr. Taillant served as Climate Justice Policy Advisor at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) promoting more ambitious climate action targeting short-lived climate pollutants and worked closely with the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an advisor on strategies to reduce methane and black carbon emissions.
Mr. Taillant brings to the CEC a breadth and depth of experience in sustainable development, environmental justice, and climate policy through community engagement and public participation.
Break
Session 1: Climate Adaptation in North America: Learning from Indigenous Communities
This session will bring together Indigenous community leaders from Canada, Mexico and the United States to showcase climate adaptation stories in the three countries. Invited speakers will share their experience and unique perspectives on climate change, how it is impacting their communities, and how they approach climate adaptation to build community resilience.
Kathy Hodgson-Smith
TEKEG Facilitator (Moderator)
Kathy Hodgson-Smith
TEKEG Facilitator (Moderator)
Kathy L. Hodgson-Smith is a Saskatoon lawyer who practices criminal and Aboriginal law, as well as on behalf of the Métis Legal Research Education Foundation. She has litigated in all levels of court including the Provincial Court and Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatchewan, the Courts of Appeal in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the Federal Court of Appeal, and as co-counsel at the Supreme Court of Canada.
She has worked on various national policy initiatives for the Métis National Council (MNC), including the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Agreement Strategy, Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtables, the Kelowna Accord, and Post-Powley. She has also given evidence at the Canadian Aboriginal Affairs Standing Committee on the effects of McIvor decision on the Métis. She has researched and presented on Métis Aboriginal rights law and traditional knowledge at local, provincial, national, and international forums and conducted research for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Canadian Education Association and the Canada Council on Learning and conducts traditional land-use studies for the Métis.
Internationally, she also represents the MNC on the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Committee on the Protection of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources, and on the Canadian Delegation to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
She has chaired a number of committees, including the MNC National Research Strategy and Urban Aboriginal Strategy committee, National Environment Committee, in addition to the Canadian Standards Association Technical Committee, which established a national standard for the operation of Mètis Nation Registries.
Representative, the Tosepan Union of Cooperatives (Mexico)
Download Presentation
Upper Pavilion, Conference Centre
Lunch [Provided]
Session 2: Integrating TEK and Indigenous Perspectives into Climate Adaptation Policy and Planning
During this session, invited speakers will discuss the critical role of Indigenous Knowledge and perspectives in shaping effective climate adaptation policies and planning efforts. The session will highlight case studies where Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous perspectives were integrated into climate adaptation initiatives to enhance their effectiveness and promote greater resilience to climate change impacts.
Felicia Marcus
JPAC member (Moderator)
Felicia Marcus
JPAC member (Moderator)
Felicia Marcus is the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, an attorney, consultant, and member of the Water Policy Group. She most recently served as Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, implementing laws regarding drinking water, water quality, and state’s water rights, hearing regional board water quality appeals, settling disputes, and providing financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure.
Before her appointment to the Water Board, Marcus served in positions in government, the nonprofit and private sector. In government, she served as the Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest Region. Preceding her work at the EPA, Marcus served as the President of the Board of Public Works for the City of Los Angeles.
In the non-profit world, she was the Western Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and prior to that the Executive Vice-president and Chief Operating Officer of the Trust for Public Land. Marcus also has an extensive background as a private sector and public interest lawyer.
In 2020 she was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from Harvard College, and Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law and studied at Hong Kong University on a Rotary Fellowship.
Laura S. Lynes
President, The Resilience Institute (Canada)
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Laura S. Lynes
President, The Resilience Institute (Canada)
President, The Resilience Institute – Canada
Laura is the co-founder, and president of the Resilience Institute. She holds a master of law with distinction in climate change law & policy, her thesis was titled: Colonialism & Climate Change / Rights of Nature. She also has a master degree in intercultural and international communications.
Laura is a graduate of the Oxford Adaptation Academy and a Focal Point of the UNFCCC Nairobi Work Programme. She is a past recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Jane Goodall Fellowship for her work on perceptions on inclusion of large carnivores in communities. She is currently working towards a PhD focused on bringing together Indigenous and other knowledge systems to advance complex climate challenges.
Report from the National and Governmental Advisory Committee Representatives
Andy Carey
US National Advisory Committee Chair (virtual)
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Andy Carey
US National Advisory Committee Chair (virtual)
Andy Carey is the executive director of the US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership (BPP), a position he has held since 2008. BPP is a binational membership organization based in San Diego, CA, that supports a network of nearly 400 organizations that build prosperity through leadership, collaboration, and philanthropy in the US-Mexico border region. Previously, Andy served for 15 years at Kiwanis International leading volunteer mobilization and fund development throughout the globe. Andy received his bachelor and master of arts degrees from Purdue University.
He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Diego in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences where he teaches post graduate courses on International nonprofit management. He was named 2017-18 Adjunct Faculty of the Year by the Dean of the School of Leadership and Education Sciences. Andy serves in many civic capacities, including as chairman of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Advisory Committee, on the US-Mexico Science Foundation Board of Directors, the University of San Diego Kroc School of Peace and Justice Advisory Board, the Independent Districting Commission in Escondido, CA., and on the Advisory Board of St. Mary Catholic School in Escondido. In 2018, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Relations presented Andy with the Ohtli Award in recognition of his long-standing commitment and service to the needs and interests of the Mexican community residing in the United States of America.
Marina Brock
US Governmental Advisory Committee Chair (virtual)
Marina Brock
US Governmental Advisory Committee Chair (virtual)
Marina works as a senior environmental specialist in the Environmental Health Division, Barnstable County Department of Health, and the Environment and as an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Her areas of expertise are public and environmental health and emergency, risk, and safety management. In addition, she is interested in individualized genetic and environmental factors as they influence public health and environmental health exposures and outcomes. She has written and co-authored several articles on these subjects and has lectured and mentored throughout the New England states.
Brock has received several awards, including the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Excellence Award (2000) and the (Massachusetts) Governor’s Award for toxic use reduction in the design and implementation of an innovative initiative for pollution prevention (P2) in the public sector. Her work in this area has served as a template for a national focus on the safety of chemical management in schools. She was also nominated for the Harvard School of Government’s Innovations in Government Award for facilitating collaborative efforts between local, regional, state, and federal government agencies. She holds an undergraduate degree from Simmons College and an MS in occupational health and safety engineering and emergency management. In 2018 she began work on a Ph.D. in public health and emergency management policy.
Overview of SEM Process
Paolo Solano
Director, Legal Affairs and Submissions on Enforcement Matters Unit
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Paolo Solano
Director, Legal Affairs and Submissions on Enforcement Matters Unit
The Director of Legal Affairs and Submissions on Enforcement Matters (SEM) at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Paolo Solano is a lawyer trained in Mexico with over 15 years of experience in the field of international environmental law. His responsibilities at the CEC pertain to the implementation of the SEM process under NAFTA/USMCA-CUSMA and also include advising on operational and legal matters of the CEC more generally.
Paolo obtained his law degree from the Faculty of Law at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), a master’s degree on environmental governance from University of Essex (awarded with honors); a diploma on US law from the Georgetown Law Center, and graduate studies on Business Management and Canadian Law at the University of Montreal.
Paolo has also been a visiting law professor in the United States and Mexico and has published academic articles and a book chapter. Since 2008 he has published the annual report for the Yearbook of International Environmental Law and, as of 2015, also reports on the development of environmental law in Mexico.
Closing Remarks
Octaviana V. Trujillo
JPAC Chair
Octaviana V. Trujillo
JPAC Chair
Octaviana V. Trujillo (Yaqui), Ph.D., is the 2023 chair of the CEC’s Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC), having been first appointed as a member of JPAC by US President Barack Obama in 2015. She is founding Chair and Professor Emerita in the Department of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University and the former chairwoman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona. She has spent her career advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and developing educational courses, initiatives, and programs to support Tribal Nation Building and Indigenous communities, especially with regard to sustaining Indigenous languages, cultures and lifeways, and working with Indigenous youth.
She is a current Soros Equality Fellow and the 2021 American Educational Research Association, Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Research awardee for outstanding scholarship. She is also an advisory board member to Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras, whose mission is to affirm the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their right to self-determination, their collective human and civil rights, the rights of sovereignty and the protection of sacred sites, and their right to free and unrestricted movement across international borders. Trujillo also served as an active national member of the American Friends Service Committee and Farmworker Justice, working to foster community-based resources for promoting social justice.
Her extensive international experience as researcher, mediator, and advisor on the topics of human and Indigenous rights includes participation in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and serving on the EPA Governmental Advisory Committee, which helps to shape US policies that are intended to improve environmental and health conditions in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and the Global Diversity Foundation, which promotes agricultural, biological, and cultural diversity around the world through research, training and social action.
Palm Court, Fairmont Empress
Visit to the CEC Exhibition, and Networking Space
Break
475 Belleville St., Victoria, BC V8V 2P8
Travel to the Wawaditla Mungo Martin House
Participants will head to the Wawaditla Mungo Martin House at 18:30.
Wawaditla Mungo Martin House, 475 Belleville St., Victoria, BC V8V 2P8
Traditional Ceremony
Royal BC Museum, 675 Belleville St., Victoria
Welcoming Reception and Official Opening of the 30th Regular Session of the Council
Thursday, 29 June 2023
CEC Panel on Nature-Based Solutions, Environmental Justice and Climate Adaptation in Urban Environments
The global consensus and current push to accelerate climate action, including transitioning to zero-carbon economies by reducing potent greenhouse gases, to protecting and conserving natural resources which act as critical carbon sinks, to introducing nature-based solutions to promote natural cooling and build community and ecosystem resilience to the impacts of climate change, to promoting environmental justice, and to generate the financing needed for climate action to improve resilience and capacity to adapt to climate change are largely derived and occurring at an international and national level. Yet many of the actions that are needed to thwart climate change must take place at the very local level, through actions advanced by subnational governments, including states, provinces, cities and local communities.
In North America, 80% of people live in urban areas, making urban environments the space and framework through which much of today’s climate change, and responses to it, plays out. Innovative local solutions and actions to tackle climate change are happening in our cities across North America.
This session explores North American challenges and responses to climate change in the urban environment and responds to the North American Environmental Cooperation Agreement’s (ECA) mandate to facilitate partnerships, linkages and other new channels for the development and transfer of knowledge and technologies with national and subnational governments to promote the development and exchange of best practices and environmental information.
The session will gather experts from the three countries working on climate action in urban settings, offering moderated discussion and public commentary on:
- Key issues to consider, before city officials and urban communities to align with and adopt emerging global, national and state climate policy and targets, including regulatory, financial, administrative, social and economic challenges and opportunities;
- Examples of effective policies, strategies, programs and city management approaches to promote climate adaptation and resilience;
- The use of nature-based solutions to reduce emissions, promote cooling and energy efficiency, and to build community resilience to climate impacts;
- Ecosystem restoration as a vehicle to reestablish connection and identify between urban dwellers and the natural environment;
Program of Public Events - Priorities and actions to address environmental justice and promote social equity.
Time Zone: Pacific Time (PT) (UTC-8)
(Palm Court, Fairmont Empress)
Registration of Public Participants
Welcoming remarks and introduction of session scope and objectives
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEC Executive Director
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEC Executive Director
Executive Director
Jorge Daniel Taillant is a seasoned global advocate for environmental justice and environmental protection. His career spans several decades, working with international development agencies, as an advisor to governments and with civil society organizations in Latin America and around the world promoting innovative approaches to environmental protection, fostering sustainability criteria in international development finance, and by working to promote greater corporate accountability in the area of sustainable development.
He has worked for the last decade to tackle the escalating climate emergency through aggressively reducing the rate of global warming in the short term by phasing out the most intense climate pollutants, such as methane, black carbon and HFCs, while building climate resilience and strengthening adaptive capacity in the most climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
Most recently, Mr. Taillant served as Climate Justice Policy Advisor at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) promoting more ambitious climate action targeting short-lived climate pollutants and worked closely with the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an advisor on strategies to reduce methane and black carbon emissions.
Mr. Taillant brings to the CEC a breadth and depth of experience in sustainable development, environmental justice, and climate policy through community engagement and public participation.
Presentation on the current status, challenges and opportunities for climate adaptation in urban environments
Deputy General Manager, Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability, City of Vancouver
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Panel discussion with lead responses by invited experts intermixed with questions/comments from the public (in-person and online)
Download Response from ED to questions from the Public
(Palm Court, Fairmont Empress)
Visit to the CEC Exhibition, and Networking Space
(Upper Pavilion, Conference Centre)
Lunch [provided]
Council Public Meeting
Indigenous and Urban Approaches to Climate Adaptation
In accordance with the Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (ECA) Article 3(4), the CEC Council shall hold public meetings in the course of all regular sessions. These public meetings have been held since 1995 and represent a unique opportunity for North American citizens to engage with senior environmental officials and learn about North American environmental collaboration in the context of free trade as well as share their views with the Council. This year’s public meeting will focus on “Indigenous and Urban Approaches to Climate Adaptation.”
(Crystal Ballroom, Fairmont Empress)
Welcoming remarks
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEC Executive Director
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEC Executive Director
Executive Director
Jorge Daniel Taillant is a seasoned global advocate for environmental justice and environmental protection. His career spans several decades, working with international development agencies, as an advisor to governments and with civil society organizations in Latin America and around the world promoting innovative approaches to environmental protection, fostering sustainability criteria in international development finance, and by working to promote greater corporate accountability in the area of sustainable development.
He has worked for the last decade to tackle the escalating climate emergency through aggressively reducing the rate of global warming in the short term by phasing out the most intense climate pollutants, such as methane, black carbon and HFCs, while building climate resilience and strengthening adaptive capacity in the most climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
Most recently, Mr. Taillant served as Climate Justice Policy Advisor at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) promoting more ambitious climate action targeting short-lived climate pollutants and worked closely with the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an advisor on strategies to reduce methane and black carbon emissions.
Mr. Taillant brings to the CEC a breadth and depth of experience in sustainable development, environmental justice, and climate policy through community engagement and public participation.
Introduction and presentation of video on CEC’s accomplishments
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEC Executive Director
Jorge Daniel Taillant
CEC Executive Director
Executive Director
Jorge Daniel Taillant is a seasoned global advocate for environmental justice and environmental protection. His career spans several decades, working with international development agencies, as an advisor to governments and with civil society organizations in Latin America and around the world promoting innovative approaches to environmental protection, fostering sustainability criteria in international development finance, and by working to promote greater corporate accountability in the area of sustainable development.
He has worked for the last decade to tackle the escalating climate emergency through aggressively reducing the rate of global warming in the short term by phasing out the most intense climate pollutants, such as methane, black carbon and HFCs, while building climate resilience and strengthening adaptive capacity in the most climate-vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
Most recently, Mr. Taillant served as Climate Justice Policy Advisor at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) promoting more ambitious climate action targeting short-lived climate pollutants and worked closely with the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition as an advisor on strategies to reduce methane and black carbon emissions.
Mr. Taillant brings to the CEC a breadth and depth of experience in sustainable development, environmental justice, and climate policy through community engagement and public participation.
Dialogue with the Council on Indigenous and Urban Approaches to Climate Adaptation
During this session, Council members and invited experts will participate in a public dialogue on Indigenous and Urban Approaches to Climate Adaptation.
This dialogue will be moderated by Lisa Helps, former two-year term Mayor of Victoria, who will facilitate the expert dialogue and questions and answers with public participants.
The following invited experts will also participate in the dialogue with the Council: Skw’akw’as (Sunshine Lillian) (Canada), Jamie Donatuto (US), and José Inés Loria Palma (Mexico).
Youth Innovation Challenge Winners
The 2023 Youth Innovation Challenge invited North American youth, aged 18 to 30, to propose innovative solutions that address and respond to critical issues related to water. This 7th annual challenge, under the theme “Water Solutions for Sustainable Development,” encouraged dynamic and creative young leaders to participate in actions, innovation, and transformation on issues relating to water. Winners will be announced during this session and will be invited to present their innovative solutions to the Council and the public.
Council Announcements
Council Session Closing
Click here to download the complete program of public events.
Contact
Nathalie Daoust
Director, Government Relations, Strategy and Performance
(514) 350-4310
Marcela Orozco
Head of Unit, Advisory Groups and Private Sector Engagement
(514) 350-4305