Premier’s team of engineers, scientists and technicians are fully qualified to deliver a wide variety of services, in many jurisdictions across Canada and Internationally. Premier has a higher ratio of qualified persons (QP) – meaning senior Engineers and Geoscientists – than most other consulting firms. Because of this, your project manager will have the experience and insight needed to help you make sound business decisions and keep your project budget and schedule on track.
Executive Team
David Wade, P.Geo., CRM, FRM, QPESA, QPRA
Dave has over 30 years of experience in environmental liability insurance risk profiling and the development of loss prevention and loss control programs, environmental site assessment and soil/groundwater remediation. Dave is a professional geoscientist licensed in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. His key areas of expertise include the following: risk transfer and finance programs, environmental forensics, insurance underwriting surveys, risk assessment and management, contaminated site remedial design and implementation, loss prevention and loss control programs, expert testimony/expert witness support, and insurance claims support.
Currently, Dave is the President and CEO of Premier.
John Cracknell, P.Eng., QPESA, QPRA
John is a licensed professional engineer in several Canadian provinces and a Qualified Person under Ontario Regulation 153/04 (site assessment and risk assessment). He has been involved in thousands of successful environmental site assessments in many parts of Canada and the United States on behalf of financial lenders, industry, developers, and government. John has over 25 years of experience in the environmental consulting industry, which has allowed him to become extremely familiar with regulatory requirements and legislation at all levels. John’s expertise are in the areas of environmental due diligence, Phase I & II environmental site assessment and characterization, environmental compliance audits, site decommissioning, evaluation of remedial alternatives, soil and groundwater remediation systems, human health risk assessment, risk management, regulatory strategy, physical condition assessments and designated substance surveys.
Dave Montgomery, B.Sc., P.Geo (Limited)
Dave is a professional geoscientist and a Qualified Person, Environmental Site Assessments. He is an environmental consultant with over 17 years of experience in the environmental consulting industry and has managed or co-managed complex projects across Ontario. Dave has completed numerous Phase I and II ESAs for industrial-commercial and residential properties and has led both large- and small-scale soil and groundwater remediation projects. His training and experience in soil and groundwater investigations has been used often to achieve cost-effective and time-efficient solutions for projects involving different client sectors. Dave has a proven ability to project manage complex projects involving multiple disciplines. Other expertise includes hydrogeological investigations, designated substance surveys, and various regulatory permitting processes.
Dean Fitzgerald, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.
Dean completed M.Sc. studies regarding the management of small streams of the Grand River watershed and a Ph.D. with a focus on fish in 16 lakes across the Great Lakes basin. His postdoctoral studies involved wetlands, creeks, and lakes while at Cornell University. Additional industrial postdoctoral studies were completed on ecosystems in northern Saskatchewan subjected to milling and mining of uranium, with an emphasis on understanding the environmental consequences for food webs following exposure to elevated concentrations of selenium and molybdenum. During the last 18 + years, he has acted as the senior ecologist on a large number of studies that involved wetland, aquatic, and terrestrial habitats. Notable examples include acting as the senior ecologist for rehabilitation of the Burtch Corrections facility lands. This project concerned the clean-up of a 200-hectare site south of Brantford, where extensive soil contamination resulted in a clean-up of terrestrial habitats as well as 2500 m of creek channel and the removal of a pond. Dean designed the plan for wildlife rescue of species, including SAR turtles from the pond, and a tree replanting plan. Dean is skilled at consultations with stakeholders, including First Nations. Other studies with IO involved projects where buildings were demolished and screenings were completed for SAR. In the past, he has taught courses in ecology and mentored B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. students at five universities. Dean has written more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters since 1995. He completed the Ontario Stream Assessment Protocol training under OMNR and is considered an expert regarding aquatic and terrestrial ecology, SAR plants and wildlife. He holds Adjunct Professor Status at the University of Waterloo and is an Associate of Cornell University.
Doug Dolby, Dipl. T. Env.
Doug has accumulated over 20 years of experience in environmental contracting and consulting engineering. He has extensive experience in the management and co‑ordination of large scale soil and groundwater remediation projects in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. The experience he’s gained throughout his career has included the management and coordination of Brownfield re-development projects, full site decommissioning projects, detailed subsurface investigations, developing remedial action plans and evaluating remedial options for a wide variety of diverse sites. He has completed a multitude of remediation projects consisting of Brownfields, residential, commercial, industrial and municipal facilities. In addition to his experience in full scale site decommissioning, Doug is also well versed in conducting subsurface soil and groundwater investigations for a wide array of inorganic and organic chemicals. Mr. Dolby is very familiar with the necessary provincial and federal standards, procedures and methodologies utilized to evaluate environmental liability with respect to subsurface contamination in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Mr. Dolby brings a strong theoretical and practical background in environmental chemistry, environmental engineering and environmental toxicology to the Premier team.
Paul S. Meillon, MSc. Toxicologist
Paul has extensive professional experience in the health and environmental fields. His main area of interest isunderstanding how the environment affects human health and ecosystems. His multidisciplinary background in the pharmaceutical, health, and environmental sectors gives him a good vantage point with which to tackle diverse toxicological problems. He has put this multidisciplinary experience to good use, and has often created ‘cross-fertilization’ from one field to another. Paul’s current focus is site-specific risk assessments on complicated sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, and other compounds. In all cases he has established baseline levels for public health and ecological risk that could be compared to acceptable risk levels. In order to do this, he has used standard equations, toxicity reference values and practices from the USEPA, the Ontario MOECC, the Quebec MDDELCC, and Atlantic PIRI. He is able to provide a variety of risk assessment services, including probabilistic exposure assessments, screening level evaluations, Risk-Based Corrective Action (RBCA), and detailed human health and ecotoxicological assessments.
Kyla Hoyles, P. Geo, QPESA
Kyla is a professional geoscientist licensed in Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba. She has extensive consulting experience specializing in Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments, soil and groundwater remediation, risk assessment / risk management, and Designated Substance / Hazardous Materials Surveys and abatement. She has conducted, supervised, and trained staff on all stages of the environmental site assessment process, assessing hundreds of properties. In the process Kyla has assisted a wide variety of clients by assessing risk related to property purchase and divestment, financing and re-development. Kyla is a Qualified Person for filing Records of Site Condition (RSC) as specified in O. Reg. 153/04 as amended.
Kyla has over twelve years of experience assessing buildings for the presence of hazardous materials such as asbestos, lead, mould, and PCBs. She also provides third-party monitoring for abatement activities to support industrial and commercial construction projects, removal of underground storage tanks and indoor air quality assessment.
Troy Jones, BA, CRSP, AMRT
Troy is an environmental scientist with a wide range of environmental consulting experience. He has completed a number of environmental compliance audits, occupational health and safety inspections, and environmental risk assessments. Troy’s extensive experience includes Phase I and II ESAs, remediation projects, Environmental Impairment Liability Insurance Risk Assessments, and Designated Substance Surveys. More recently, Troy was responsible for assessing air, soil, and groundwater quality at a large commercial property and developing a remediation plan in order to meet the regulatory standards. Work included the development of environmental sampling programs for the site and contractor management for remediation work, which included directing soil excavation activities and in-situ injections of an oxidant to treat impacted groundwater.
Gerren Feeney, B.Sc. (ENV)
Gerren has experience in environmental assessment and project management in the petroleum, hydro utility, industrial, and commercial fields. His professional experience includes Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) Phases I, II, and III, in-situ and ex-situ remedial techniques, remedial options evaluations, risk assessments (RA), designated substance surveys, stormwater management, spill cleanup, and record of site conditions (RSC). Gerren has been responsible for conducting environmental programs pertaining to soil and groundwater cleanup in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia.