Infrastructure, the Environment & Society
Assessments to Connect, Power, House, & Protect for a Sustainable Future in an Uncertain Geopolitical & Natural World
November 4th & 5th, 2025
Virtual Options Available
Ontario Bar Association – 20 Toronto Street, 2nd Floor
Abstracts due June 7, 2025
OVERVIEW:
OAIA members, as well as environmental impact assessment practitioners, are encouraged to submit a proposal to speak at this year’s conference. This year, the conference will be exploring the theme of “Infrastructure, the Environment & Society: Assessments to Connect, Power, House, & Protect for a Sustainable Future in an Uncertain Geopolitical & Natural World”. There are both in-person and virtual options for participation and attendance.
Environmental Assessment (EA) and Impact Assessment (IA) practitioners are at the cornerstone of a major societal and environmental transition to address innumerable existential crises, where transformational change is needed to address challenges, be it climate change, loss of biodiversity, housing shortages, the more prolific use of and demand for electricity, or even trade relationships. This year’s conference theme recognizes the key role transformative infrastructure will play during uncertainty in the geopolitical, societal and natural world. Infrastructure enables trade, powers businesses, connects workers to their jobs, creates opportunities for communities and protects the nation and its citizens from an increasingly unpredictable natural environment. This conference is about stimulating a meaningful dialogue about supporting development for society’s important challenges while leaving a positive legacy for future generations.
Practitioners need to create efficiencies by understanding common problems and standardizing processes while equally isolating complex problems that require innovative solutions. Building the society of the future will mean maximizing outcomes and minimizing impacts on the environment and people. It will mean consulting and cooperating in good faith with Indigenous communities and peoples in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources. It will mean learning from past errors that might have negatively impacted health and socio-economic conditions, as well as the biophysical environment. Modern infrastructure projects should create partnership opportunities with Indigenous communities, build communities with vibrant and non-digital human connectivity, and involve early engagement and trusted relationships.
Proposals are encouraged, but not required, to align with one or more of the two program areas:
Program Area 1 – Infrastructure for the Next Generation
The next generation of infrastructure must consider and explore:
- Indigenous and community-led assessments processes.
- Energy needs of a world less reliant on fossil fuel.
- Municipal infrastructure that is climate proofed.
- Transportation infrastructure that is active and community based as well as high-speed and transformational.
- Local manufacturing and industries that is considerate of geopolitical realities.
Program Area 2 – Partnered Assessments with a People Centric Foundation
The next generation of assessments would not just involve information out but would create meaningful and transformative collaborative opportunities. The next generation of assessments must involve:
- True partnership/co-management with Indigenous communities on projects, supporting Indigenous leadership, oversight and decision making.
- Interactive opportunities for citizens to understand assessment predictions and outcomes, and thus meaningful involvement in the development of project design.
- Creative citizen participation in decision-making.
Suggested Sessions: Format, Topics, & Areas of Focus
To complement the above listed program areas and guide prospective conference participants, OAIA has developed a list of suggested sessions topics and areas of focus (as seen below). You are encouraged to review these suggestions when submitting your proposal on the 2025 Conference Theme: Infrastructure, the Environmental & Society. Include the Session and Topic in your submission form. New topic suggestions are welcome. Various formats for Sessions 1 to 6 are also welcome, such as interactive, presentations, and case studies.
| SESSION | SUGGESTED TOPICS AND FOCUS |
| All sessions will include discussions and questions with conference attendees. Not all conference participants (presenters) need to prepare a presentation (ideas, debate and deliberation is welcome). | |
| Session 1 | Energy |
| The transformation from a fossil fuel centric society to an electricity centric society will require rapid energy transformation. These projects could vary from transmission lines, transformation stations, solar farms, wind farms, pumped storage projects, nuclear power plants, hydrogen fuel, to natural gas power plants to deal with peak demand periods. | |
| Session 2: | Municipal Infrastructure |
| As infrastructure in major cities age, and with the increased threat of extreme weather events, basic community infrastructure will need to be upgraded while new communities to address housing challenges are more sustainably designed. These projects could vary from sewers, municipal roads and transit ways, housing developments, wastewater management systems, to active transportation routes. | |
| Session 3 | Transportation |
| Transportation needs in cities are different from suburbs and different yet in rural areas. Sustainable transportation should consider the needs of different citizens for daily life, both work and play. Sustainable transportation should consider options such as high-speed rail that might take people away from highways. Sustainable transportation should enable commerce and industrial activity, and may involve ports and pipelines. | |
| Session 4 | Manufacturing and Industries |
| As the geopolitical climate evolves, so will the types of industries that would operate in our communities. Each of society’s current existential crisis requires industrial transformation, such as cement plants to deal with increasing demand for housing, or battery manufacturing plants to deal with increasing demand for electric vehicles, or processing plants along the supply chain to move Canada’s resource industry from just extraction to also add value. | |
| Session 5: | Reconciliation and Economic Partnerships |
| The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) provides a framework for reconciliation, healing, and peace. Fundamental to how assessments can ensure reconciliation is by ensuring that projects proposed not only involve Indigenous communities during consultation processes but rather involve Indigenous communities as partners in project development. | |
| Session 6 | Involved Assessments |
| Well-designed projects are supported by robust assessments. Robust assessments that Indigenous communities and the public, are involved in. Robust assessments should include clear and transparent predictions and outcomes. Interactive assessments that enable participants to “play” with different assumptions that yield different project, societal and environmental outcomes should be necessary to build social license for projects that proceed to development. Participants being able to see how different scenarios yield different outcomes might then be able to help choose the outcome, and thus project option, that they are more comfortable being built. Participants choosing what gets built or understanding why something was the chosen design, ensure that they are more meaningfully involved in the decision-making process. | |
Panel Discussion
Panel on considerately furthering societal interests:
To bookend the 2025 OAIA Conference, individuals are being sought to participate on a panel focused on the theme of supporting development for societies important challenges while leaving a positive legacy for future generations. Experience has shown that it is notoriously difficult to meaningfully protect our natural heritage, while building modern societies. This panel would provide views on achieving an optimal balance in consideration of the sustainable needs of future generations. The panel discussion topics may include: the idea of protectionism and what does that mean in the field of assessments – considering human, societal, environmental, and/or economic priorities; working within the means of legislations in a rapidly changing world; and planning and implementing transformative infrastructure quickly and thoughtfully. Prospective panelists could submit abstracts that highlight their views on this session topic. We are seeking to fill the panel with a variety of voices, views, disciplines and sectors.
Guidelines for Abstract Proposal Submissions
Students
- OAIA is offering a student bursary of $2500. For more information, please see Ontario Impact Assessment Award – Student Bursary.
Guidelines for Writing a Proposal Abstract
- All abstracts (see General) must be submitted using the OAIA Abstract Submission Form.
- Ensure that the submission is clear in its intent.
- Information must be accurate; spelling errors and missing information may result in presenters or co-authors not being correctly linked to their contributions.
General
- Abstract Submissions are welcome from industry, government, Indigenous groups, academia, post-secondary and graduate students, EA/IA consultants and non-government sectors.
- One Abstract Submission Form is required for each topic (unless proposing an entire session).
- Format (see Format for more information)
- Each case study or presentation should be approximately 15 minutes in length. Each presenter should anticipate interactive discussion with the audience and other presenters during the same session.
- The Panel Discussion will be approximately 1 hours in length, which includes time for audience participation.
- If you are interested in organizing a complete session, with a focus on a debate panel or interactivity element, please complete a series of abstracts and “detailed session plan”. A detailed session plan only needs to be completed for proposing a full session, and does not need to be filled out for individual abstract presentations.
- OAIA wishes to inform participants that social media and other modes of advertising your participation in the conference will be used. In addition, all presentation materials, including an audio-visual recording, will be made available to OAIA Members after the 2025 Conference on the OAIA website.
- All selected presenters will participate in a pre-planning meeting with their session moderator and potentially other presenters.
Format
Select the one that applies: Abstract submitters can do one of the following:
- Submit an abstract for a panel presentation that the organizers will place in conjunction with other speakers who submit abstracts on related topics based on the program areas or session topics for the 2025 Conference.
- Participate in the panel discussion with multiple debaters and opportunities for audience participation. Such a submission should include an abstract outlining key objectives and thoughts.
- Organize a complete session of panel presentations on one or more of program areas or session topics for the 2025 Conference. Such a submission should include a series of abstracts and detailed session plan with timelines, key objectives and outcomes including a list of the presenters and their biographies. Confirmation from the presenters must be sought in advance.
- Organize a complete session for a panel debate on one or more of the program areas or session topics for the 2024 Conference with multiple debaters and a proposal for audience participation. Such a submission should include an abstract and a detailed session plan with timelines, key objectives and outcomes including a list of the debaters and their biographies. Confirmation from the debaters must be sought in advance.
- Submit an abstract for a case study related to one or more of the program areas or session topics for the 2025 Conference. These case studies could be international in nature, but the presenter MUST clearly show its relevance within the framework of the Ontario environmental assessment processes. The case study may be grouped with other similar case studies into a session or it can be a stand-alone session.
- Submit an abstract for a interactive and/or facilitated audience participation/discussion on one or more of the program areas or session topics for the 2025 Conference. Such an abstract should include a detailed session plan with timelines, key objectives and outcomes.
Deadline & How to Submit
Submit your Abstract Submission no later than June 7, 2025. To submit your proposed abstract, click here: Submit Abstract Proposal. If you have any questions you can contact the planning committee at info@oaia.on.ca.
Travel & Other Expenses
- All presenters must register and pay the registration fee. There are several registration options available.
- No reimbursement for travel costs will be made.
- In some instances, with prior arrangement with the conference organizing committee, some assistance may be available to offset some travel costs (Students, please refer to Ontario Impact Assessment Award – Student Bursary).
Selection Process
All proposals submitted to OAIA are subjected to a rigorous jury process. The first step of this process is a peer review of each proposal. Upon completion of the peer review process, the preliminary conference program will be drafted, and all submitters will be notified as to whether their submission has been accepted.
- The following criteria will be used by the selection committee:
-
- Applicability to environmental and impact assessment practice or theory in Ontario
- Scientific and technical merit
- Clarity and linkage to the 2025 Conference theme, program areas, as well as the suggested sessions with format, topics and areas of focus.
- OAIA will respond to all submitters by mid June 2025, to advise if your proposal has been accepted.
- If you are invited to proceed, you will be asked to register for the 2025 Conference, join as an OAIA Member, and confirm your participation by July 7, 2025.
- Where applicable, you will be asked to submit all electronic files related to your submission (e.g., PowerPoint presentations) no later than October 17, 2025.
