Day 3 Program

Adam Olsen (SȾHENEP) was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Saanich North and the Islands and member of the B.C. Green Caucus in 2017 and re-elected in 2020.

Adam has a deep love and respect for his home in the W̱SÁNEĆ territory. As an advocate and facilitator, he is committed to good relationships and improving public participation to strengthen all aspects of the community.

His 16-year career in elected public service began when he was elected Councillor in the District of Central Saanich (2008, 2011). Prior to that Adam worked for two decades in the service and communications sectors where he gained valuable experience in building relationships, connecting people, problems, ideas and solutions.

Born in Victoria, BC, Adam has lived, worked and played his entire life on the Saanich Peninsula. He is a member of Tsartlip First Nation (W̱JOȽEȽP), where he and his wife, Emily, are raising their two children, Silas and Ella.

Alastair is President of the Friends of Rails to Trails - Vancouver Island Society. He was formerly Member of the Victoria Advisory Planning Commission, Councillor in the City of Victoria, Chair of Environment and Planning Advisory Committees, CRD Director, Director of the Victoria Water District, and BC Regional Transit Director for Victoria.

Scott MacDonald is a Sustainable Transportation Planner based in Squamish, BC. He is passionate about learning from international planning and design practices—particularly those from the Netherlands—and exploring how they can be adapted to projects across Western Canada. His curiosity provides insight into how communities can most effectively advance goals related to sustainable mode shift, vision zero, and sustainability.

Douglas McLeod is the Director of Transportation for the City of Coquitlam. He has over 20 years of experience leading teams of technologists, planners and engineers. He is a Transit Nerd, an avid e-biker, and considers himself a "Planginner" due to his love of the integration of land use and transportation. His vision for transportation in cities is to be focused on people and to provide the freedom of safe, accessible and convenient options to go from anywhere to everywhere.

Payvand Razaghizad is a Transportation Planner with the City of Coquitlam. Her work focuses on planning and delivering safer, more comfortable and connected active transportation networks that support people of all ages and abilities. Prior to joining the Transportation Planning team, she worked in the City’s Planning and Development Department, where she developed a multidisciplinary perspective on the connections between land use, urban design and transportation.

Farinaz brings an interdisciplinary background in urban planning and design and environmental gerontology, with a focus on the connections between the built environment, health, and social equity. With over eight years of professional experience, her work spans both academia and community-based practice, where she has led and contributed to projects focused on urban accessibility, aging in place, and inclusive mobility. 

Jake began as the Executive Director of Vancouver Cycling Without Age in June 2024, after years of working with other recreation-based charities including Right To Play and the Canucks Autism Network. He oversees the organization’s operations and strategic growth, including building partnerships and fundraising, as well as program development and staff and volunteer management. Jake has over 15 years of experience in community-based social impact in the nonprofit sector around the world, with a specific focus on recreation. He was inspired by his grandmother, Audrey, to join CWA Vancouver and is happiest on the trishaw chatting with seniors.

Christian Brandt has been working in the shared mobility sector for the past 15 years. He began by founding a carshare co-operative in the Okanagan, which later merged with Modo Carshare Co-op. In his current role, Christian leads Modo's electrification initiatives and is spearheading the launch of Modo's first e-cargo bike share pilot at Sen̓áḵw.

Venkatesh Gopal leads movmi, a firm focused on the behavioural change approach to sustainable mobility, working with cities and organizations worldwide on shared micromobility, developer TDM policy, and mobility hubs that bring active transportation, transit and shared mobility services together at the places people live, work, play, and learn. He holds a certificate in behavioural economics and lives it out personally! He and his family live car-free, relying entirely on cycling, walking, transit, and shared mobility to get around.

Dave is a Victoria City Councillor, and Director on the Boards of the Capital Regional District, the Capital Region Housing Corporation, and the Capital Regional Hospital District. Dave uses the full range of Victoria’s transportation hierarchy as a pedestrian, a cyclist, a transit user and a car owner. He owns a small business and specializes in organizational governance and public policy research. Dave has practised law in Ontario and BC, worked for government and non-profits and co-founded a firm that serves Indigenous communities across Canada. Dave is a community volunteer and has served on the boards of directors of several charities and non-profits and a couple of businesses. Prior to his election to City Council, he was Director, Treasurer and Vice President of the Fairfield Gonzales Community Association, a member of its Community Association Land Use Committee (CALUC) and Chair of its Neighbourhood Improvement Committee.

Lacey is passionate about helping Canadians choose safe and sustainable transportation for their day-to-day trips. Since 2009, she has developed transportation plans, designed protected bicycle lanes, and overseen traffic safety initiatives. Lacey enjoys collaborating with and learning from peers across the globe with highlights being NACTO’s City Limits and Global Designing Cities’ Designing for Safe Speeds. She currently supports the City of New Westminster’s passenger ferry service (the Q to Q Ferry), build-out of the Active Transportation Network, and Vision Zero Task Force.

Tommy Leung is Manager, Advocacy and Stakeholder Operations with CNIB in BC and Yukon. As a person who is blind and a guide dog handler, Tommy brings lived experience navigating public spaces, active transportation infrastructure, and public transit. He facilitates CNIB’s provincial advocacy committee and works with people with sight loss, municipalities, transportation agencies, planners, and engineers to identify accessibility barriers and develop practical solutions. Tommy serves on several accessibility and advisory committees and brings a collaborative perspective that connects lived experience with professional expertise to help create transportation infrastructure and public spaces that are safe, accessible, and inclusive for everyone.

Grant Ngieng, P.Eng., is a Partner and Manager of Municipal Transportation with ISL Engineering. With nearly 20 years of experience, Grant specializes in active transportation, complete streets, and multimodal corridor design. His work has included protected cycling facilities, transit improvements, and complex urban designs that balance the needs of cyclists, pedestrians, transit users, and motorists. Grant served as the Engineer of Record for the East Sixth Avenue project.

Eric Doherty is a semi-retired transportation planning consultant who specializes in improving community accessibility, as well as reducing climate pollution. His experience includes multiple research reports on HandyDART (paratransit) and other forms of transportation for people with disabilities. His education includes a MA from the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC, and he is a Registered Professional Planner (RPP) and a Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners (MCIP). Eric lives on Lekwungen Territory (Victoria BC). More information, including links to Eric’s videos and writing, is available at www.ecoplanning.ca.

Sandra is a Mexican immigrant who has lived in Victoria for over thirty years. Sandra is well known and respected in the community as she has been a volunteer, (in many community functions and nonprofit organizations) she is a parent and has been an accessibility advocate for many years.  Sandra became paralyzed in 2013 that drove the decision to become the Vice-chair of the Accessibility Committee and being an immigrant drove her to apply to be the Chair for the Welcoming City Committee from 2022 to 2026. Sandra also works for the City of Victoria as a Lived Experience Accessibility Consultant, an inclusion worker during the summer and for the rest of the year she works with the Greater Victoria School District as an Education Assistant.  Sandra uses a power wheelchair, and her husband uses a scooter due to his Cerebral Palsy. Being a parent, an educator and a highly active community volunteer means she is on the road a lot. Being dependent on a motorized wheelchair and using the sidewalks has made Sandra notice the hazards for anybody using any sort of motorized mobility vehicle. There is debris/garbage left by pedestrians and nature (branches). Not to mention pedestrians themselves, oblivious of their surroundings. Last, but by no means the least, the terrible shape
that so many sidewalks tend to be in. Using the bicycle lanes have proven to be safer, faster, easier. But the best thing about using the bicycle lanes is it allows me to take less pain medication. On the sidewalks her poor body felt like it was going to fall apart and so sore. Sandra knew that when her trip ended, she would have to take an extra dose of painkillers

Tanelle Bolt is the founder of Bolt Access & Design Co., an accessibility consulting firm based in British Columbia, and the founder and leader of RAD Recreation Adapted Society, a Canadian charity dedicated to adaptive recreation equipment and education. Drawing on a background in trades and interior design, Tanelle brings a hands-on, practical lens to barrier free design — reviewing infrastructure projects (including multi-year trail widening work with regional engineering partners), advising developers, municipalities and other public agencies, and building community partnerships that put adaptive gear directly into people's hands. Through Bolt Access & Design Co. and RAD, she works at the intersection of the built environment and lived experience, helping organizations move beyond compliance toward indoor and outdoor spaces that people of all abilities can actually use.

Erin Kirkland is a content marketing consultant and travel writer from the community of Port Angeles, Washington. She represents the Olympic Peninsula on the Juan de Fuca Tourism Corridor's steering committee, building cross-border opportunities that amplify our shared recreation, cultures, industries, and history of the bioregion

Jeremy Loveday is Vice President, External Relations, Sustainable Development and First Nations Partnerships at Destination Greater Victoria, where he leads the organization’s sustainability and destination stewardship efforts.

Greater Victoria recently achieved the #1 ranking among Small Cities on the Global Destination Sustainability Index, recognizing the region’s commitment to sustainable and regenerative tourism.

Before joining DGV, Jeremy served on Victoria City Council from 2014 to 2022, where he helped lead the build-out of the city’s cycling network. He holds an MBA with Distinction in Innovation, Enterprise, and the Circular Economy.

Gail’s career has spanned all aspects of urban and rural community economic development practices within the private and public sectors throughout British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan over the past 30+ years. She has held the position of Community Economic Development Officer with the District of Sooke on Vancouver Island since 2022 following her fourth attempt to retire. Gail specializes in Destination Marketing Development in support of responsible, respectful, and regenerative tourism and visitor economy planning and strategizing in addition to collaborating with a broad range of network partnerships that address local and regional economic development services gaps focused on entrepreneurial business supports, business opportunity identification, investment attraction, and community organizational sustainability through recovery and resiliency practices.