Ontario Planners: Vision · Leadership · Great Communities

Katherine Dugmore, MCIP, RPP

With her rich and diverse background, Katherine Dugmore, MCIP, RPP, brings to the planning profession a breadth of experience, gained not only as a practicing landscape architect but as an avid traveller. At heart, Katherine loves cities and exploring different cultures.

Currently, Katherine leads one of the most exciting and transformational projects Thunder Bay has seen for decades. As the city’s waterfront project manager, she has drawn on her depth of skills to foster relationships with a diverse range of professionals so that together they can address a complicated combination of challenges. She has a keen understanding of land use relationships and the impacts that development can have on natural and social environments.

Katherine is held in the highest regard and her work exemplifies the consultative and collaborative approach to consensus that is at the very root of a professional planner’s mandate. A most impressive outcome of her work has been the development of a public/private partnership that will serve as a model to help renew Thunder Bay.

Always willing to share her knowledge and experiences Katherine has served in various capacities on the Northern District Executive and has been a guest speaker at conferences and events throughout the country and abroad.

Dedicated to excellence, Katherine is a wonderful mentor and has guided numerous colleagues, helping them to find their career paths.

Michel Frojmovic MCIP, RPP, PMP, Acacia Consulting & Research owner and director

Splitting his time between Canada and the Caribbean, Michel Frojmovic´s professional development has a strong Caribbean influence.

Building on these networks, Michel has developed and led international cooperation projects on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Planners since 1998. Most noteworthy are WorldLink International Internship Program for Planners – over 125 Canadian young professional planners have had six-month overseas placements in over 30 countries – and a series of Canada-Caribbean planning partnerships.

Established in 1999, Acacia Consulting & Research seeks to assist urban, municipal and community-based organizations make better use of data, information and knowledge to inform policy and effect change. Through his company, Michel offers comprehensive support to Canada´s leading municipal indicator and community data access projects. These include Federation of Canadian Municipalities´ Quality of Life Reporting System, Canadian Council on Social Developments´ Community Data Consortium Program and Community Foundations of Canada´s Vital Signs Reports. Michel also provides services to Community Data Canada, a multi-stakeholder process aimed at establishing a permanent forum for collaboration among Canadian governments and community organizations to improve access to and use of small area data for decision making.

Active in his local community, Michel founded Creative Neighbourhoods, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing good planning and design to Ottawa´s old west end and led a process to establish the Wellington Street West Business Improvement Area.

John Hall MCIP, RPP, Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan co-ordinator

A man with a vision—clean, green, publicly accessible Hamilton Harbour by 2015—John Hall has inspired Hamilton and Halton Region political and community leaders to redouble their efforts to remediate the harbour and make this vision a reality.

As co-ordinator of the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan (RAP), John Hall works tirelessly for the rehabilitation of the harbour and its watershed. The Hamilton Harbour RAP is a community-based project to improve water quality and habitat in Hamilton Harbour, its watershed and Cootes Paradise Marsh. Setting out the process for "de-listing" Hamilton Harbour as an "area of concern" under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, its objectives are to improve the biological health of the harbour ecosystem and increase public access to the waterfront.

An innate leader, mentor and motivator, John is never without a thoughtful comment or helpful insight to steer a project or discussion in the appropriate direction. Well versed in the policies and responsibilities of four levels of government, he fosters cooperation among dozens of planners, engineers and scientists and facilitates a meaningful collaboration among governments and the community. John excels at bringing the right people together and focusing their efforts on a shared goal, despite organizational or philosophical differences.

Sari Liem, MCIP RPP, Dillon Consulting associate

Innovator, leader, trendsetter are just a few of the adjectives used to describe Sari and her approach to community and sustainability planning and community engagement. While planning and public health have traditionally been viewed as distinct disciplines, Sari recognizes the common ground between these fields – their complementary objectives for achieving, healthy, strong and sustainable communities.

Sari received a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from Queen´s University, where she focused on Human Services planning. She began her planning career in the public sector in 2001, first as an intern with York Region Human Services, then as a contract policy planner for Peel Region, and a land use planner for the York Region District School Board. Sari moved to the private sector in 2004 serving as a planner at Hardy Stevenson and Associates Limited, and then joining Dillon Consulting Limited in 2007, where she is currently an associate.

Sari´s broad based experience has given her the opportunity to reflect upon the role of planning in promoting healthy communities. She is a strong advocate of applying a social and health equity lens to support planning decisions.

Through Sari´s leadership and vision Dillon Consulting recently completed various projects to support the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport´s Healthy Communities Framework. Teams of professionals from a variety of disciplines collaborated on achieving tangible improvements in individual and community well-being.

Robert Voigt, MCIP, RPP, Collingwood senior planner (acting)

Robert Voigt, MCIP, RPP – planner, sculptor, blogger – is connected. An innovator with online tools, Robert has three animated videos to his credit and 15 years of varied professional planning experience. He is recognized in numerous online forums frequented by planners throughout Canada and the U.S.

Robert´s first animated video highlighted difficulties associated with communication and public engagement for the planning profession – http://bit.ly/hYnWH1 – which received over 15,000 views in its first month. At the end of 2010 he created two ground-breaking paper-craft animated videos – http://bit.ly/hRSmWk – to improve communication related to Collingwood´s active transportation initiative. Even before coming to Collingwood, Robert was recognized as a leader in the development of online tools for municipal planning in Washington State and across the U.S. www.planetizen.com/node/30715.

Passionate about urban design, Robert developed Collingwood´s Urban Design Manual, replete with “first ever” innovations. These include first in North America to define natural playground requirements for neighbourhood parks; first urban design regulations in Ontario to be adopted as standards for both subdivisions and site plans; first municipality in the region to use a social media based stakeholder engagement process; and first municipal design manual to include shared space home zone (or woonerf) standards in Canada. As a result, timelines for development reviews were drastically reduced; designs were significantly improved, more human scaled and context appropriate; and projects better integrate active transportation infrastructure.

Check out CivicBlogger – www.civicblogger.blogspot.com – and join the conversations about planning, civic engagement and municipal organizational development.