Michael McPhie’s team didn’t set out to reinvent the wheel.
Instead, they’re working to perfect it.
Five short years out from its inception as a small start-up, Falkirk Environmental Consultants is now growing exponentially and proud to call North Vancouver home. The company was recently acknowledged by the Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine as one of Canada’s top-growing companies and similarly by Business in Vancouver as the seventh fastest-growing company in the province.
The need to improve successful major resource project outcomes in the environmental, Indigenous engagement and permitting/regulatory spaces served as the catalyst to establish the firm. McPhie, an industry veteran, saw consultancies that specialized in some areas or were large multinationals with a general understanding of these areas but lacked the specialized knowledge and expertise needed to effectively advance resource projects forward in the complex and evolving world of major project development in the world today.
As such, McPhie along with founders, Jen Turner and Max Brownhill, both of whom call the North Shore home, and Christy Smith, who resides in her traditional lands of the K’omoks First
Nation on Vancouver Island, started bringing together specialized team members under one roof.
The vision to build a best in class environmental, engineering and Indigenous engagement consultancy has resulted in Falkirk now being a preeminent national consulting firm that assists primarily resource (mining, energy and infrastructure) companies through regulatory and permitting processes. The company is a recognized leader in major project approvals including federal and provincial environmental assessments, water stewardship and water management, community health and well-being, human environment, operational compliance, sustainability and closure and reclamation planning.
“What we had found was that although the skills needed to advance major resource projects existed out in the world, there was no one group that had the right mix of experience and professionals collectively to address key project issues,” McPhie explains “What we've tried to do is bring a group of people together that understand how to navigate that intersection of expertise in social, community, science, engineering and project development.”
Integral to Falkirk’s mission is supporting companies in their work with Indigenous communities: facilitating partnerships, designing and implementing engagement and reconciliation planning strategies and supporting long-term beneficial relationship building.
This commitment was pivotal during Falkirk’s work on the Cariboo Gold mine project near Quesnel, B.C. Having led the proponent’s environmental assessment, Falkirk was the first company to navigate newly implemented provincial Environmental Assessment Act while receiving investment and endorsement from local First Nations, regulatory bodies and the public at large.
It’s a process that can take upwards of 10 years – Falkirk, on the other hand, got it done in three.
“It's a generational project where in just over three years, they’re now getting ready to make investment decisions,” McPhie says. “A very satisfying project with a really, really good outcome.”
Falkirk is also working to deliver a major win for North Shore residents through its work with U.S.-based firm Atlas Materials, a battery metals mineral processing company looking to build a new nickel and cobalt processing facility for electric vehicle batteries.
McPhie’s team has been working with Atlas and both the Canadian and U.S. governments for more than two years to find a home for the company’s new plant. Should Atlas choose North Vancouver, it will translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in investments locally, provincially and nationally.
“It's a big deal and not just at a local level,” McPhie says. “This is the kind of project that potentially could provide a real boost to the electric car building effort on behalf of Canada.”
It’s this type of underlying commitment to people, the environment and to the nation that guides the Falkirk promise across any job its team undertakes.
“We want to contribute towards being a major employer in North Vancouver over the long term and a part of the business community here in a positive way for the long term,” McPhie says.
Discover the impact of Falkirk Environmental Consultants on communities and the environment at falkirk.ca
