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Geotechnical News • June 2019
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Message from the President
A word from Mario -
Un mot de Mario
2019-2020 CGS President, Mario Ruel
Bonjour – Hello, my Friends and
Colleagues
As I am writing these words, spring
is finally popping up after a tough,
cold, and snowy winter. As a cyclist
this is great. For many of us in the
geotechnical field, however, spring
also means a lot of work; increased
runoff due to snow melting, flooding,
erosive river flows, slope instabilities,
and the softest ground conditions.
This season has always been my most
intense work period. It opens the way
to busy construction activities where
we are implementing our designs in
the field, taking advantage of long
daylight hours and warm weather. For
me practicing in transportation geo-
hazards management, this activity has
always been the most enjoyable part
of the job. It highlights the importance
of geotechnical engineering in our
society.
As my second message as CGS
President, I can tell you that I am more
eager than ever to achieve our goals
for the Society and its members. I
am very impressed to see how much
time and effort your new Executive
Committee members are investing,
as they are already dealing efficiently
with their responsibilities. Time flies
fast as the first quarter of our first-year
mandate is already behind us. Thanks
to the guidance of our Executive
Director, Michel Aubertin; Direc-
tor of Communications and Member
Services, Lisa McJunkin; Director of
Finance and Administration, Wayne
Gibson; and Communications Coordi-
nator, Emily Fournier; we are on track
and off to a good start.
Relations with affiliated
organizations
During my term, I am committing
to actively representing CGS within
other organizations. I participated at
the last board meeting of the Canadian
society for Civil Engineering (CSCE).
I intend to keep close ties with this
Society by meeting their national
office staff in Montreal, and attending
their next annual conference in Laval,
Quebec, from June 12 to 15.
As CGS President, I was also invited
by the American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE) Geo-Institute to
their Geo-Congress in Philadelphia
in March. This was a very successful
conference where I had the pleasure
of working on some committees with
our CGS`s Tim Newson, now North
American VP ISSMGE. During this
Geo-Institute event, I was very pleased
to see our CGS past President and past
Legget medalist, Dr. Suzanne Lacasse.
She had the honour of delivering the
keynote address, ‘Tribute to Ralph
Peck and Observational method’. I am
reporting that the Geo-Institute will
organize their next annual conference
with our CGS in February 2020 in
Minnesota. We are therefore taking
advantage of our recent memorandum
of understanding (MOU), which was
initiated by Dr. Lacasse a few years
ago, and signed by the past President,
Dharma Wijewickreme, last year at
GeoEdmonton 2018.
CGS will also continue to develop
closer and more frequent contact with
other associations such as the Inter-
national Association for Engineering
Geology (IAEG), where we will work
with Jean Hutchinson, who was last
year elected VP for North America.
Other collaboration opportunities may
also surface through our participation
at the North American Geocoalition.
Engineering Institute of Canada
At the end of March, I had the
honour of representing the CGS at
the Engineering Institute of Canada
(EIC) Gala Awards Dinner. The EIC
provides some of the most respected
engineering awards in Canada. I was
very proud to see that, as per previous
years, the CGS was very well repre-
sented. Our members, Suzanne Lac-
asse, Kevin Biggar, Jacques Locat and
Doug Stead, were awarded prestigious
EIC Medals. On the other hand, Jean
Côté and Craig Lake were inducted as
Fellows of the EIC. I want to mention
that in addition to receiving the high-
est EIC award, the Sir John Kennedy
Medal, Suzanne was also selected,
earlier this year, to receive the title of
Officer of the Order of Canada, our
country’s most prestigious service
award. The first geo-member of the
Order of Canada was Robert Legget,
and Suzanne will be our ninth repre-
sentative. In my opinion, this is further
evidence of the importance of geo-
technical engineering in our society.
The CGS is one of the most suc-
cessful organizations within the EIC
because we have been energetic with
Mario Ruel, President of Canadian
Geotechnical Society.
