On Friday Dec. 4, a friend, colleague and very important person in the pursuit of helping Alberta improve its environmental performance passed away. His name was Peter Dickey. Over the past decade I had the honor to get to know Peter as he provided mentorship and feedback on how the Pembina Institute should pursue our objectives. Peter worked for more than three decades in the energy sector, constantly pushing for improvements to ensure the economy grew and to ensure we constantly made progress solving our environmental challenges.
Peter was never shy about providing thought-provoking feedback. But he did it in a way that was non-threatening and open for discussion. He was humble, yet very effective. Peter always pushed for collaboration between sectors. He recognized that the best solutions would come from the sharing of ideas and experiences, not battles between ideologies. Most recently Peter helped lead a dialogue between environmental NGOs and a wide range of corporations to explore common ground on how to design an effective greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system for Canada. The output of this work was presented directly to Minister Jim Prentice and to the Prime Minister's Office. We expect when the Federal Government releases Canada's plan for a cap-and-trade system that again we will see an example of where Peter's work had an impact.
To celebrate Peter's legacy, we will be looking for a way to bring companies and NGOs together to honor Peter's contribution to environmental improvements in Alberta. If you are interested in being part of this effort, please email me directly.
On behalf of the Pembina Institute, our condolences and thoughts are with his family. Peter was a wonderful person, and will be remembered by oh so many.
Marlo Raynolds was the executive director of the Pembina Institute until January 2011.
