Session Description
Impact assessment is often described as an objective, evidence-based process, yet experienced practitioners know that professional judgement, uncertainty, values, governance, and stakeholder perspectives all influence how evidence is interpreted and decisions are made. This interactive simulation invites participants to experience these realities firsthand. Participants will work in multidisciplinary teams to evaluate the same hypothetical development proposal using identical environmental, health, social, economic, and Indigenous Knowledge information. Through a series of facilitated decision rounds, teams will assess impact significance, cumulative effects, confidence in available evidence, mitigation priorities, and project acceptability. As the exercise progresses, new monitoring results, policy changes, stakeholder priorities, and resource constraints will require teams to revisit and revise their earlier decisions. Team responses will be displayed in real time, revealing how different groups can reach markedly different, yet defensible, conclusions despite working from the same evidence. Facilitated discussion will examine why these differences emerged and explore how assumptions, disciplinary perspectives, risk tolerance, regulatory context, and uncertainty influence impact assessment outcomes. Rather than seeking a single "correct" answer, the session demonstrates that transparent decision-making depends on acknowledging assumptions, uncertainty, and multiple ways of knowing alongside scientific evidence. Participants will leave with practical strategies to improve transparency, communicate uncertainty, recognize potential biases, and strengthen credibility.
Session Summary
Can experts reach different conclusions using the same evidence? In this interactive simulation, teams evaluate an identical project through a series of decisions. Compare outcomes, challenge assumptions, and explore how judgement, uncertainty, and values shape impact assessment.
Session Chair
Mandy Olsgard
Integrated Toxicology Solutions
Canada