Southern Alberta Flood Recovery

Streamlining Flood Recovery Applications for Thousands of Alberta Citizens

Alberta Environment needed to streamline the approval process for flood recovery applications by a dramatic margin to deal with a huge increase in the number of applications due to the flood.

Berlineaton helped staff redesign their processes, and build a stronger team, with the result that turnaround times were reduced from four to six months to seven days for most applications.

Key Team Members

Ri
Richard Eaton
Shelly Berlin

A Profound Experience

In the summer of 2013 Southern Alberta was hit with record flooding resulting in the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian History up to that time. Alberta Environment needed to streamline flood recovery application processes to help Albertans get their lives back to normal as fast as possible.

They called Berlineaton to streamline flood recovery applications and build a stronger regulatory team.

Practical Solutions

Over the course of six weeks, Berlineaton supported the development of innovative processes and approaches, resulting in the reduction of turnaround times from months to days. Concurrently a stronger team was built between environmental and land management staff.

We worked with a cross-functional Alberta Environment team based in Calgary to:

  • Map out current regulatory processes, come up with innovative cross functional solutions to come up with formal retractable problems to immediately execute a faster better process for Albertans to be approved to conduct flood recovery work.

Bolder Futures

Since implementation, Alberta Environment has more efficiently facilitated hundreds of authorizations. The new process shortens the timeline for issuing approvals, making application approval five times faster while maintaining legal and environmental benchmarks. 

The success of this project was recognized with an IPAC award for innovation.

VIEW SECTOR

Related services

Continuous
Improvement

Collaborative
Solutions

Start the Conversation

Are you looking to set a new, bold direction, equip your teams and leaders with new skills, or make your organization stronger?

Let's Talk

  • I have worked with Berlineaton since 1999. In that time, I have found the Berlineaton team to be highly-skilled facilitators who consistently create the atmosphere and structure necessary to effectively manage and deliver complex projects. Their Strategy, CI, and People Development methodologies work well in any scenario in which I have seen them applied. Moreover, they create an environment that allows for a tremendous amount of creative, engaging, high-quality work to be completed within very short timelines, and with high levels of staff ownership and support.

    Martin Foy, Regional Director,

    Alberta Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development

    Please confirm you are a person.

    Email Phone

    Richard Eaton

    CD, BA, MA (Leadership) FCMC, ACC
    Adventurer, Process Whisperer, Force of Nature.

    Richard Eaton is a founding partner of Berlineaton with over 30 years’ management consulting experience, and has engaged with more than 10,000 individuals across hundreds of assignments in a wide variety of sectors. Richard holds a Master’s in Leadership and Training, is a Six Sigma Black Belt, a Fellow Certified Management Consultant, and an Associate Certified Coach. He is also certified as a Boss Whisperer, specializing in coaching abrasive leaders.

    A skilled leader, Richard has successfully mentored and developed a highly effective team of Berlineaton consulting professionals who expertly reflect the Berlineaton brand. He has also supported clients with both provincial and national level projects recognized for realizing measurable impact, innovation, and service excellence. Richard is a firm believer that truly transformative results arise when visionary leaders empower front-line teams to take ownership, innovate, and drive inspiring, strategic outcomes that resonate across organizations, sectors and time.

    Richard served for over 40 years in the British and Canadian armies as an Infantry Officer, with training from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Canada’s Combat Training Centre. He’s qualified as a Paratrooper with 200+ jumps, is an All Arms Commando and a Military Ski Instructor, and is a veteran of counter-insurgency operations in Northern Ireland. His honours include the Canadian Forces Decoration, with two bars, and the General Service Medal – Northern Ireland.

    An avid outdoorsman, Richard particularly enjoys sea kayaking and mountaineering. Having summited peaks like Mt Kilimanjaro (19,000+ft) and Mt Rainier, his future goals include breaking the 20,000 ft mark. He is a proud father of two adolescent children and is deeply devoted to his long-time partner Shelly Berlin, as well as two spoiled Burmese housecats.

    Email Phone

    Shelly Berlin

    BA, MBA, FCMC, ACC
    Strategist, Confidante, Entrepreneur.

    Shelly Berlin brings over 30 years of strategic insight and transformational leadership to Berlineaton as co-founding and managing partner.

    She began her consulting career with Andersen Consulting and Price Waterhouse – global experience that led to the launch of Berlineaton in 1996. She holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Alberta, an MBA from UBC, is a Certified Management Consultant and an ICF-certified Executive Coach. In 2017, Shelly and her partner Richard Eaton were named Fellows of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants and were later honoured with CMC’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. She also holds an ESG governance designation from Competent Boards.

    Throughout her career, Shelly has worked with more than 1,200 clients across government, not-for-profits, independent schools, and private sectors. She is known for her inclusive, collaborative approach and her ability to help clients execute strategy that achieves significant impact.

    As Chair of the St. Michaels University School Board, now in her fourth term, she led the global Head of School search that resulted in Dr. Jeff Aitken’s appointment and co-led the development of the Floreat 2020–2030 strategic plan.

    Shelly lives in Victoria with her family, including two teenagers, husband Richard Eaton, two cats, and a frog named Froakie.