Meet the Team

Wesley Meyerink
Chairperson

Wesley has been an active member serving on both the ASMA Committee and the AMSA Emergency Response Committee. Previously Wesley was the Assistant Chief Judge, assisting in the organization of the annual AMSA Surface Mine Rescue Competition.

Wesley is employed with Westmoreland Coal as the Safety Manager at the Genesee Mine Operation. Wesley holds a Business Administration and Marketing Certificate from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) but found his passion in mining when starting at the Genesee Mine in 2003 as an equipment operator. Wesley moved into the Safety Manager role in 2015.

Wesley’s vision for AMSA is to provide Alberta’s mining industry with:

• Supervisor Education Program that gives supervisors the knowledge and tools required to effectively manage safety in a mining environment.

• Liaison to Government and a voice to affect future growth in safety and technology.

• Forum to share industry best practices, incident learnings, and statistics.

Utilizing the wealth of knowledge and talent within our industry to continue to advance our safety accomplishments will be our key to success.

Charlie Smillie
Vice-Chairperson

Charlie is a professional Mining Engineer graduating from Queen's University in 2013. Charlie began his career with Shell Canada at Albian Sands and worked in various planning roles before transitioning to CNRL in 2017 as Short Range Planning Supervisor at Horizon. Currently Charlie is the Lead of Mine Projects at Horizon.

Charlie is excited for the opportunity to promote the continued growth of AMSA as a safety leader within industry and provincially. His goal is to expand AMSA's presence and continue development of the Supervisor Education Program.

Marty Rowland
Treasurer

Martin Rowland joins AMSA with over 31 years of mining experience spanning across North America. He started as an equipment operator at a unionized open pit mine, eventually working himself up to becoming a Union Executive Member, and eventually moved into safety, which introduced him to AMSA in 2012.

Martin obtained his Occupational Health & Safety Certificate through the University of Alberta and currently holds his CRSP designation.

Martin has extensive experience within the volunteer emergency services, most notably as a fire service instructor and a former board member of the East Central Alberta Fire Training Group. He has worked with many Emergency Response Teams, volunteers, and full-time fire departments throughout the Province of Alberta.

You can find Martin at the Coal Valley Mine in the Edson area, where he is currently the Senior Safety Manager.

Ken Martens
Manager

Ken is a professional Mine Engineer, graduating from the University of Alberta in 1996.  He has more than 20 years of Alberta mining experience in engineering, mine operations, mine management, maintenance, project management and as a corporate health and safety manager.

Ken is passionate about safety leadership in mining and is excited to have been given the unique opportunity to apply his experience and energy with the Alberta Mine Safety Association.  His goal is to provide leadership in the continued growth and development of AMSA products and services and to be responsive to the needs of its members.

In his personal time, Ken enjoys playing guitar, woodworking and many outdoor activities including camping, hiking, mountain biking and skiing with his wife and two boys.

Larry Ritchat
Director, Mining Emergency Response Committee

Since 2014, Larry Ritchat has led the development and alignment of AMSA Mine Rescue and Emergency Response protocols. His focus is on ensuring that AMSA member companies have qualified Mine Rescue personnel and instructors as well as liaising with other jurisdictions to align mine rescue training standards.  

In 2007, Larry joined Canadian Natural Resources (Horizon) as a Mine Trainer where he developed their Heavy Equipment Training Program.   In 2010, Larry obtained certification as an Alberta Mine Rescue Instructor which dovetailed well with his next role (in 2012) as the Coordinator Mine Rescue. 

Larry believes these are exciting times for the Alberta Mine Safety Association. From the Mine Rescue perspective we are currently looking to evolve the Committee to include all emergency services and technologies. We are working with the Western Regional Committee to standardize rescue training in Western Canada and have just recently signed on to adopt the Western Regional Mine Rescue Manual. For the Alberta Mine Safety Association itself Larry believes the sky is the limit, working with our members and collaborating with government, he believes Alberta Mines will be the best and safest places to work.

Lynn Gould
Association Director

Lynn Gould is a professional Mine Engineer, graduating from Queen’s University in 1998.   Lynn began her career in the Oil Sands with Syncrude in 1998, and has worked with Suncor since 2005.   She has worked with various aspects of mining, including mine engineering, learning and competence, and operations.   Most recently Lynn held the role of General Manager, Millennium Mine Operations at Suncor.   She is currently the Director, Operational Excellence Management System at Suncor’s Oil Sands site. 

As an operations leader, Lynn's priority is the safety of employees.   AMSA and our member companies share the same vision of safety leadership in Alberta Mines.   AMSA provides the platform for sharing of best practices.

Peter Hickey
Association Director

For over 6 years, Peter Hickey has held the position of Chairperson on the Association Executive Team and now sits on the AMSA Board.

Peter is currently employed with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd in its mining division. He has held the positions in Mine Safety, AHS Regulatory and most recently working with Mine Maintenance. Peter has a background in Transportation Operations, Safety, Risk Management and Security.

Peter has worked with the AMSA Board and Executive to develop AMSA into a world class Mine Safety Association that collaborates with both government and industry to ensure that workers stay safe and that legislation and corporate needs align. With the growth in membership and networking with other Mine Safety organizations across Canada and elsewhere, AMSA has an opportunity to influence the development of new safety standards for workers and our industry.

Tim Doucette
Association Director

Along with supporting the Association for numerous years, Tim Doucette accepted one of four Director positions in 2016.  As a Director, Tim is instrumental in defining AMSA's strategic goals and direction.  He brings invaluable Mining knowledge and insight plus senior leadership experience to the Association.  

Tim has over 23 years of experience in the Mining Industry in both Alberta and British Columbia. During this time, Tim has held various mining roles in operations and engineering. Currently, he is the General Manager of the Genesee Mine for Westmoreland Coal.

Tim is both a Professional Engineer and a Professional Geologist in Alberta, graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from Dalhousie University, a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mine Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia, and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Alberta.

Todd Draper
Association Director

Todd has served as the Canadian Natural Resources representative member in AMSA for the last 14 years.  Over those years, Todd has been committed to the growth and development of AMSA into the strong association that it has become today.

Beginning his career as a summer student in the Elk Valley in 1983, Todd has amassed 39 years of Mining experience in both Alberta and British Columbia. For the last 16 years, Todd has worked in the oilsands for Canadian Natural Resources in a variety of roles including; Mine Operation Superintendent, Mine Operations Manager and most recently as Mine Technical Service Manager.

Todd graduated University of Calgary in 1988 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education.

Todd’s vision for AMSA is it’s continued growth in Safety Leadership within the Alberta mining Industry.  This can be accomplished by continuously working with the Alberta Government and AMSA members to ensure a common goal of safe, steady and reliable operations for all of our member companies.  Collaboration with the government on such things as the re-write of the OHS code, Supervisor Education Program and Mine Rescue training are key to future success of AMSA and the Mining industry as a whole.

Gord Winkel
Board Advisor

Retired as a Vice President for Syncrude Canada Ltd., Gord Winkel joined the University of Alberta in 2010 as Chair and Industrial Professor for the Safety and Risk Management Program in the Faculty of Engineering. In this capacity he provides safety and risk management education to final year engineering students and has worked to make this a core competency requirement for all engineering disciplines. In April of 2016, Gord was announced as Director of the School of Engineering Safety and Risk Management.

Gord has worked extensively in the oil sands mining industry. He joined the Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil organization as a Vice President on Loan from Syncrude Canada Ltd. to advance the Kearl Oil Sands Project. Gord was Vice President, Aurora Bitumen Production at Syncrude Canada Ltd., served as General Manager of Extraction, was Manager of Extraction Operations and formerly Manager of Mine Maintenance/Operations again with Syncrude.

His work to improve workplace safety led to a Distinguished Lecturer Award from the Canadian Institute of Mining in 2002. His work to advance the Surface Mining Industry through sharing knowledge, technology, best practices and innovation has led to a second Distinguished Lecturer Award from the Canadian Institute of Mining in 2008. A third such award was received in 2013 for leadership in advancing safety excellence in the global mining industry.

Gord supports the Canadian Institute of Mining through chairing the J.T. Ryan Mining Safety Committee and working on the development of national mining industry safety strategies. Provincially Gord is an External Advisor for the Alberta Mining Safety Association. He has also accepted board positions on Careers, The Next Generation Foundation and the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires.

On the healthcare front, Gord is a member of the Alberta Health Services Quality and Safety Advisory Committee reporting in to the Alberta Health Services Board. He is also supporting the Alberta Agriculture Industry as Executive Director for the AgCoalition, an unprecedented collaboration of producer groups across the sector, towards progressing safety practices that make sense at the farm and ranch level. Gord works as an Executive Advisor on the newly established AgSafe Alberta Board.

Gord is Vice Chair for the University of Alberta Board of Governors Safety, Health and Environment Committee, and has participated on various strategic initiatives for injury reduction provincially and nationally. Gord works to provide support in safety, risk management and organization effectiveness to firms across Canada.

Phil Keele
Board Advisor

Phil holds a B.Sc. in Mining Engineering from Queen's University and is a registered professional engineer in the Province of Alberta. He has more than 30 years experience in all facets of the mining industry particularly in engineering, operations and senior management.

Phil retired from Canadian Natural Resouces Limited (CNRL) in 2016 where he held the position of VP, Mining. Prior to joining CNRL, Mr. Keele held senior positions with a major Canadian mining company in western Canada.

Todd McDonald
Board Advisor

Todd McDonald is a Professional Engineer with over twenty-six years of experience in the energy/mining resource industry with both domestic and overseas experience in senior engineering and operational roles. He graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Geological Engineering Program in 1989 and has been a member of AMSA since 2011 and; most recently joined the Board of Directors in December 2016.
Over his career, Todd has worked in various coal mines in Alberta, copper & gold mines in British Columbia and Indonesia, diamond mines in the N.W.T. and for the last six years in the Oil Sands industry with Imperial Oil. Todd currently works as the Mine Maintenance Superintendent at the company’s Kearl Oil Sands Mining operation.
Todd’s vision for the Mining industry and AMSA is to ensure that there is always strong communication and collaboration between government and the AMSA membership. He believes that working towards this vision will result in the safest and best performing mining workforce in Canada which is possible through the full support of AMSA’s initiatives.