| Mr.
Nichols has been engaged as an economic and management consultant
and financial analyst for more than 30 years. During that time he
has carried out a wide range of domestic and international assignments,
including more than twenty projects overseas as a consultant to
the World Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency.
These foreign assignments, involving evaluation, monitoring, and
design responsibilities, have encompassed urban and regional development
schemes, transportation systems (ports, pipelines, canals, roads,
inter-modal facilities, and low-cost transportation), energy development
projects, tourism planning, agri-industry financing and development,
and export marketing in Tunisia, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Saudi
Arabia, the Caribbean, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Korea.
Mr. Nichols has participated
in many economic studies of western and northern Canada over the
years. He has examined the socio-economic, urban and regional
impacts associated with major resource, tourism, industrial, and
commercial developments and completed a number of industry sectoral
studies, including major evaluations of the services sector and
business services industries. His clients have included many regional,
provincial, territorial, and federal government agencies and departments
as well as a considerable number of resource, real estate development,
and industrial corporations.
A continuing focus
of his work is the municipal sector. He has been involved in amalgamation,
annexation, dissolution, and regionalization studies and has appeared
as an expert witness in the fields of economic and financial analysis
and municipal finance. Mr. Nichols has served as advisor to a
Minister’s Task Force on offsite levies, development charges,
and urban infrastructure financing and has also assisted in the
development of computerized fiscal models to assess the impacts
of resource projects and community growth on municipal finances.
He has advised a number
of municipalities and utility organizations in respect to their
financial policies and has been involved in numerous studies pertaining
to property assessment, municipal and education finance and taxation,
and revenue- and cost-sharing. He has prepared business and strategic
planning guidelines for municipalities and assisted in the development
of performance measures and budget and financial plans for local
government.
In the field of economic
evaluation, regional economics, and socio-economic impact analysis,
projects completed by Mr. Nichols have encompassed heavy oil and
oil sands projects; conventional oil developments; coal projects;
power generating facilities; integrated resource management plans;
the processing of imported hazardous wastes; urban and regional
growth studies and development strategies; medical research; environmental
protection facilities and socio-economic impact monitoring; recreational
events such as the Commonwealth Games, World University Games,
and the Winter Olympic Games; world-scale recreation-tourism-commercial
complexes in eastern and western Canada and the U.S.A., including
the West Edmonton Mall and the Bloomington, Minnesota Mall of
America developments; airports; convention centres; federal-provincial
economic and industrial development programs; the U.S.-Canada
and North America free trade agreements; drainage and flood control
programs; and resource development planning and related impact
assessments. He has appeared as a witness before various judicial
and quasi-judicial bodies including the Municipal Government Board,
the Alberta Natural Resources Conservation Board, the Alberta
Energy Resources Conservation Board, the Federal Court of Canada,
the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, and the Alberta Land Compensation
Board.
Mr. Nichols has considerable
expertise in aboriginal and northern economic development and
has assisted a number of First Nations communities and development
corporations, resource companies, and government organizations
in this field.
As a management consultant,
Mr. Nichols has undertaken a number of assignments relating to
marketing analysis and planning, local service delivery, strategic
planning, organizational analysis, and program evaluation on behalf
of private companies, community-based groups, public institutions,
and local and senior government authorities. For example, he has
assisted in the evaluation of a number of senior government programs;
participated in strategic planning assignments for various governmental
organizations and educational institutions; conducted privatization
and contracting-out evaluations; and assisted in numerous efficiency
and performance measurement projects.
Mr. Nichols
has participated as a speaker at a number of conferences, seminars,
and symposia and has written numerous articles on municipal management
and innovation.
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