78th Annual CGS Conference & 9th Canadian Permafrost Conference
September 21 - 24, 2025
RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg, Manitoba
Keynote Speakers
R.M. Hardy Keynote Address
Ken Skaftfeld
TREK Geotechnical, Winnipeg, MB
Abstract
How do we best transfer knowledge and experience from one generation of geotechnical engineers to the next? How do we, as designers, really know how large a safety factor is unless the boundaries of failure are tested? Are design errors and failures unavoidable and how can we use past experience and case histories to improve reliability? Perhaps a first step in answering these questions is to take advantage of the past experience of others and use this experience as a guide forward, with the goal of improving our ability to apply engineering judgement. This presentation will demonstrate that experience gained, and lessons learned by geotechnical practitioners as far back as the early 1900s are as valuable today as they were at that time, and that although the passage of time has relegated some of the early case histories into the archives, their value has not diminished. Ironically, it is sometimes only through years of experience that we begin to appreciate the relevance of such historical information. An engineering challenge encountered today may well have been encountered and very likely solved in the past, and its resolution at that time can be applied (at least in principle) to modern practice. This presentation will demonstrate the importance of documenting past performance so that engineers today and in the future can test theory and modeling on the basis of lessons learned. Documented case studies will include the failure and righting of the Transcona Grain Elevator, construction of the City of Winnipeg’s Shoal Lake Aqueduct, the Red River Floodway Test Excavation, and construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line in the Canadian arctic.

Bio
Ken Skaftfeld is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer and Director at TREK Geotechnical in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Ken received a Civil Technician Certificate from Red River Community College in 1979 followed by an B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Manitoba in 1984. In 2014, he completed an M.Sc. in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Manitoba with a thesis titled Experience as a Guide to Geotechnical Practice in Winnipeg. Ken began his career as a summer student in the Soils Laboratory at Underwood McLellan and Associates (UMA) in Winnipeg, eventually taking on the role of Lead Geotechnical Engineer. He was the Riverbank Management Engineer for the City of Winnipeg in 2010 before joining TREK Geotechnical in 2011, becoming a managing partner in the company in 2012. Ken has had the opportunity to work on many interesting projects throughout western and northern Canada including the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line decommissioning project, the condition assessment and rehabilitation of the Shoal Lake Aqueduct and the expansion of the Red River Floodway. Ken has held numerous positions with CGS and most recently, was a Co-Editor of the Fifth Edition of the Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual with Rob Kenyon. He is a recipient of the Canadian Geotechnical Society’s AG Stermac Award and the G. Geoffrey Meyerhof Award.

Canadian Geotechnical Colloquium
Jennifer Day
Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Abstract
Rock engineering is a discipline tasked with the challenge of working with relatively little information about the natural and often highly variable geological materials on and through which infrastructure projects are designed and constructed, or to which the public is otherwise exposed. Translating the expected geomechanical behaviours of intact rock, geological discontinuities, and rockmass systems to quantitative classifications with associated empirical recommendations for ground support or slope design is a well-established process in rock engineering. Numerous constitutive models with inputs from field rockmass characterization systems and/or geomechanical laboratory testing have been developed for numerical-based rock engineering analyses and design. These tools include relatively simple considerations of geology and can be insufficient in scenarios where geological heterogeneities, anisotropies, and other complexities control rockmass stability. There are many examples of engineering projects where ground behaviours involving geological complexities have unfortunately led to extremely costly delays or casualties. At its core, my research team’s and my work aims to transform our understanding of geologically complex rock damage evolution and rockmass stability performance, thereby providing insights and tools to improve protection of worker and public safety as well as economic success for civil and mining infrastructure development and geotourism. This work is at the intersection of geological engineering (specifically geomechanics, geotechnics, engineering geology, rock engineering, and geohazards) and geological sciences (mineralogy, structural geology, petrology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, and geochemistry). Examples of complex geologies addressed by our research include healed hydrothermal veins and nodular meso-scale sedimentary rockmass structures (collectively termed intrablock structures), clast-based lithologies such as conglomerates and breccias, non-parted anisotropies such as sedimentary or volcanic bedding and metamorphic foliations, and anisotropic roughness on parted discontinuities. Our work has developed innovations in fields characterization techniques, advances in laboratory testing methods, and expansion of numerical modeling tools to provide insight to rock and rockmass performance in several contexts, including mining, tunnelling, deep geological repositories for long-term nuclear waste storage, and shoreline cliff and sea stack geotourism. Collectively, these contributions provide pathways to integrate complex geological realities into various components of site investigation, laboratory tests, and numerical models for rock engineering. This 2025 Colloquium Lecture and Paper will highlight key aspects of these works.
Bio
Jennifer (Jenn) Day is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering at Queen’s University and a Geological Engineer with registration as a Professional Engineer (PEng) and Professional Geoscientist (PGeo) in both Ontario and New Brunswick. Jenn received a BASc in Geological Engineering, BA in Music, and PhD in Geological Engineering from Queen’s University, and is an EMBA Candidate (completion June 2025) at the Ivey School of Business, Western University. She is honoured to be the first Canadian to receive the Richard Wolters Prize from the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (2022) for meritorious scientific achievement by a young engineering geologist (under 35) and first Canadian to receive the Dr. N.G.W. Cook PhD Dissertation Award from the American Rock Mechanics Association (2017). She is currently serving as Past President of the Canadian Rock Mechanics Association as well as Divisions and Committees Representative on the Executive Committee and Past Chair of the Rock Mechanics Division of the Canadian Geotechnical Society.
Risk-informed decision-making provides necessary insight to help reduce risk
Suzanne Lacasse
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), Oslo Norway
Abstract
The lecture proposes a framework to assist stakeholders in making decisions for the safety of slopes and for the safe operation of water-retaining dams. Risk-informed decision-making requires: (1) Assembling all available information, including observations, limit state and performance analyses and assessment of the reliability and significance of the observations and measurements made; (2) Establishing the plausible modes of failure or non-performance and consequences of each mode of failure; (3) Preparing a risk picture, or an illustration of annual failure probabilities (often called vulnerability) and consequences, using qualitative or quantitative risk diagrams and comparing with international risk guidelines and other available experience; (4) Identifying the most significant factors influencing the safety of the dam; (5) Making risk-informed decision on the need for and the type of measures to reduce the risk, and communicating the risk to stakeholders, and (6) Reassessing risk at regular intervals as the risk changes with time. The proposed risk-informed framework aims at quantifying uncertainties, reducing risk and assisting stakeholders in making decisions. Basic concepts of a risk-informed approach are illustrated with examples from practice for slopes and for dams. The effect of risk mitigation measures for landslide and rehabilitation measures for dams is also considered in the examples provided. For landslides, the web portal LaRiMiT (Landslide Risk Mitigation Toolbox) for identifying and optimising the selection of mitigation measure is demonstrated. An important benefit of the RIDM is the added insight gained by integrating risk assessment in the safety evaluation. A risk diagram is also shown to be an effective tool to communicate with stakeholders. In addition, risk analyses, once established, can be adjusted and revised at regular intervals at low cost. The lecture concludes with learnings from the case studies and a recommendation of wider implementation of the risk-informed approach in practice.

Bio
Suzanne Lacasse, born in Noranda, Québec, did a Bachelor of Arts at University of Montréal and her civil engineering degrees at Ecole Polytechnique of Montréal and MIT. After 15 years on MIT's Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty, she joined the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) in 1982. She was Managing Director of NGI from 1991 to 2012. In 2012 she continued at NGI as Technical Director. She is now Expert Adviser at NGI. She published over 350 papers and gave the Terzaghi Lecture (2001), the Rankine Lecture (2015), the Carrillo Lecture (2022), the Jennings Lecture (2023) and the ISSMGE Terzaghi Oration (2013). ISSMGE established in her honour the 'Suzanne Lacasse Lecture' on risk and reliability in geotechnical engineering. Dr Lacasse received four PhDs Honoris Causa, in Scotland, Norway and Canada. She is elected member of the national academies of Engineers in the USA, Canada, Norway and France. She is Honorary Professor at Tongji and Jiaotong Universities in Shanghai and at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. She is Officer of the Order of Canada and Knight of the First Falcon Order in Iceland.
MacKay Lecture
Mackay Lecture winner will be announced in February.
This lecture, named in honour of Canada’s pre-eminent permafrost expert, the late Professor J. Ross Mackay, is given at each Canadian Permafrost Conference. It was established by the Canadian National Committee for the International Permafrost Association (CNC-IPA) in 2015 and is now jointly awarded with the Canadian Permafrost Association (CPA). The recipient can be at any career stage and is chosen jointly by the CPA Board and members of the CNC-IPA based on research excellence in permafrost studies. This year’s Mackay Lecture winner will be announced in February.
Graduate Student Presentation
The winner of the CGS Graduate Student Presentation award will present during the conference – the presenter will be announced at the CGS Awards Banquet.