Transcript
My name is Jamie Conway. I'm a research and analysis officer at the Oceans Protection Plan in Transport Canada. I work in the Dorval office out of Montreal, and my job is mainly pertaining to marine data. So a lot of time and working with the marine data analytics unit. I get to help the Oceans Protection Plan by helping to make sure that the waters are safe from spills, understanding where spills could occur and how they could happen.
So a lot of the information that we're working with and the data we're collecting is going on to help provide details for either policy building or regulations that are going into place. Sometimes we're making maps and doing a lot of visuals, other times we’ll be analyzing examples like vessel traffic data. So we'll be able to see with that information what kind of the impacts are if there were to be an accident or a spill within different regions of Canadian waters, and then those will go on to help inform policy decisions that would affect Canada on a national level.
Growing up, I really liked natural disasters, like tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes. I just thought they were so interesting. So I took earth science and economics at university, which then led me to getting a position at a seismic monitoring service in Ottawa.
Realizing that, you know, earthquakes can come at any time, and the damage that they leave, I thought that I'd be able to apply my data skills to the Oceans Protection Plan. That's why I went into government. I want to help people. I joined the Transport Canada Indigenous employee network. My mom is from Saskatchewan, so I'm from Standing Buffalo, which is just kind of north of Regina. Being kind of, like a smaller minority in Canadian culture and in Canada, I want to be proud and loud. And I'm working here, and I'm saying, yes, I am indigenous, and maybe I can be a voice for somebody else.
The work is important, and I'm really proud of it, because I find with situations that kind of feel like they're out of your control, if that’s something that we can understand better and help put regulations on to help people feel like they can kind of understand what's happening better, to help give them a sense of peace of mind, especially when they're situations that they feel like they don't know where to start.
And if I can help them with that, then that's what I want to do, and that's why I'm really proud of it.