Stuart Adams

Stuart Adams is a planning consultant and owner of Stuart Adams and Associates Planning Consultants Limited. He began his professional career as a city planner, first, for the City of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and next for the City of Vancouver, British Columbia. He then became a Senior Social Planner for Vancouver. Born and raised in Port Alberni, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, he has had close associations with Native people from early childhood. Since he established his consulting practice in 1978, much of his work has been with Native groups and with the government agencies and Crown and private corporations that do business with them. This work has involved research into a broad range of social, cultural, economic, and health issues; evaluating existing policies and programs that address those issues; and developing new policies and programs.

In the 1990s, Stuart Adams has been helping BC Hydro develop strategies for resolving grievances and improving its relations with First Nations. On contract to BRC Imagination Arts, he recruited and co-ordinated Nim'gis and other Native participation in development of a Nim'gis theme show at Knott's Berry Farm, duplicating the earlier success of a Nim'gis theme show, Spirit Lodge, that he helped develop for the General Motors pavilion at Expo '86. Recently, he completed a major study of the impact of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam on the social and economic conditions of the Athabasca Chipewyan, Métis, and Mikisew Cree people of the Peace-Athabasca Delta.

Stuart Adams has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of British Columbia and an M.Sc. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners. His recent publications are Fort Chipewyan Way of Life Study: Final Report and Fort Chipewyan Way of Life Study: Summary Report (June 1998); Grand Forks and Christina Lake Housing Study (September 1997); Williams Lake Homes and Neighbourhoods, Today and Tomorrow (January 1997).