YESAB contract expands use of ICI’s RIVAS platform in Canada’s North as governments and industry look for ways to move major projects forward
ST. JOHN’S, NL º ICI Innovations, a Newfoundland and Labrador technology company specializing in project information management, has been selected by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) to develop a new centralized database supporting environmental and socio-economic assessment in Yukon.
The Yukon Regional Database will bring together information currently held across multiple sources, including environmental and socio-economic data and publicly available Traditional Knowledge. The goal is to make regional information more accessible and reliable for the Indigenous governments, regulators, industry,
communities and others involved in project assessment. The contract comes at a time when Canada is focused on how to advance major energy, natural resource and infrastructure projects more effectively. ICI President Corey Tucker says one of the less visible challenges is managing the growing volume and complexity of information required to assess those projects.
“Major projects can only move at the speed of information,” said Tucker. “The amount of information that has to be considered has grown enormously, as has the number of people who need to access it, understand it and contribute to the process. The technology and processes we use to manage that information need to keep pace.”
ICI’s RIVAS platform is designed to bring complex project information together and make it accessible to the people involved throughout a project’s lifecycle — including planning, engagement, environmental assessment, permitting, construction and operations.
For YESAB, ICI will develop a secure and scalable regional database capable of integrating information from sources including the YESAB Online Registry, GeoYukon, Natural Resources Canada’s Open Science and Data Platform and other Yukon and transboundary databases. The system will also incorporate controls designed to protect sensitive information and Traditional Knowledge.
“Moving major projects faster doesn’t have to mean less information, fewer voices or less rigorous assessment,” Tucker said. “A big part of the answer is getting better at managing the information and making it available to the people who need it. That’s the problem RIVAS was built to solve.”
The YESAB contract builds on more than a decade of ICI work in environmental assessment and project information management. ICI previously developed the interactive reporting system used by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada for the Regional Assessment of Offshore Oil and Gas Exploratory Drilling East of Newfoundland and Labrador. The company has also deployed RIVAS in support of major resource and energy developments in Canada and the United States.
ICI is also currently working with the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (MVEIRB) in the Northwest Territories. Together, the YESAB and MVEIRB projects prepresent a growing role for ICI and RIVAS in the information systems supporting environmental assessment and major-project decision-making across Canada’s North.
The preliminary Yukon Regional Database is scheduled to launch in November 2026, with full launch planned for March 31, 2027.