May 7-9, 2025
In May 2025, THEP and Teck welcomed Liene Dhooghe, from Umicore in Hoboken, Belgium, to Trail. Liene presented the story of her community at the regular meeting of the Trail Area Health & Environment Committee (THEC). She also met the local program delivery team and Teck Trail Operations to compare notes and exchange ideas. Some of the unique Trail features noticed by Liene are the partnership approach to addressing lead in Trail, a delivery team including Interior Health and Atkins Realis who host THEP’s Community Program Office downtown, a City-designated facilitator to support all partners working together and industrial improvements to reduce lead in airborne dust moving from Teck to the community.
“It is so wonderful to see active cooperation between all different parties here in Trail and the commitment of everyone to work together. I can see in Trail that the investment in the relationships is worth it as the delivery of the program is very impressive. I am very grateful to be able to share experiences and knowledge with both THEP and Teck since it gives me the chance to learn on different areas of this topic. I look forward to sharing this with my colleagues in Belgium.”
A Community of Practice meeting was also held online. Trail, though the Trail Area Health & Environment Program (THEP), helped launch this initiative with colleagues in Port Pirie, Australia in June 2023. Belgium joined the initiative in the summer of 2024, and the three countries have met virtually over the year to exchange on their efforts to reduce exposure to lead in their communities.
