Dr. Lorne Taylor
Chairman
Alberta Research Water Institute
Lorne was born in 1944 on an airforce base and moved to Medicine
Hat with his parents in 1945. He grew up in Medicine Hat where his
father was in the cattle business. He received a Bachelor of Education,
Master of Education and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University
of Calgary in 1971. His first academic position was Lecturer with
Tenure at the University of New South Wales (Wollongong Campus)
beginning in 1970. From there he moved to Memorial University of
Newfoundland where he reached the rank of Associate Professor with
Tenure and was the Acting Director of the Institute for Research
in Human Abilities for one year. After almost five years he left
Memorial University for the University of Saskatchewan where he
was a Tenured Associate Professor for two years. His research area
was in the field of cross-cultural psychology and he worked in the
Australian outback with Aboriginals, the Labrador coast with Inuit,
and Saskatchewan with the First Nations peoples. During these years
Lorne published more than 30 papers and had numerous conference
presentations.
Lorne left the University of Saskatchewan in 1979 to return home
to his family cattle and construction business in which he was an
active partner until 1993. The businesses continue to exist and
grow to this date. In 1982 Lorne was a founding Director of World
Relief Canada, an international relief and development agency. World
Relief continues to work in developing countries today.
Lorne served on the Medicine Hat School Board for eleven years
during this time, serving three terms as Chair.
Lorne entered politics in 1993 by being elected to the Legislative
Assembly of Alberta for the riding of Cypress Medicine Hat in Southeastern
Alberta. The riding is a mixture of urban and rural. In 1997 he
was re-elected and appointed Minister of Science and Technology
and in 1999 Minister of Innovation and Science. Under his ministry,
Supernet was established which provides high speed wide bandwidth
to all parts of Alberta. As well, the Ingenuity Fund was established
which is a $500,000,000 trust fund to support science and engineering
research. In 2001 Lorne was again re-elected and appointed Minister
of the Environment. Alberta's Water for Life Strategy and Alberta's
Climate Change Action Plan were established under this ministry.
Lorne did not run in the 2005 election.
He and his wife Lois have 4 married daughters and live in Medicine
Hat.
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