Mr. Béland holds a PhD in Biology from Dalhousie University in Halifax and did post-doctorate studies at the ORSON Centre of Noum éa in New Caledonia as well as at the University of Queensland in Australia . He has worked in various fields related to the environment as a scientific researcher, an educator and a scientific interpretive writer. Mr. Béland was a researcher and a director of a marine ecology research centre for Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Rimouski as well as a researcher in paleobiology at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa . He also served as commissioner and chairman of the International Joint Commission, a Canada–U.S. bilateral organization. He currently heads the St. Lawrence National Institute of Ecotoxicology, which he founded in 1987.

Mr. Béland has been a part-time member of the BAPE since 1992 and has participated as a commissioner in more than five public hearing mandates, notably the one dealing with a project concerning a potential exchange of lands at Mont-Orford National Park . More recently, he was part of the commission on the project to set up a wind park in the RCM of Rivière-du-Loup. In addition, Mr. Béland chaired the commission dealing with the project to build additional liquid product storage tanks in East Montréal .