October 2008 issue
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Council Briefs
Work Continues on One Act, Two Associations Model
The PEGG compiled the following items from the most recent APEGGA Council meeting of the 2008-2009 term, held Sept. 18 in Fort McMurray. The next meeting is Dec. 4 in Calgary.
APEGGA and ASET staff, volunteers and legal counsel continue to churn through the details of making the One Act, Two Associations model a reality. The model will bring ASET into the self-regulatory fold by creating a new category of senior technologist for the routine application of specific, industry-recognized codes and standards.
Professional technologists will be jointly regulated by the two groups under the current APEGGA enabling legislation, the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act.
Council heard that government-appointed facilitator David Jones is back to help APEGGA and ASET create a joint regulation for the P.Tech. designation. Mr. Jones worked with the two groups to arrive at the original memorandum of understanding for 1A2A, which was signed in December 2006.
After APEGGA and ASET member balloting endorsed the new regulatory model, the province passed Bill 39 in June 2007 to amend the EGGP Act. The changes pave the way for the implementation of 1A2A, but many details remain in the hands of APEGGA and ASET.
APEGGA’s Act, Regulations and Bylaws Committee has now reviewed a draft of the consolidated act provided by the Alberta Government. The committee is also working on a number of other areas that ripple through the regulations and bylaws, including the phasing out of one existing technologist category and the renaming and altering of another.
Meanwhile, ASET continues to work on an ASET bylaw and regulation for the act.
Geoscience Designation
Will Require Act Amendments
What might seem like a simple name conversion of two licensure types into one is much more than that, APEGGA is discovering as it crafts a Professional Geoscience designation for members to vote on next year. Long before the first P.Geo. receives an APEGGA licence, “some very core things” will need to change in the Association’s governing legislation, Deputy Registrar Al Schuld, P.Eng., told Council.
If members approve the move and amendments are passed by the Alberta Legislature, APEGGA will join other geoscience regulators in Canada in using a single designation. This would make it simpler for geoscientists to receive licences in other Canadian jurisdictions, while recognizing that the workplace distinction between geologists and geophysicists is blurring.
In essence, the change would widen the range of possible choices geologists and geophysicists have in determining their own areas of practice. Already, an ethical requirement of licensure is that APEGGA professionals practice only in scopes they’re qualified in. Some councillors look at the name conversion as extending a level of trust to geoscientists that engineers already enjoy, while ensuring that applicants who aren’t purely in one category or the other don’t fall through the gap.
P.Geo. would replace future approvals of Professional Geologist and Professional Geophysicist membership, but members already classed as P.Geol. or P.Geoph. would be allowed to keep their designations if they want to. That’s only one, however, of a long list of legislative adjustments that the move requires.
An April Council motion envisioned regulation changes only — not amendments to the actual Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act. But various definitions, names and provisions are entrenched in APEGGA’s enabling legislation, says a report from the Act, Regulations and Bylaws Committee.
Council considered a number of motions and issues, touching on everything from the definition of geoscience to changing the name of the act and the Association. In a few years, for example, members may well be reading about APEGA and the EGP Act in their copy of The PEG.
Council Approves
National Document
On Geo Requirements
It’s been one of the major stumbling blocks on the path to multiple licences for geoscience members wanting to work in other Canadian jurisdictions. The requirements for knowledge and experience haven’t been common from one regulator to the next, so being a good and qualified geoscientist here doesn’t necessarily make getting a licence elsewhere in Canada a simple exercise.
But this month, that’s an obstacle the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists will possibly begin dismantling. The CCPG is set to sign an historic document on knowledge and experience developed by one of its subcommittees, the Canadian Geosciences Standards Board.
The APEGGA Board of Examiners has reviewed and agreed to adopt a national, standardized description of the academic knowledge and experience requirements for geoscience licensure. Council followed suit by ratifying the board’s decision, which accepts the most recent version of the Common Knowledge and Experience Requirements Document.
Final approval for membership here stays with the APEGGA Board of Examiners. But all geoscience regulating associations will be working from the same set of requirements when they consider geoscience applications.
The national document details three streams of geoscience — geology, environmental geoscience and geophysics — along with the academic requirements for each. CCPG wants all affected provincial associations to approve the document in time for a signing this month.
It’s a big hurdle for the geosciences. So much so that one geoscientist actually started clapping when Council passed the motion.
Also pleased was President Gordon Williams, P.Geol., a founder of the CCPG. He said the document and the groundwork for it have been in the works for years.
“This is the foundation of inter-association mobility,” said Dr. Williams. Simplified transfers will become “a no-brainer” once common knowledge and requirements are in place, he predicted.
Engineers Canada Seeks Agreement
With Ireland
It’s extremely unlikely that worldwide, simple and straightforward professional mobility for engineers will ever happen. There’s disparity in academic and other licensure requirements, particularly between Canada’s high-requirement self-regulators and much of the rest of the world.
Still, two reciprocal licensing agreements are in place between jurisdictions with differing but generally high standards. The agreements don’t take away any country’s power to decide who qualifies for a licence, but they are statements of goodwill and a general level of acceptance.
Council approved another of these mutual recognition agreements, this one with Ireland. Engineers Canada is seeking approval across Canada, and the APEGGA Board of Examiners had already given its blessing.
Under the terms of the agreement, chartered engineers from Ireland would need to pass the National Professional Practice Exam prior to obtaining their licence here, as well as gain a year of Canadian work experience and prove satisfactory character. Each jurisdiction retains full discretion, however, which is ensured in a clause that calls for due diligence.
Similar agreements are in place with Hong Kong and Australia.
Financial Markets
Lower Performance
Of Reserve Investments
In news that wasn’t exactly astonishing, Council heard that poor performance in the financial markets has affected APEGGA’s reserve investment fund — and not in a good way. Although one equity fund has been replaced, the Finance Committee doesn’t believe this is the time for a wholesale review of fund managers by an independent adviser.
The net year-to-date gain on the $7.27-million fund was 0.76 per cent at Aug. 31. Target return for the period was four per cent.
Few Issues Greet
Roll Out Of
Member Management System
Almost three years in the making, a new APEGGA Member Management System went live in early September. The Phase 1 rollout went off with few hitches, in part because potential problems were uncovered and addressed beforehand.
The launch took place with “no major issues and generally high praise from users for the ease of transition,” said a report prepared by management.
The system is linked to the APEGGA database. It’s designed to increase staff efficiency and make the database easier to use. Enhancements and automation will come in future phases, and the goal is that it eventually expand into e-commerce and member self-service.
Core Laboratory
Short on Space
It’s one of Alberta’s most valuable resources — but you won’t find it under the ground. The Core Research Laboratory in Calgary is “a tremendous library of geological and geophysical material that isn’t available anywhere else,” said APEGGA President Gordon Williams, P.Geol.
“We are unique in the world in the way we conserve geological information,” said Dr. Williams. “No other place I know of has such an extensive database.”
But problems loom, because the Core Research Laboratory is running out of space.
“Existing facilities have reached their limit for housing new cores, largely because of high demands imposed by oilsands exploration and development,” says a Geoscience Committee report.
The laboratory is partly funded by the province through the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board. The lab seeks a letter of support from APEGGA for expansion, and APEGGA’s two top executives, President Williams and Executive Director & Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng., will write one.
Resource Evaluation
Clarity Needed —
Geoscience Committee
Clarification of who is qualified and where they’re qualified is needed in the realm of resource evaluation, Council heard, and the Geoscience Committee has taken on the task of preparing a paper on the subject.
Canadian Securities Administrators has detailed what seem to be clear requirements for licensure and experience for evaluators of oil and gas, and of metallic and industrial minerals. However, a list of qualified evaluators includes firms that aren’t licensed in Alberta, and there are other “ambiguous situations” about jurisdiction.
Says the committee report: “Does a company based in Toronto with wells in Alberta meet [qualified evaluator criteria] when the resources estimate is performed by a consulting firm from Houston, Texas, that is licensed to practice in Texas but not in Alberta? If a geoscientist from the Houston firm visits Calgary and examines core samples at the Core Research Laboratory, is that person practicing geoscience in Alberta?”
Wellsite Geology Firms
Get on Board With
Permits to Practice
They’ve traditionally been a group that’s reluctant to get licensed, but all of the major wellsite geology consulting firms now have their permits to practice, the Geoscience Committee reported. Most of the smaller firms are also on board.
The committee said much of the credit goes to Tom Sneddon, P.Geol., APEGGA’s Manager, Geoscience Affairs. Mr. Sneddon has been taking the APEGGA message to the wellsite geology community, and the new permits are proof that the approach is working.
Next, some form of professional practice standard is needed to “ensure new firms entering this field of practice” comply with the EGGP Act, says the report of the committee. It plans to arrive at an action plan this month to address the idea.
Staff Pensions Move To
Better Governance Plan
An improved and formalized governance plan puts APEGGA and the
committee that looks after staff pensions in step with rising government expectations. “This document provides governance practices that are head and shoulders above what is currently being done by other organizations of similar and larger size,” said Dan Motyka, P.Eng., chair of the Staff Benefits Committee.
Staff learned a few years ago that regulators in Alberta were raising the bar. That was confirmed in early 2007 in a letter from Alberta Finance, stating it expects pension plans to be governed in accordance with guidelines set out by the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities.
Still, compliance is voluntary. But the committee found it “prudent to be proactive.” If an Alberta Finance audit of the fund were launched, the committee would be “in a good position” to support its management and governance practices.
The governance document outlines 11 principles in the national guideline. The most significant new commitments involve reporting, as well as staff and committee access to documentation.
HONOURS AT HOME
APEGGA President Gordon Williams, P.Geol., gives Brenda Wright, P.Geol., a hug and a gift at an APEGGA dinner in Fort McMurray. The gift recognizes Ms. Wright’s many years of work as an APEGGA Councillor and executive member of the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists. The Syncrude geologist recently finished her term as Past President of the CCPG, which means she no longer has a role during APEGGA Council meetings.
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