November 2009 issue
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president’s notebook
Voting – the Simplest Way to Volunteer
BY JIM BECKETT, P.ENG.
APEGGA President
When someone asks you about your career, and you say you’re a professional engineer or professional geoscientist in Alberta, it really means something. Or more accurately, it really means a lot of things.
Our careers are busy and dynamic parts our lives. They’re a source of great pride and considerable income, and they’re a big slice of our identities. They take us around the world, and into the corridors of power, the labs and halls of academia, and the rugged terrain of the back country.
The foundation of our careers in engineering and geoscience are the excellent educations we receive, our years of experience in practicing our professions, and our professional association, APEGGA. And APEGGA is our members, our staff, our elected Council, and most importantly, your colleagues and peers who volunteer on behalf of the Association.
We think all this is very important. It’s what self-regulation is about, and it stems from the self-regulatory model of professionalism that APEGGA personifies. Given the professional nature of our members, and the commitment to the Association that we see from our volunteers, I am always surprised at the low turnout of voters during our elections.
Recent history tells an interesting, if baffling, story. The percentages were low but consistent from 2004 to 2007, ranging from 15.4 per cent of eligible voters in 2006 to a high of 17.8 in 2007. I hesitate to call this a good turnout, but it was tolerable, if only barely. It is also similar to the turnout that our sister associations in the other provinces and territories experience. Then we switched to online voting in 2008, and the numbers took a dive.
This was counterintuitive to many of us. Granted, there were some glitches in the system, the first time out of the gate. However, hiccups alone could not account for the drop to just 9.9 per cent. Many of us believed that a more convenient way to vote would translate into more votes.
It didn’t, however. That suggests that low voter turnouts aren’t about the inconvenience of the mail-in system. Something else lies at their core.
For the rest of 2008, we dug long and hard to find out went wrong. After seeking input from 46 members in six focus groups, Council passed some clear instructions along to staff. A number of mechanical and motivational improvements would be necessary to improve the election process, said the Council task force.
In 2009 APEGGA publicized more information on individual candidates and in more ways, hardcopy and electronic. We sent more and more focused emails to prompt members to vote. We placed a thermometer graphic on the front of our website to track voter participation as the election progressed. And we improved the online voting system’s access and functionality.
I can’t say for sure that our efforts were solely responsible for driving up the results, but in 2009 participation bounced back to 17.3 per cent. Draw your own conclusions.
Here’s what I can say. Our job is not done. Sure, it’s great to have a higher percentage of members taking the time and interest to vote. But really — 17.3 per cent? Is that something to brag about?
I think we’re better than that, and I think self-governance is more important than that.
I don’t have a particular percentage target in mind, because I think this is an ongoing and never-ending process.
It’s not just about votes. It’s also about member engagement. We want more of you to embrace the issues and care about the business of your Association. When APEGGA talks to policy makers, it is important that we have the credibility that comes from speaking on behalf of more than 56,000 members. But when only a small fraction of those numbers elect to vote, our credibility takes a hit.
Many of you don’t have the time to volunteer for APEGGA. Your career, family and community obligations come first. I respect that.
All of you, however, have time to vote. We’ll continue to do our part. In fact, we’ll keep striving to inform you more about the issues and the candidates running for Council.
The trend within associations like ours and democracy in general is downward, when it comes to voting participation. That’s a trend that needs bucking.
Let’s prove to ourselves, the public and our political leaders that self-regulation is worth supporting. Let’s inform ourselves. And let’s get out and vote.
Trade Agreements
Make Special Meeting Necessary
Trade agreements in Canada are changing one aspect of the way we do business. It has to do with the transferring of professional engineers and professional geoscientists in Canada.
We already had almost complete mobility across Canada through our Inter-Association Mobility Agreements. Now governments have decided that full mobility is the goal, and they have enacted legislation to ensure that we achieve it. These are the cross-Canada Agreement on Internal Trade, and the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement between Alberta and B.C., known by the acronyms AIT and TILMA.
We are now required to register applicants of good character and reputation, provided they are registered and in good standing with a sister Canadian organization. This applies to professional members and to members-in-training.
Our legislation, however, is not compliant with this new transfer model. APEGGA is fortunate that the provincial government has delegated the responsibility for writing regulations under our act to us. This responsibility is only delegated in rare instances, and is indicative of the trust the government has in our Association and members. As a result, we need your approval of the appropriate amendments to the General Regulation of the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act.
To consider and vote for those amendments, I urge you to attend a special meeting at
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5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 26, at the conference centres in our offices in Edmonton and Calgary.
The two venues will be joined through videoconferencing technology. Full information on the proposed changes appears on Page 7 of this edition of The PEGG.
We are for the most part confident in our sister associations’ systems of licensure. We are working hard to ensure that, across Canada, all associations have the same uncompromising standards for licensure as we do. It is therefore important that we move forward on this initiative.
Transfers From
Beyond Canada
Many of our applicants come from licensure and education systems that do not come up to Canada’s standards. That continues to be where our biggest concern is, when it comes to licensure.
APEGGA has made great strides over the past few years in improving the delivery of services to internationally educated graduates. We don’t believe in putting up unnecessary barriers. But we do believe in making sure the public is protected through the acceptance of only those applicants qualified to practice here.
We are also improving mobility with many U.S. states, where the systems are different but the resulting professionals are similarly qualified. Watch upcoming PEGGs for progress reports on this initiative.
Through the excellent work of our Board of Examiners and our Registration Department staff, we are maintaining that delicate balance between meeting the needs of the Alberta economy, the demands of international applicants and our legislated requirement that we protect the public.
Welcome, ASET
The province has made it official — a new era of joint regulation of a new designation of technologist has begun. A front-page story in this PEGG discusses our new relationship with ASET.
Professional Technologists will have the right to practice independently and use their stamps within, according to the legislation, “a scope of practice that is the routine application of industry recognized codes, standards, procedures and practices using established engineering or applied science principles and methods of problem solving.” These scopes will be tailored for each prospective P.Tech. They must be approved and specified by a new Joint Board of Examiners, made up of an equal number of ASET members and APEGGA professional members, plus at least one public member.
I won’t go into further detail here, but I would like to officially welcome ASET into the realm of self-regulation. And I would like to thank the presidents and others who came before me (particularly past-presidents of APEGGA Larry Staples, P.Eng., and Dave Chalcroft, P.Eng.) — in and beyond the two organizations. They performed the rigorous groundwork to make this day possible.
We could not have done it without you.
Questions or comments? Please contact me at president@apegga.org.