april 2009 issue

President’s Notebook
A Close Look at professionalism

BY DR. GORDON WILLIAMS, P.GEOL.
APEGGA President

What’s in a name? Plenty, in my opinion, if part of that name includes the “P-word” — Professional.

Despite the restrictions in the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act on the use of the words engineer, geologist or geophysicist, or their derivatives, these words are in widespread use in today’s world, whether we like it or not. The P-word, however, elevates EGGs to a different level.

Dictionary definitions of profession and professional speak to the command of a large body of specialized knowledge acquired after long academic study; a calling. Hallmarks of a professional include knowledge, honesty, high ethics and service. These are spelled out in detail in the APEGGA Code of Ethics.

A professional’s word is his or her bond. “These are my qualifications, this I know, these things I will do to the best of my knowledge and ability.” We all have limitations and knowing them is part of being a professional. No one expects perfection in all things, and no one can deliver perfection in all aspects at all times.

Because we, as engineers and geoscientists, practice in fields where the knowledge base changes rapidly, it is impossible to know everything, even in relatively narrow fields. Knowing that, and being honest about it, gives us a level of credibility that is widely recognized.

Self-Regulation
As professionals, we subscribe to the principle of self-regulation; that is, that professionals are best qualified to regulate other professionals in their fields and to protect public health, safety and well-being, based on the hallmarks above. Self-regulation, including the privilege of setting entrance standards and disciplining members, owes its origin to the medieval craft guilds in Europe. By today’s standards, the guilds were more like labour unions, but it can be argued that by setting standards, they were protecting the public from unqualified or unethical practitioners.

The tradition of professional self-regulation in Canada goes back more than two centuries. Check out the Canadian Lawyer Magazine at the website in the More Info box.

In the case of engineers and geoscientists in Alberta, self-regulation, including the authority to set entrance standards and decide who is qualified to practice in the province, was established in 1920. This arrangement has provided a high level of protection for the people of Alberta at absolutely no cost to the government of the province.

Now, the blanket labour mobility provisions of the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement and the Agreement on Internal Trade threaten that long-standing authority and independence. TILMA and AIT mean that persons licensed in other Canadian jurisdictions will be automatically accepted by APEGGA. In past years our Inter-Association Mobility Agreement, reached in 1999, has served all Canadian licensed engineers well by providing virtually full mobility. In 2007, a fraction of one per cent of transferees were given a second look by the receiving authority, and only a very small percentage of those were actually refused licensure.

Under AIT, these applicants will automatically become licensed in the receiving jurisdiction. Admittedly, this represents a low level of risk to the public, but it could be an increased risk just the same.

It would appear that governments across Canada have decided that this level of risk is acceptable and that the loss of autonomy to the professional licensing bodies is also acceptable. Governments have that right and will apparently exercise their authority to make that decision.

In my opinion, this is a retrograde step. My experience, over the many years I have been involved with APEGGA, is that the Association has consistently provided, and continues to provide, good governance for the professions, conscientiously balancing protection of the public and mobility of professionals.

As a consequence of these developments, we will undoubtedly have to make some adjustments to the way we process applicants. Other means will have to be sought to maintain the high standards of public safety to which we have been committed since 1920. It may be time for Council to re-examine our understanding of self-governance, self-regulation and our very reason for being.

Swan Song
In a few weeks, my year as President of our Association comes to its end at our Annual General Meeting in Calgary. And an amazing year it has been. A check of my calendar shows that I have spent some 130 days out of the office on APEGGA business, including all or parts of 27 weekends and dozens of evenings.

That number includes travel time, but not office time during which I did background reading, prepared for meetings, made phone calls, held informal discussions, prepared talks and reports (and this column), or wrote letters and e-mails. During the year, I took part in 134 separate events, each ranging from an hour to a week or more.

I am definitely not complaining. Far from it. The year has been an unprecedented opportunity for me to give back to my profession, a profession that has been uncommonly good to me. That being said, Renate and I have definitely received much more than we gave.

Has the year been productive? I think so, even though, as has so often been said, things take time. Defining, addressing and resolving substantive issues in a consultative manner usually takes longer than 12 months, sometimes much longer.

For example, Bill 39, the legislative authority for the One Act, Two Associations governance model for engineers, geoscientists and technologists, was passed by the Alberta Legislature in June 2007 after months of negotiations. With passage of the bill, it took many more months of work by ASET and APEGGA committees to produce the regulations required to put our improved EGGP Act into effect.

The regulations were recently completed to everyone’s satisfaction, approved by the two councils, and sent to the Lieutenant Governor in Council for approval. As soon as approval is received, the new legislation can be proclaimed, and we and our ASET partner can proceed to implement its provisions. This could happen as soon as the middle of May or early June of this year, some two years after the initial agreement was reached.

During the year, we began the process to introduce the Professional Geoscientist designation in Alberta. Authority to proceed will be sought at the Annual General Meeting on April 25 and, if that authority is granted, changes will have to be made to the EGGP Act, its regulations and its bylaws — changes that will take some time to accomplish on a timetable yet to be determined by the Legislative Assembly.

More than 10 years ago, Council undertook to make it easier for Alberta engineers to become licensed in the U.S., particularly in the northwestern states. Today we are seeing the results of that initiative, as almost a dozen states now have protocols in place to accept P.Eng.s from Alberta as equivalent to their own P.E.s. As a sign of success, in May, APEGGA and the Idaho Board of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors are co-sponsoring the Western Zone Interim Meeting of the U.S. National Council of Examiners in Engineering and Surveying. The meeting takes place in Banff — the first time that body has ever met outside the United States.

This year, we began work to secure similar U.S. mobility privileges for our geoscientists, and we are under no illusions about how long that process could take.

It has been a great honour and a privilege to have been chosen to serve as your President, to have worked with so many impressive and committed colleagues, and to have made so many friends on Council, on Executive Committee, in the branches, and in our sister associations in Canada and elsewhere.

I would be remiss if I did not thank Executive Director & Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng., and his excellent staff who, throughout the year, made all of us on Council look good. Your efforts are deeply appreciated.

The Association is in excellent hands; Jim Beckett, P.Eng., over to you!

Thank you, everyone.

If you have comments or observations, please contact me at president@apegga.org. I enjoy hearing from you.