march 2009 issue
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Council Briefs
APEGGA Execs Reach Out to Industry
The PEGG compiled the following items from the most recent APEGGA Council meeting of the 2008-2009 term, held Feb. 19 in Edmonton. Council holds its final meeting of the term on Friday, April 24, in conjunction with the APEGGA Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting in Calgary.
APEGGA is improving its relationship with the oil-and-gas industry by meeting CEOs and other senior executives on their own turf. By mid-February, the APEGGA President, the Executive Director and the Manager, Geoscience Affairs, had gone to the
offices of seven companies.
“We met them two, three or four at a time from each company. We asked them how we can help them do what they’re doing, and suggested how they can help us,” said Executive Director & Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng.
“The meetings were far more productive than we’d anticipated. We left on a cordial note, with us gaining a better understanding of their concerns. And they also learned more about our roles and responsibilities, and theirs, under legislation.”
APEGGA wants industry to adopt a culture of licensure among those employees who would likely qualify for membership. Also, the Association wants unlicensed employees to stop using APEGGA’s protected designations and titles.
“The meetings were highly successful. I think we changed a lot of attitudes about what APEGGA is,” continued Mr. Windsor. “We are not the Grim Reaper. We’re here to protect the public and make sure engineering and geoscience work is done in accordance with our legislation.”
President Gordon Williams, P.Geol., said most of the companies have or are considering a policy of making membership a requirement for certain promotions.
Dues Account
For $10.2 Million
In 2008 Revenues
APEGGA ended the year 2008 with nearly $280,000 more in revenues than it spent. Audited statements also show, however, that the shaky markets took their toll on investments, at least on paper.
Dues generated more than $10.2 million in revenue, up from nearly $8.97 million in 2007. All told, revenues were more than $14.7 million, compared with $13.2 million the year before.
The biggest expenditure category is salaries, benefits and pension at more than $5.9 million in 2008, up from $4.96 million in 2007.
Council approved the statements for publication in the 2008 APEGGA Annual Report and presentation at the 2009 Annual General Meeting.
Detailed Work
Moves Forward
On One Act,
Two Associations
The puzzle pieces are coming together for a new type of technologist designation, which APEGGA and ASET will regulate jointly. The designation Professional Technologist, or P.Tech., arises from the One Act, Two Associations memorandum of understanding signed by the two organizations in December 2006.
The model brings ASET into the self-regulatory fold by creating a new category of senior technologist. P.Tech.s will be responsible for the routine application of specific, industry-recognized codes and standards.
At the February meeting, Council approved changes to the general regulation of the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act to create the designation. The changes will be forwarded to the Hon. Hector Goudreau, the Alberta Minister of Employment and Immigration, and will also be presented as an information item at the 2009 Annual General Meeting, April 25 in Calgary.
The designation means ASET needs to create a mandatory continuing professional development program and will have its own Code of Ethics within the EGGP Act. The model also involves various shared regulatory functions involving P.Tech.s between ASET and APEGGA, such as a joint board of examiners and a joint practice review board.
Some aspects of the new system will be put to a member vote at the AGM. These are what the Acts, Regulations and Bylaws Committee terms as “transitional and consequential amendments.”
These changes involve, for example, the Registered Professional Technologist designation ceasing to exist and current R.P.T.s automatically becoming P.Tech.s. The Registered Engineering Technologist designation will no longer be issued, although those already classed as R.E.T.s will be allowed to keep the designation.
See the notice on page 7 of this month’s PEGG for more information on the AGM vote.
PEGG Switch
To Magazine
Wins Approval
The PEGG could become a magazine by as early January 2010, with staff and APEGGA members now tasked with creating a high-end showpiece for the APEGGA professions. Council gave staff the go-ahead after seeing preliminary mock-ups and expanded detail on a proposal to switch from a newspaper format.
When offset by increased advertising revenue, net costs of a six-times-per-year magazine should be similar to those of the 10-times-per-year newspaper, an Editorial Services report said. An e-PEGG survey last summer suggested that 58 per cent of readers favour a conversion if costs are similar.
“Converting to a magazine will allow APEGGA to dramatically improve two areas of member communication — hardcopy and electronic,” says the report to Council. The PEGG Online will be transformed into a separate website area containing PEGG archives, APEGGA news releases, time-sensitive and interactive news items, and exclusive features.
“Magazines lend themselves to readable and attractive .pdf versions for online presentation and archiving,” said the report. “Some readers prefer hardcopy, some prefer online and for some it depends on what mood they’re in or whether they have Internet access. We’ll be able to accommodate them all.”
At its December meeting, Council tabled a motion to approve the conversion because councillors wanted to see mock-ups and more detail.
APEGGA Cheers
Failure of
PE Trademark Bid
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has ruled against an application to trademark the designation PE, removing APEGGA’s concerns that some members would have been exposed to infringement action.
About 200 of the APEGGA members registered as foreign licensees are allowed to use the designation PE, which stands for professional engineer in the U.S. Hundreds of other Alberta professional engineers are also licensed with one or more American state boards, so they also may self-identify as PEs.
But there’s another kind of PE in Alberta — power engineers certified by the Alberta Boiler Safety Association and who meet membership standards of the Alberta Institute of Power Engineers. In 2004, APEGGA learned that the institute had applied for a Canadian PE trademark.
APEGGA and Engineers Canada challenged the institute’s application, and Council has now learned that the application was rejected. Said APEGGA Deputy Registrar Al Schuld, P.Eng.: “Although some of the grounds for opposition advanced by Engineers Canada and APEGGA were dismissed, the principal reason for the ruling was the failure of the applicant to show that the proposed trademark did conform to the requirements for issuing a trademark.”
Conflict Policy
Severely Limits
Related-Party Business
Only in “rare circumstances” should APEGGA do business with entities not at arms length from its employees and officers, a new policy on related-party transactions states. Council viewed the policy, which the Audit Committee devised at the request of auditors.
Exceptions would be allowed only “when appropriate and in the best interests of the Association, upon full disclosure of a conflict or the perception of a conflict.” Ruling on these exceptions would be the Manager, Administration, or, in cases involving member services providers, the Manager, Member Services.
Stamping Standard
Needs Clarification,
Council Decides
Is there significant public risk when a company’s internal engineering or geoscience documents aren’t stamped by an APEGGA member? The Practice Review Board says there isn’t and wants Council to seek the appropriate amendments to the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act.
Internal stamping is a “monitoring and enforcing nightmare. . .beyond the scope of staff and volunteers,” said board member Raj Rajan, P.Eng. APEGGA loses credibility because it can’t enforce the requirement properly, Dr. Rajan said.
The board says only final documents going outside the member’s employer organization should require stamping, unless required by codes or standards. When the idea was considered in December, however, Council rejected it.
The earlier request came from the Practice Standards Committee. This time the Practice Review Board was adding support.
Dr. Rajan said documents generated and circulated by computer add to the complication of stamping. A legislation change would represent the burden of responsibility being on the corporation, and internal stamping has no value for the public or corporate members, he said. “We have to evolve to remain relevant.”
Council was still wary, however, and wanted more clarification within the Association’s actual stamping and sealing practice standard. “This feels like the cart before the horse,” said President-Elect Jim Beckett, P.Eng.
One councillor said stamping a document only at the end of a process before it moves on would be a complicated commitment. Shawn Morrison, P.Eng., said internal stamping gives a document a trackable provenance, which is important when someone takes responsibility.
He also contended that public safety is an issue when there’s no internal stamping. Employees are members of the public, he said, and in any case other members of the public are sometimes in contact with equipment designed for internal use.
Council requested that the Practice Standards Committee develop a revised practice standard on stamping and sealing documents. This will be presented to Council, along with implications to relevant legislation. The motion asks that the standard take into account “practical and workable current industry standards and practices.”
Members should be aware that stamping of all final documents remains a requirement, including those distributed internally.
Guideline on Outsourcing
Sign-off Ready for Review
It’s a controversial and sometimes confusing area of practice — signing off on outsourced engineering. In fact several years ago, APEGGA launched an inquiry into outsourcing practices to find out more about the subject.
The inquiry called on APEGGA to create a guideline on the issue. Now, a near-final draft of Determining the Need for Professional Involvement in Outsourced Engineering is available for review and comment.
“The need for this guideline was also emphasized by the number of questions received by APEGGA about whether outsourced engineering documents require Alberta engineers’ stamps,” says a report to Council from the Practice Standards Committee.
To read and comment on the draft, visit www.apegga.org and check What’s New on the home page.
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