September 2008 Issue
President’s Notebook
Many Meetings, Much purpose
BY GORDON WILLIAMS, P.GEOL.
APEGGA President
As I write this, I have been your president for four months. A very busy four months, I might add, with the Council Strategic Planning Retreat in Banff, and meetings of Council, Executive Committee and the Board of Examiners, plus various other committee meetings in Calgary and Edmonton.
I have also had the privilege of representing APEGGA at various national and international meetings: the Engineers Canada AGM (Quebec City), the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists AGM (Winnipeg), the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan AGM (Regina), the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador AGM (St. John’s), the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Summit in Vancouver, and the U.S. National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying zone meeting (Bismarck, N.D.), as well as its AGM (Minneapolis).
The fall will be equally busy, too, with meetings of Council, the Executive Committee, Engineers Canada and the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists, as well as President’s Visits to several of our 10 branches.
Attendance at these meetings is important. It provides opportunities to
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promote Alberta, APEGGA and our licensed members
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work toward increased mobility
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develop friendships
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build trust, and share ideas and experience
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learn from colleagues who are dealing with problems similar
to ours.
Issues confronting us are often national or international in scope, yet solutions have to be crafted at a local level. Not only is it important to showcase APEGGA leadership, it is equally important for APEGGA to forge bonds nationally and internationally that give us access to help, support and advice when needed.
More About Mobility
In my last column, I wrote about transferability and mobility, and I want to expand on that somewhat. My impression is that, unfortunately, “professional bootlegging” is more prevalent than it should be.
At times, many of us have provided free advice to a colleague in another jurisdiction where we weren’t licensed. A quick phone call, “Can you take a minute to look at the logs for such-and-such a well?” Half an hour in front of a computer screen, no charge, professional courtesy, no tracks.
Nevertheless, that half hour was unlicensed practice of engineering or geoscience and it transgressed the law. When does professional courtesy stop and serious short-term, chargeable incidental, or temporary practice begin? An hour? Half a day? Three days? Ten days? It’s a slippery slope!
What about providing strategic advice to a government agency or corporation on mining-related legislation that impacts exploration? Or submitting a report to a stock exchange in another jurisdiction? Or managing a construction company that employs engineers? When does practice of engineering or geoscience stop and management begin?
Without some sort of formalized transferability and mobility system that is quick, easy to administer and inexpensive, short-term, incidental non-licensed practice ends up being encouraged. The result is that a significant number of our professional colleagues are outside the law, and enforcement is difficult if not impossible.
Which brings up the matter of compliance. The compliance rate is an imprecise number because, although we know how many individuals are licensed, there is no way of knowing how many are, in fact, practicing. We can only make estimates.
Based on our best estimates, in Alberta the compliance rate for engineers is between 80 per cent and 90 per cent. For geoscientists, it is somewhere between 55 per cent and 70 per cent. In most other Canadian jurisdictions it is probably somewhat less.
In comparison, the compliance rate for engineers in the U.S. seems to be around 20 per cent because engineers working for large corporations are exempt and only consultants are legally required to be licensed. Geoscientists who work for large corporations or in oil, gas and mineral exploration are also exempt in the 29 states in which geoscience is regulated.
Part of the reason for higher compliance in Alberta is that APEGGA encourages graduating geoscience and engineering students to become licensed by sponsoring discipline and ethics workshops and luncheons in conjunction with ceremonies for the Iron Ring and Earth Ring, each year. Students who sign up as members-in-training at the workshops have their application fees and first year’s membership dues waived, a saving of almost $260.
When Does
Under Supervision Apply?
What about practicing under the supervision of someone who is licensed? In practice, that is only supposed to apply to technologists and technicians. If someone is doing engineering or geoscience work, or representing him or herself as an engineer or geoscientist, under Canadian laws, with very few exceptions, he or she must be licensed.
In today’s electronic, global world, it is not uncommon for engineering or geoscience work on Alberta projects to have been done outside the province, perhaps half way around the globe. Under these circumstances, an Alberta-licensed professional must sign, stamp and take responsibility for the work. That professional must conduct whatever tests and calculations are necessary to ascertain that the health, safety and welfare of the Alberta public are protected, and must take full responsibility for the work wherever it was done.
I would appreciate receiving your comments or suggestions. Please get in touch with me at president@apegga.org.