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Mentoring Handbook Nears Completion
APEGGA is putting the finishing touches on a handbook that
will help mentors and proteges make the most of their working
relationships. Council received the 50-plus-page Strategies
for Success in Mentoring, A Handbook for Mentors and Proteges,
with an eye for final approval in November and then publication.
Created by Judith Lentin, P.Geol., and the rest of the APEGGA
Mentoring Committee, which is chaired by Ed Wilson, P.Eng.,
the handbook will replace a mentoring guideline published
in 2000. The new handbook contains helpful worksheets to make
it more useful to mentors and protégés than
the guideline, and the writing style is less formal, and it
incorporatesing mountain climbing imagery.
The handbook is the outcome of a Calgary pilot project of
an APEGGA mentoring program. Mentors and proteges will use
the handbook in conjunction with a new area on the APEGGA
website.
Watch The PEGG and the APEGGA website, www.apegga.org, for
details on ordering the handbook.
Council Adds Detail
To Provisional License Plan
Professionals from other countries often arrive to start
their new lives in Canada with just one of the requirements
missing for registration: a year of "equivalent"
North American experience. These are immigrants who meet the
academic requirement for registration. They're also competent
in English, of good character, and have written any exams
APEGGA has decided are necessarythe Professional Practice
Exam.
For these individuals, APEGGA wants to create a new category
of professional - one that recognizes that the other four
registration requirements have been met, while providing an
interim level of status and recognition to help them get their
careers back underway.
"These individuals often find themselves in a Catch-22
situation," said Mark Tokarik, LLB, P.Eng., APEGGA's
Director of Registration director. "They raise the concern
that because they are not licensed with APEGGA, they cannot
find an engineering or geoscience job, and because they can't
find such a job, they cannot obtain the one year of Canadian
experience required to become licensed as a professional member."
Council discussed Mr. Tokarik's report on the issue, which
included information on how the Newfoundland, Ontario and
B.C. associations are dealing with the matter. A key point
is independence - some models allow provisional license holders
more independence than others.
Council decided, however, that holders of the new license
will be required to work under the supervision of a licensed
professional and will not have their own stamps. Protection
of the public is paramount, councillors Council said. The
experience requirement is important because of climatic and
cultural differences, and the need to learn the practice guidelines,
policies, codes and ethics that professionals here in Canada
follow.
The license holders will have two years to complete the requirement
of one year of experience under the supervision of a licensed
professional. The provisional license will be open to non-Canadian
citizens, landed immigrants and non-landed immigrants.
The new license will require regulationbylaw changes, meaning
it will have to be approved be an APEGGA annual general meeting
before going to the Alberta Government.
Meanwhile, a task force is looking into new categories of
membership and plans to bring policy recommendations to the
November Council meeting. The Inclusivity Task Force, chaired
by APEGGA President-Elect Linda Van Gastel, P.Eng., comes
out of a May strategic planning meeting, which found that
APEGGA needs to strive to encompass more member types.
The task force is looking at new categories for international
graduates, emerging disciplines, related science professionalss
working in the area of engineering, geology or geophysics,
other practitioners not possessing full professional qualifications,
and technologists.
Business Plan Approved
The 2004 Business Plan, A New Focus met with Council approval.
Staff will report back during the year on how the Association
is meeting the goals included in it.
The 20-page document divides APEGGA's activities into seven
key goals, which come out of the Association's core business
roles. Each goal calls for results, and includes strategies,
key initiatives and ways to measure success.
APEGGA defines its core business as:
- Registration and licensure of engineers, geologists and
geophysicists in Alberta
- Regulation of the professions
- Protection of exclusive scopes of practice and restricted
titles
- Continuance of the privilege of self-governance
- Support of national associations
- Delivery of real value to stakeholders
- Provision of leadership in advancing science and technology.
The full document will soon be available on the APEGGA website, www.apegga.org.
Reserve Policy Stays
For at least another year, APEGGA will continue using a financial
reserve policy that ties the value of its financial reserve
to operating expenses. Although there is a possibility, in
the future, that this policy could force theour reserve to
exceed the value calculated to cover the risks inherent in
running APEGGA, and that the surplus could be taxed, for now;
at the present time our reserve matches the calculated values.
In 2001 the policy was revised to reduce the relationship
on expenses from 50 per cent% to between 25 and 35 per cent5%
in recognition of the potential to create this taxable surplus.
Council adopted the system in 2001 in reaction to a federal
government taxation bulletin. If the value was kept too high,
Council learned then, the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
could choose to tax the Association at for-profit rates. See
The PEGG, January 2002.
The policy calls on APEGGA to reduce its reserve to a range
of 25 to 35 per cent of operating expenses by 2005. Before
2001, the policy was to keep the reserve at 50 per cent of
operating expenses.
Council considered a new policy at the Sept. 11 meeting that
would set the reserve at $2,525,000, reviewable yearly, but
decided that the present policy was appropriate for now..
That would further reduce the possibility of for-profit taxation,
the Finance Committee said, while decreasing the need to put
a portion of member dues towards the reserve.
Council accepted the committee recommendation for information,
deciding to stay with the status quo for another year.
Insurance Task Force Struck
Professional liability insurance providers are trying to recoup
their losses after large claims against their policies. What
that means for APEGGA members is less selection, higher premiums,
greater limitations and more exclusions in policies sold to
them.
Some members are being denied liability insurance all together,
Council heard, while others are being forced to buy insurance
they don't want, because of the way policies are bundled.
The situation is exposing members to greater personal liability.
Also, some old projects covered under old policies qualify
for less extensive or no coverage at all under the new policies,
Coun. Dave Chalcroft, P.Eng., explained.
"It is imperative that the professions review what is
going on, determine the extent of the problem and make some
recommendations on how to handle this risk management tool
in the future," said Mr. Chalcroft.
Council agreed and approved the creation of the Insurance
Review Task Force, chaired by Mr. Chalcroft.
Two Guidelines Approved
A guideline to assist professional members when they're called
as witnesses is among two guidelines that Council approved
for publication, Sept. 11. The Guideline for Professional
Member as Witness helps members understand their roles when
a court or quasi-judicial body calls them as witnesses.
"If professionals misunderstand their role as witnesses,
it may result in the degradation of professional, intellectual
and personal integrity," said Lianne Lefsrud, P.Eng.,
Aassistant assistant Ddirector of Professional Practice, in
her report to Council.
The guideline covers confidentiality, conflict of interest,
thoroughness, preparation of data and other topics.
Also approved for publication was the Guideline for Professional
Practice Management Plans. It's designed to help members prepare
a PPMP for a permit-holding company, to satisfy recently proclaimed
new regulatory requirements.
Both plans will be available soon in print and on the APEGGA
website, click
here. Watch the PEGG for further details.
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