January 2007 ISSUE

COMPLIANCE

Protecting Professional Titles

Editor’s Note: The Compliance Department’s job is to enforce the right-to-practice and right-to-title provisions of the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act. The department’s focus, therefore, is on individuals and companies that are not registered — those which may be, inadvertently or otherwise, holding themselves out as professional members or practicing the professions illegally. Statistics in the Activity Report track activity from Jan. 1 to Nov. 15, 2006. During this period, a total of 301 practice and title violations were resolved; 89 involving individuals and 212 involving companies.

Seeking to ensure that non-licensed and non-qualified individuals and corporations do not hold themselves out as licensed and qualified is a major activity of APEGGA’s Compliance Department.
Titles are protected to give members of the general public confidence that when they retain an individual or company using these titles, they are receiving advice from fully qualified, experienced and licensed professionals.

The law backs us up in these efforts. Part 1 of the EGGP Act, Sections 3(1), 6(1), and 8(1) clearly state that registration with APEGGA is required for

• Individuals who use the title of Professional Engineer, Professional Geologist, Professional Geophysicist or their abbreviations.

• Individuals whose job title includes the word engineer, geologist, or geophysicist, such as field engineer, junior geologist or senior geophysicist.

• Companies that include the word engineering, geology, geophysics, or any variation of these words in their corporate name.

Part 7 of the EGGP Act, Section 85(1) and the appendix of the regulations, Sections 2(1)(4) and 2(b), clearly state that registration with APEGGA is required to use the titles Registered Professional Technologist Engineering, Geological and Geophysical, or their abbreviations.

How does the Compliance Department determine whether a title violation exists?

First, it must be determined whether the individual title or corporate name violates the mentioned sections of the EGGP Act.

APEGGA does not have a monopoly on the word engineer by itself. Titles are reserved to members of APEGGA whenever the title plus the context of the title’s usage would lead the public to believe or to legitimately assume that the user is licensed to practice.

Examples of this include plant engineer, chief geologist, staff geophysicist, John Smith Engineering, John Smith Geological Consultants, or John Smith Geophysical Consultants.

The implications of certain titles using the words engineering, geology or geophysics are not always obvious. Inquiries have increased lately on the eligibility of titles such as manager, engineering; project engineering manager; coordinator, drilling engineering; supervisor, arctic engineering; vice-president, geology; and district manager, geophysics.

APEGGA’s Compliance Department and the Enforcement Review Committee take the position that these titles, in an engineering, geological or geophysical work related context, should normally be used only by members of APEGGA. Titles which are not a clear violation of the EGGP Act are referred by the Compliance Department for discussion and recommendations to APEGGA’s Enforcement Review Committee.

Some occupations have traditionally used the word engineer, such as power engineer, stationary engineer, steam engineer and train engineer. The use of these terms normally does not lead others to believe that the user is a member of APEGGA.

That’s particularly emphasized because these titles historically and continue to be referred to in the Safety Codes Act and regulations relating to the design, construction and installation of boilers and pressure vessels.

In the case of a title violation, the offender has two options to avoid legal proceedings

• Seek registration with APEGGA

• Change the title or corporate name violating the EGGP Act.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION

Q: What does the EGGP Act state regarding the use of the words engineering, geology or geophysics in the name of a firm?

A: Regulation 52 of the EGGP Act states: “No partnership, corporation or other entity may be incorporated or registered in the Province of Alberta under a name including the words ‘Engineering’, ‘Geology’ or ‘Geophysics’, or variations of those words unless it holds and continues to hold a valid permit issued under Section 48.”