March 2006 ISSUE
READERS' FORUM
Get the Education, Get the Experience, Join APEGGA
ASET members and internationally trained prospective members are not and never
have been prohibited from obtaining the educational requirements for registration
in APEGGA. Let them know this.
Once they are formally educated then they can get the experience they need to
qualify, just like the rest of us.
Let’s keep our shop open to qualified candidates.
Denis Gaspe, P.Eng.
Oka, Que.
What APEGGA Does For Immigrants
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AN APEGGA HAND |
Editor’s Note: The following letter from APEGGA Executive Director & Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng., was sent to the Calgary Herald in response to the article Provincial Labour Shortage Bewildering to Newcomers, which appeared in the Feb. 25 edition.
I would like to share some information with your readers regarding the licensure of internationally educated engineering and geoscience graduates in Alberta.
Almost one third of the 1,400 professional engineers, geologists and geophysicists licensed by APEGGA in 2004 are internationally educated graduates. All applicants are evaluated by APEGGA’s Board of Examiners, a 46-member group of engineering and geoscience professionals from both academia and industry.
The board considers each candidate’s education, experience, character, knowledge of professionalism and ethics, and fluency in English. It applies the same fair but rigorous standards to all applicants, regardless of origin, to maintain the levels of professional practice and conduct that have served Albertans since 1920 by protecting public safety and well-being.
All applicants must have a minimum of one year of North American experience in order to ensure they understand Canadian business practices, laws, codes and standards, and ethics. This experience is also important for the protection of public safety and well-being because the physical and cultural environments in Alberta can be very different from those in many other parts of the world.
APEGGA understands that it can be challenging to find work in order to gain that year of Canadian experience under the supervision of a licensed professional. That is why APEGGA members last year approved a new category of “provisional licence.” The changes to regulations necessary to create this new category are before the provincial government.
This category will allow internationally educated graduates who, with the exception of the one year of North American experience, meet the academic and experience requirements for full membership, to be granted a provisional licence. They can then find employment and practice under the supervision of a licensed professional while they meet the Canadian experience requirement.
APEGGA also actively works with immigrant-serving agencies. Through them we provide information to internationally educated graduates.
This past year, APEGGA provided three job fairs in Calgary for immigrant applicants, exam candidates, members-in-training and others involved in training programs at immigrant-serving agencies or affiliated with an ethnic-based association. Each job find event offers a day of information about registration requirements, employment-related seminars, contact with potential employers, and contact with dozens of professional engineers and geoscientists.
These events have led to many interviews and employment opportunities. Some professional members also reach out on their own through their community groups to assist internationally educated graduates.
H. Neil Windsor, P.Eng.
APEGGA Executive Director & Registrar
Alternate Science Program Comes to Edmonton School
Edmonton Public Schools is pleased to announce the September 2006 opening of a new kindergarten-to-grade-six science alternative program. This program can be characterized as rigorous, hands-on and enriched.
While following the Alberta Program of Studies, it is enhanced by the use of inquiry across the curriculum, the highlighting of key science ideas, attention to the language of science, and a focus on the environment.
Teachers in this program are passionate about learning and inquiry. They work with partners to introduce their students to the greater community of scientists. They believe in the power of engaged learning and use a variety of learning strategies to keep their students motivated and challenged.
Students that fit this program are curious and ask a lot of questions (not necessarily about science!). They are passionate about many things and are often persistent. Students who love animals or the outdoors, and students who love to draw and observe will find this program engaging.
The program will be located at Elmwood School, which has easy access via the Whitemud. At this location students will benefit from the naturescape as well as reasonable proximity to some of the partner organizations.
For further information, please contact me at 780-429-8531 or by e-mail at margaretha.ebbers@epsb.ca.
Margaret Ebbers
Programs
Edmonton Public Schools
Two Ways To Increase Member Voting
Re: Let’s Improve Member Voting Record, President’s Notebook, The PEGG, February 2006.
You’ll likely achieve a higher voting percentage from members if you include a postage-paid envelope with the ballot or if you allow online voting.
Derek S. Da Silva, P.Eng.
Sherwood Park
Editor’s Note: Provisions for electronic voting were passed by members and are now before the province.
IPCC Science Drops Off
Re: What They’re Missing About Climate Change, J. Edward Mathison, P.Geol., Readers’ Forum, The PEGG, January 2006.
According to the International Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report on Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone “do absorb and emit infrared radiation. These so called greenhouse gases (GHG), with a total volume mixing ratio in dry air of less than 0.1 per cent by volume play an essential role in Earth’s energy budget. Moreover the atmosphere contains water vapour. . . which is also a natural greenhouse gas. Its volume mixing ratio is highly variable, but it is typically in the order of one per cent.”
Further reading reveals that the atmospheric CO2 concentration accounts for 370 parts per million (1999), compared with a pre-industrial concentration of 280 ppm (1750). This computes to a CO2 concentration of 0.037 per cent — not three per cent as stated in the letter. It also accounts for a 32 per cent increase in CO2 in the industrial period.
At this point, the science in the IPCC documents drops off quickly and speculation sets in.
The argument for global warming is that the estimated global temperature rise of 0.6 C occurring since the late 19th century is linked to a rise of 32 per cent in the concentration of CO2. The IPCC report suggests that a doubling of CO2 will eventually lead to a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 C to 4.5 C, leading to the well-publicized disaster scenarios in popular and trade press.
There can be no doubt that a global warming trend has been occurring from a mid-19th century starting point; the measurements are objective and plentiful. What is less certain is the relationship of CO2 and rising temperature.
Which is cause and which is effect? This appears to be fundamental to developing meaningful strategies for dealing with the consequences of global warming.
If CO2 is a driver, then anthropogenic generation of CO2 becomes a key and limiting use of fossil fuels or CO2 removal schemes have merit. Buying energy credits from Russia and China and other despotic states subverts the goal of limiting greenhouse gases, however.
If CO2 is actually a consequence of naturally occurring warming (we are in an interglacial period — several have occurred in Earth’s history), then dealing with CO2 generation is secondary to developing more appropriate responses and directing scarce resources in more effective ways. Again, rather than subsidizing alternative energy schemes and remitting millions if not billions of dollars to corrupt regimes, real solutions may include large scale population relocations or construction of large civil works to hold back rising waters, as the Dutch know well.
This is a problem that warrants better evaluation before we blindly open our chequebooks on another doomsday issue. Better understanding of the solar radiation balance, testing and validation of the heat storage and transfer mechanisms would be fundamental for the sake of sound science — and engineering.
John Aumuller, P.Eng.
Edmonton