July 2008 Issue
Council Briefs
Mobility Issues Maintained as Top APEGGA Priorities
The PEGG compiled the following items from the first APEGGA Council meeting of the 2008-2009 term, held June 19 in Edmonton. The next meeting is Sept. 18 in Fort McMurray.
A pressing APEGGA priority is to make sure Canadian governments understand the role of self-regulating associations when professionals cross geographic borders to do their work. Whether it happens in person or electronically, this form of border crossing — called mobility — and its continued political and economic importance are entrenched in two plans that keep Council and management on track and informed.
The APEGGA Strategic Plan 2009-2018 and the 2008 Business Plan took centre stage, as newly elected and veteran councillors followed up a May strategy retreat with their first Council meeting of the new term. Council had its first look at the meat of the strategic plan and approved its one-, three- and 10-year goals.
A decade from now the engineering and geoscience professions will be fully mobile across the country, the strategic plan envisions. The system of licensure must, however, continue to recognize that each provincial jurisdiction has a legislative duty of care to the public.
In the engineering profession virtual full mobility already exists in Canada, and in geoscience it gets closer all the time. The political climate, however, hints otherwise.
With that in mind, APEGGA is pushing for wording changes in the two Canadian Inter-Association Mobility Agreements that include each association’s right to “due diligence” when licensing professionals from another Canadian jurisdiction. The Association is also working to “familiarize and build trust with government officials on self-regulation and APEGGA’s role in balancing mobility with the public interest, in particular as it relates to health and safety issues,” says the draft of the strategic plan.
Most critical right now is how APEGGA addresses two trade agreements in Canada. Both the nationwide Agreement on Internal Trade and the Alberta-B.C. Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement reach full implementation in April 2009. They can be interpreted as removing the check-and-balance each association provides for its sister associations by employing due diligence when Canadian professionals seek licensure.
The updated strategic plan also envisions that in 10 years half of all U.S. states should be licensing Canadian professional engineers without assessing exams. Also in a decade, “many more” internationally educated professionals should be licensed in Alberta with the need for fewer or no exams.
It’s the business plan that translates strategies into operational actions, President Gordon Williams, P.Geol., explained to his new Council. A staff report outlined progress on 2008 priorities in the business plan.
“This is an extremely important document,” Dr. Williams said. “It plots everything we want to do in 10 years right down to the next three or four months, and it allows us to track progress.”
Strategic plans need a strong connection to actions and regular monitoring to be effective, Dr. Williams said.
Teacher Upgrading
Earns More Support
The upgrading of teachers once they’ve embarked on their careers is a good way to directly enhance the math and science education that children receive, says a report from the APEGGA Honours and Awards Committee. Council agreed with the committee and put $24,000 towards professional development and other upgrading programs for Alberta teachers.
Staff members and the committee haven’t finalized exactly how the money will be distributed, but possible routes include the Alberta Teachers’ Association math and science councils, and master of science programs and other courses for teachers at the two major universities.
The move follows the elimination of the APEGGA Education Scholarships. These went to science and engineering university degree holders who enrol in degree programs in education or science-education combinations.
APEGGA found it difficult to find applicants for the scholarships, and also found no evidence that the scholarships are actually attracting science-and-engineering grads to education and the teaching profession. Better value for the money, the committee report says, comes from professional development.
Executive Director
Praises Teacher Awards
APEGGA acknowledges great science teachers and math teachers through a long-standing Outreach Department initiative. Each year, 14 teachers get the spotlight they deserve, all over the province, through the Teacher Awards Program.
Executive Director & Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng., emphasized how important the awards are and the profile they give APEGGA. “Some of the things nominators say about the teachers are just incredible. It’s really heartwarming.”
Mr. Windsor noted that school board superintendents and other dignitaries often show up for award presentations, which for the most part take place around the province before the end of June.
There’s money in it for schools, as well. Winners accepted $2,000 each this year on behalf of their schools, to put towards science and math education. That’s been doubled since last year, when the award was $1,000 each.
Nominations for the awards totalled 146 this year, up about a third over last year. The number of nominators went up 80 per cent, suggesting extra work went into the preparation of the nomination packages. See full story.
Council Approves
Committee Names
It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it. Policy dictates that the APEGGA President has to arrive at names for chairs and membership of four Council committees covering important areas of governance.
APEGGA President Gordon Williams, P.Geol., said it’s impossible to make everyone happy. Now he knows, he said, what it’s like to name a cabinet.
Council approved his selections for the
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Finance Committee, Chair Coun. Dick Waters, P.Eng.
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Audit Committee, Chair Coun. John Van der Put, P.Eng.
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Geoscience Committee, Chair Coun. John Hogg, P.Geol.
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Public Policy Issues Committee, Chair President Gordon Williams, P.Geol.
Other Council committee memberships are selected in other ways, and Council saw the full list of assignments for the 2008-2009 term. The President is an ex-officio member of all Council committees except the Audit Committee.
Core Centre Needs to Expand
The Energy Resources Conservation Board Core Research Centre in Calgary is running out of space quickly because of a surge in demand from the oilsands industry, Council heard. The Geoscience Committee has given the centre a letter of support in its quest for Alberta Government funding to expand and make space for at least 10 years of new materials.
The centre is responsible for the storage and retrieval of drill core and cuttings from wells in strategic areas of the province. APEGGA members are the primary suppliers of core and cuttings, and the centre’s exclusive users.
In other Geoscience Committee news, Council learned that APEGGA Compliance Department figures show year-to-year gains in licensure applications under the geoscience titles. The APEGGA Business Plan seeks to improve licensure in the geosciences. “To maintain momentum, it will be essential to work with permit holders in the petroleum industry to ensure that promotions within companies are linked to licensure,” says the committee report.
The committee is currently working on a formal geoscience plan, which will integrate 2008 and 2009 business plan goals relating to geoscience into a multi-year strategy and plan.
Permit Seminars
Near Fifth Birthday
APEGGA uses mandatory seminars to help ensure that companies practice engineering and geoscience professionally. This Permit to Practice Seminar program for companies’ Responsible Members is almost five years old now and had reached 8,683 APEGGA members by May 31. A staff report to Council notes that 6,841 members attended in person, and that 1,842 copies of the narrated seminar have been distributed via CD and over the Internet.
Motyka to Lead
Engineers Canada
In 2009-2010, an APEGGA member will again lead the national organization made up of Canadian self-regulating constituent associations in the engi-neering profession. Dan Motyka, P.Eng., a past president of APEGGA, was elected President-Elect of Engineers Canada in May. Council officially congratulated Mr. Motyka, who begins his term next May.
APEGGA is considered a leader in the profession at Engineers Canada. This will be the second time in recent years an APEGGA member has taken its helm. Darrel Danyluk, P.Eng., also a past APEGGA president, was the Engineers Canada president in 2004-2005.
Engineers Canada is the business name of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers. It is the national organization of the 12 provincial and territorial associations that regulate the practice of engineering in Canada and license the country's more than 160,000 professional engineers.