october 2009 issue
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New Technologist Categories Explained
APEGGA prepares for the advent of Professional Licensee and Professional Technologist designations, with ASET poised to gain regulatory status
BY MARK TOKARIK, P.ENG.
Director, Registration
Revisions to the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act are coming into effect soon. Under these changes
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The Registered Professional Technologist (R.P.T.) designation changes to Professional Licensee.
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The Professional Technologist (P.Tech.) designation is being created.
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ASET gains regulatory status.
The New Designation:
Professional Technologist
Under the revised EGGP Act, Professional Technologists will be given the right to practice independently and use their stamps within individually specified scopes of practice and the application of specified codes and standards. These specified scopes will be narrower and more prescribed than the defined scopes of practice for
Professional Licensees.
Professional Technologists will be members of ASET only and will not be members of APEGGA. They will, however, be jointly regulated by APEGGA and ASET. The APEGGA/ASET Joint Board of Examiners (JBOE) for Professional Technologists will evaluate the qualifications of applicants, and will specify individualized scopes of practice that fit the definition under the EGGP Act and fit the applicant’s experience and academic training.
The definition under the EGGP Act will be “a scope of practice that is the routine application of industry recognized codes, standards, procedures and practices using established engineering or applied science principles and methods of problem solving.”
The JBOE will be made up of an equal number of ASET members and APEGGA professional members, plus at least one public member. P.Tech.s will be bound by a code of ethics and subject to disciplinary actions, practice reviews and the like, administered by ASET but regulated by APEGGA and ASET through joint committees.
Therefore, as necessary, APEGGA and ASET members will sit on a number of joint committees as well as the new Joint Board of Examiners. These committees will concern themselves with regulations, investigations, discipline, practice reviews and appeals, all for P.Tech.s only.
A Designation Renamed:
Professional Licensee
The Registered Professional Technologist, or R.P.T., designation will cease to exist under the revised EGGP Act. In its place will be a new designation called Professional Licensee.
This designation will not be jointly regulated. It will be solely regulated by APEGGA. No longer will applicants for the Professional Licensee designation be recommended by ASET or require ASET membership.
The APEGGA Board of Examiners will determine whether someone is qualified for this designation, as it does now for R.P.T.s.
Like the soon-to-be-defunct R.P.T., a Professional Licensee can practice engineering, geology or geophysics within a defined, individualized scope of practice specified by the Board of Examiners.
All existing R.P.T.s will have their designations changed to Professional Licensee. This will be an automatic, administrative function.
A Designation Eliminated:
Registered Engineering Technologist
One other type of technologist exists under the unamended EGGP Act. The Registered Engineering Technologist, or R.E.T. designation, will no longer be granted, once the amendments are proclaimed. However, existing R.E.T.s will be able to continue to use the designation and retain their ASET membership.
Questions?
If I have missed something or you still aren’t clear about any of this, please contact me — Mark Tokarik, mtokarik@apega.ca, phone 780-426-3990, or 1-800-661-7020, ext. 2804.