REGULATORY
APEGA’s Legislative Review: A Progress Report
We’re one year into our legislative review consultations, which is a good time to take stock. And the news is good. We’ve hit significant milestones, thanks in no small part to the input we received from stakeholders — most notably our Members and Permit Holders
in October and November. APEGA facilitated several sessions in Edmonton and Calgary, and our champions collaborative held meetings in Red Deer, Lethbridge, Grand Prairie, Medicine Hat, and Fort McMurray. At least half of our face-to-face consultations were conducted by champion volunteers, who held special Branch meetings and in-house presentations with Permit Holders. The champions collaborative is a group of about 40 engineering and geoscience professionals who are engaging Members and Permit Holders in the legislative renewal process. We want to thank the champions — a mix of volunteers drawn from Branches, statutory boards and committees, and our register of Members, Permit Holders, and Members-in-Training — for their efforts to assist us in reaching out to stakeholders across Alberta. In addition to these in-person consultations, we also gathered feedback through a survey in late 2015. Between October 23 and December 18, more than 1,400 Members, Permit Holders, and other stakeholders responded to the survey. As we did with feedback from our spring consultations, stakeholder input from the fall consultations has been compiled into a detailed report. You can find the We’re Listening: Fall 2015 Consultation Summary at apegalegislativereview.ca. In total, we’re working to address more than 180 proposed legislative changes, which were brought forward through stakeholder consultations held over the last three years. That’s a lot of material
Professionals across the province stepped up in 2015 to have their say in how the engineering and geoscience professions are governed. The result was a year of unprecedented Member engagement, with almost 4,000 engineering and geoscience professionals — or about seven per cent of APEGA’s Professional Members who are eligible to vote — providing feedback on dozens of proposed changes to our governing legislation, the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act ( EGP Act ). The Act hasn’t been updated in more than 30 years, so we’re modernizing it to ensure it reflects today’s business practices and continues to protect the public interest. Member input is vital to this process because the Government of Alberta (GOA) — to which the Act belongs — will base any future changes on the recommendations coming out of our consultations. Two rounds of consultation sessions were held in 2015. The first, held last spring, gathered input on six proposed changes. The second, held in the fall, examined another 15 recommendations. Members shared their thoughts and ideas in a variety of ways, among them: • face-to-face meetings • surveys • email • webinars • videoconferencing During our fall consultations, we gathered input from 2,600 people. About 1,200 of them attended in-person sessions
STAY INFORMED, PROVIDE INPUT
The Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act directly affects the practices of Professional Engineers and Professional Geoscientists in Alberta, defining your responsibilities and obligations as professionals. That’s why it’s important for APEGA Members and Permit Holders to take part in the legislative review consultations now underway. Your ideas will inform and influence our recommendations to the provincial government on any proposed amend- ments. You can get involved by: • reviewing proposed recommendations in the videos and briefing notes at apegalegislativereview.ca • participating in APEGA Branch or Permit Holder events or webinars, or meeting with champions collaborative Members face-to-face. Watch for more information about these events in your Branch News, the e-PEG, and the e-PEG Extra • sending comments and questions to legislative-review@apega.ca • taking a survey on the proposed practice review recommendations. The survey is open from February 9 to March 9, and you can find it online at apegalegislativereview.ca
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