REGULATORY
Currently, APEGA conducts random practice reviews of Permit Holders. In the future, we’ll conduct more reviews, and they’ll be more focused on areas of public interest. These reviews allow APEGA to give timely feedback to Permit Holders and work with them to improve their practices.
We’re improving our materials for the seminar and online course, and volunteers who are Responsible Members will soon be joining APEGA staff as presenters. We expect to start rolling out these changes by the end of 2017.
PERMIT HOLDER REMINDER Visit the APEGA Company Self-Service Centre at apega.ca to: • manage the status of your company’s Permit to Practice • update company information • pay permit fees QUICK FACTS • Not all provincial and territorial regulators of engineering and geoscience require practising companies to have a permit. • In some provinces, a Permit to Practice is called a Certificate of Authorization. • APEGA first began licensing consulting firms in the late 1960s. The system expanded in the early 1980s to include all other companies and many organizations practising in Alberta. • Some organizations, such as governments, are not required to have a Permit to Practice. • Permit to Practice Seminars began in 2004 to help inform our Responsible Members about how they can entrench professionalism in their corporate cultures.
ENGAGING WITH PERMIT HOLDERS
In the APEGA legislative review, a number of proposed recommendations would, if implemented, affect Permit Holders and Responsible Members. These are being discussed with Members as part of the APEGA legislative review consultations scheduled for this fall. See story, Page 12. We want to continue this heightened level of engagement with Permit Holders and Responsible Members. Indeed, APEGA’s ability to uphold the public interest requires an ongoing partnership with our Members and Permit Holders. We believe the changes we’re making will also help Permit Holders become more engaged in self-regulatory matters of professional practice and empower Responsible Members to confidently fulfill their obligations.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN THE WORKS
We’re also planning improvements to the permitting process and to the tools Permit Holders use. These include enhancements to our online Company Self-Service Centre, through which Permit Holders update their company information and pay their permit fees. And we’re revamping our Permit to Practice seminars. RMs must attend a Permit to Practice seminar (or take an online Permit to Practice course) within six months of a permit for their employer being issued or their becoming a new RM. After that, the seminar or course must be retaken once every five years. The seminar is open to the public. Also, RMs can request that we deliver the seminar in-house, which we try to accommodate when the number of attendees warrants it. Permit to Practice seminars inform Responsible Members of their duties and provide guidance on creating a PPMP.
QUESTIONS? permits@apega.ca
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