FOR COUNCIL
David Johnson, P.Geo., PhD
Professional Highlights • Geoscientist with more than 30 years of global, Canadian frontier, and Western Canadian exploration and production experience in roles of progressive responsibility with super-majors, majors, and independents, including the leading of teams to significant discoveries in Canada and China • Combines technical and operational leadership with a proven ability to deliver results, drawing on core strengths that include a passion for geoscience, exploration, project management, and risk assessment • Currently is a senior adviser with Petrel Robertson Consulting Ltd., focusing on helium and natural gas in Alberta, and international opportunities
Question Responses
What does self-regulation mean to you as a member of APEGA? The engagement of geoscience and engineering in private, community and commercial endeavors has the potential to create complexity that often requires the kind of good-judgement which falls beyond the scope imagined by any set of rules. Self-regulation and the ability to use good judgment are privileges granted to geoscientists and engineers by the people of Alberta through the auspices of APEGA. Why are you running for Council and why do you think it’s important to serve in this way? I believe geoscientists need a voice on Council. As a regulatory body, APEGA has a pivotal role among government, industry, and professional practice. Council sets direction, develops policy, ensures resources, and provides oversight to APEGA. Geoscience representation on Council is low; currently Council has the minimum of two geoscientists, as mandated by the EGP Act , and one is stepping down this year.
What challenges do today’s engineers and geoscientists face? I believe the next three years will be a period of increasing change, as geoscientists and engineers adjust to the demands of industries reconfiguring to face the political and economic forces of Alberta’s markets. Professionals can anticipate being caught between an economic rock and a regulatory hard-place as margins get thinner for majors, minors, and micros, and governments face increasing accountability. These pressures will be further compounded by attrition within a highly skilled workforce, which is confronting the demand for increased technical innovation, while coping with demographic shifts and economic downturns. What is the value of professional membership in APEGA? Professional geoscientists and engineers enjoy the value of government-sanctioned regulation by a forum of their peers. This value is expressed in the self-determination engineers and geoscientists have in developing policies and managing the organization which oversees the behavior of their professions.
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