When Alberta engineers decided a century ago to propose an affordable and effective way to regulate themselves, it was all about public protection. They recognized that bad actors among them were endangering fellow citizens. The ranks of engineers—which at the time included geoscientists—needed to shape up, as a modern, civilized society began emerging from the Wild West. Those are our roots. Many things about our province, our professions, and our industries have changed in the years since. But here’s something that’s remained the same: APEGA regulates the practices of engineering and geoscience in a way that puts the public interest first. Doesn’t it just make sense that the public, whose interests we serve, have a voice in our major regulatory decisions? Yes, it does. That’s why the Government of Alberta appoints public members to APEGA’s Council, Board of Examiners, Practice Review Board, Investigative Committee, Discipline Committee, and Appeal Board. These are full voting members. They sit on subcommittees and panels as required, and they take part in the decision-making PUBLIC MEMBERS— A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE
process. They provide viewpoints that perhaps our own representatives would not have considered on their own. Public members arrive with perspectives from other professions. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, accountants, communications experts, retired politicians, entrepreneurs, representatives of many other walks of life—all have had seats at APEGA’s regulatory tables, over the years. The voices of our public members are important. They should be heard in the board room. And they should be heard in the public arena. We include reports from public members in our annual report. Following are their words of wisdom about APEGA’s self-regulatory challenges and achievements in 2018.
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2018 APEGA Annual Report
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