APEGA
I’m not saying the work that’s happening elsewhere is not up to standard. But we do need to look at and understand the lay of the land in this, because this globalized, high-tech world is changing all the time. I think we can engage in these discussions and hear from those doing this work, and then examine if we are fulfilling our mandate to the public. For the work that impacts Albertans, we need to ensure consistent and competent oversight in the practice of engineering and geoscience, no matter where that work is done. Are there opportunities in globalization? ND Sure there are. I think globalization ties strongly to another one of the issues APEGA needs to look at from a fundamental perspective—the large number of job losses our members have endured over recent years. It’s important to understand the magnitude of what has happened. It’s our role, at the very least, to understand the impact of the downturn on individuals in the oil and gas industry and the magnitude of the downturn. It is not enough to say that every downturn is the same, that the province and our members will bounce back in the same way we have in the past, that it’s all about oil markets and prices. I truly believe this downturn is different. Many factors are causing it, outsourcing and offshoring included. Then there are the dynamics within globalization. There’s automation and there’s machine learning. Another factor is a change in public perception of pipelines, regulators, and experts generally. These are all coming at us, right now, and some of them we’re already coping with. Many of our members cannot go back to the jobs they’ve left. It’s a changed world. This is not entirely a story of gloom, though. The human resources we have in this province are highly skilled, very talented, and very experienced. Our engineers and geoscientists have been coming up with solutions for the world for decades. It’s just that our talent is expensive, and the work is going where it is less so. What we have in this province, demographically, is a reverse pyramid, with age and experience at the top. We tend to surplus this talent, which is a nice way of
saying put it out to pasture. But where a lot of the work is getting done, it’s more of a pyramid, with legions of young, less-experienced people at the bottom— many of them overseas—and fewer experienced people at the top. What’s often lacking in a globalized economy, therefore, is the wisdom, the creativity, and the leadership. Those attributes make up much of the knowledge capital we have. Our members can help solve the problems that the world faces. They need to be aware of where and how work is happening, and they need to equip themselves to seize these opportunities. So off-shoring and globalization are not all bad news. I believe that we need to at least engage in this conversation and widen our lens so we can see these things for what they are. You talk a lot about conversations, often in informal gatherings like the coffee chats you held in June. Why do you think these conversations are important and what you do want them to accomplish? ND I think we can help develop a strong community of professionals, a community that helps each other, a community that is caring, a community that takes the time to listen to each other. So I invited members to come in and have a coffee and a chat with me, while also allowing them the opportunity to meet each other. We do not seem to have much of a space for this kind of thing anymore. When people lose their jobs, that networking opportunity is left behind. I want to bring people together and facilitate some professional connections. When we get people meeting, wonderful things happen. I don’t think being a regulator and providing services for members are necessarily mutually exclusive. They’re all interconnected. We do have a job board for members to find new positions, but we can’t make actual placements. That’s not what I’m suggesting at all. But if these meetings allow APEGA to better understand what’s happening within the broader membership and be a creator of discussion points, we should be able to connect with the resources of governments and others. We can share with Alberta and the world what our members represent. It’s a matter of creating opportunities.
12 | PEG SUMMER 2018
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