Professional Registration of Geoscientists in Canada

William N. Pearson, P.Geo. (President, Association of Geoscientists of Ontario)
Gordon D. Williams, P.Geol. (Past-Chair, Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists)

ABSTRACT

Registration (licensure) of professionals in Canada is a provincial and territorial responsibility, mandated by acts of the appropriate legislatures. Geoscientists must be licensed to practise their profession in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Saskatchewan. In all cases, the responsibility for professional licensure is delegated by law to self-regulating professional associations in each jurisdiction. More than 5,000 geoscientists are currently licensed in Canada, and that number will probably double over the next few years, as Ontario and Nova Scotia move toward licensure, and Quebec implements right-to-title certification.

The Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists/Conseil canadien des géoscientifiques professionnels (CCPG) was established in 1997 to help coordinate standards and other professional activities among its nine provincial and territorial member associations. The main task of CCPG is to facilitate the mobility of professional geoscientists within Canada and internationally. To this end, agreements are being drafted to permit geoscientists licensed in any association to automatically transfer their registration to any other Canadian association and, ultimately, for geoscientists licensed in one province or territory to practice in others for certain periods of time without becoming registered in the others.

INTRODUCTION

Licensing and regulation of professionals in Canada began over a hundred years ago as a means of ensuring that those who provided certain services to the public possessed appropriate academic, experience and ethical qualifications to provide those services. Protection of the public from unskilled or unethical practice by unqualified individuals was, and still is, paramount.

Under the Canadian Constitution, licensure of professionals is the responsibility of individual provinces and territories. In each jurisdiction, acts of their legislature restrict the practice of the professions to individuals who are registered members of (and therefore licensed by) autonomous, self-governing professional associations established under the legislation. This right-to-practice legislation enables the professional associations to protect the public by preventing unqualified, unskilled or unethical persons from carrying on the restricted professions. Aside from appointing public members to the governing councils and key committees of the professional associations, governments play no direct role in the licensing of practitioners, in contrast to the situation in some other countries.

The professional associations in each province and territory have legal responsibility and authority to set standards and to evaluate the qualifications of applicants for entry into the profession, to maintain a list of qualified persons in the profession, to ensure that unqualified persons do not practise the profession, and to discipline members of the profession who practise unethically or beyond the level of their qualifications.

Interaction between professionals and the public may be on a direct, one-on-one, professional-to- client basis (e.g., most doctors, lawyers, dentists), or may be indirect, as when members of the public use facilities designed and constructed by professionals or rely on conclusions and opinions expressed by professionals (e.g., most engineers, architects, geoscientists, accountants). Conclusions and opinions expressed by professionals very often have safety, financial, or environmental implications for the public. In both direct and indirect cases, licensure of the professionals involved protects the public by ensuring that the licensed professional possesses appropriate qualifications, as well as providing an avenue of redress should something go wrong.

Generally speaking, members of the public are not able to evaluate the qualifications of the professionals whose work they rely upon (for example the engineers who designed a bridge, dam or building, or the geologist who estimated ore reserves). In addition, they usually have had no input in selecting the professionals whose work they rely on. Licensure assures innocent third parties that the works they rely on have been designed and built by appropriately qualified individuals.

A code of professional ethics, backed up by complaint procedures and effective provisions to discipline professionals who have practised beyond their skill capabilities or who have practised unethically, are important components of regulation and granting of exclusive right to practice in professional fields.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The engineering professions were regulated in Canada in the early decades of the twentieth century. From the outset, it was recognized that the work of many geoscientists also affected the public welfare through their involvement in oil, gas and ore reserves estimation, exploration and mining activities, and construction of major engineering works such as dams and bridges. More recently, geoscientists have become major players in the broad area of environmental practice.

Initially, geoscientists whose work impacted the welfare of the public were licensed as engineers, usually as mining engineers. In Alberta, Dr. John A. Allan, a prominent geoscientist and founder of the Geology Department at the University of Alberta, took an active role in establishing the Association of Professional Engineers of Alberta (APEA) in the 1920s and became its president in the 1930s. In the 1950s, the discovery of oil and gas in Alberta focussed attention on the geoscience professions, with the result that geologists, and the practice of geology and geophysics, were explicitly identified in the Engineering Act in Alberta in 1955. Separate designations for geologists and geophysicists (P.Geol. and P.Geoph.) were introduced in 1960 and, in 1966, APEA changed its name to become the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA).

Following the pattern set in Alberta, geoscientists are now licensed in most Canadian provinces and territories by associations of engineers and geoscientists, established by legislative acts covering the professions of engineering and geoscience.

CURRENT STATE OF LICENSURE IN CANADA

More than 5,000 geoscientists are now licensed as Professional Geoscientists (P.Geo.), Professional Geologists (P.Geol.) or Professional Geophysicists (P.Geoph.) under combined engineering and geoscience right-to-practice legislation in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Saskatchewan.

In these jurisdictions, a person must be a member of (registered by) the appropriate professional association to provide geoscientific services (geology, geophysics, geochemistry, etc.) or to use certain restricted professional titles. Over the next few years, it is estimated that approximately 10,000 geoscientists will be licensed in Canada as the remaining jurisdictions enact similar legislation. The current status of licensure in Canada is summarized below:

• Alberta: The practice of geoscience has been restricted in Alberta since the mid- 1950s. Anyone practising geology or geophysics, or using the titles 'Geologist', 'Geophysicist', or any variations thereof must be a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA).

• British Columbia: Licensure of geoscientists (geologists, geophysicists, geochemists, geotechnical-environmental geoscientists) by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC) has been a legal requirement since 1990.

• Manitoba: Licensure of geoscientists became a legal requirement in June, 1998, and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba (APEGM) is currently in a two-year transitional enrolment period that will end on December 31, 2000. During this period, applications for registration are being accepted from geoscientists currently practising in the province.

• New Brunswick: A new Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act, requiring geoscientists to be licensed, was passed by the provincial legislature in March, 1999, and implemented on December 1, 1999. It is anticipated that a transitional period, similar to that in Manitoba, will provide an opportunity for existing practitioners in the province to be come registered in the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick (APEGNB) with a minimum of effort.

• Newfoundland: Licensure of geoscientists by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland has been a requirement since 1988.

• Northwest Territories: Since 1981, geoscientists have been required to be licensed as Professional Geologists or Professional Geophysicists by the Northwest Territories Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists (NAPEGG).

• Nova Scotia: A bill to establish the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Nova Scotia was introduced in the provincial legislature in 1996, but was subsequently withdrawn because of difficulties between engineers and architects in defining certain areas of overlapping practice. These difficulties have now been resolved and geoscientists have formed the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Nova Scotia to work with the Association of Professional Engineers of Nova Scotia to ensure that combined engineering and geoscience legislation is enacted as soon as possible.

• Nunavut: Nunavut, the new territory in the eastern Canadian arctic, came into being on April 1, 1999, when it was separated from the Northwest Territories. Professional legislation in Nunavut is essentially identical to that in the Northwest Territories and requires geologists and geophysicists to be licensed. Because of the small number of geoscientists in the Territory, however, administration will be carried out by NAPEGG.

• Ontario: Geoscientists in Ontario spent almost ten years working with the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) to obtain licensure under a broadened engineering and geoscience act. Unfortunately, negotiations broke down early in 1998 following a referendum vote by the membership of PEO which rejected the concept of expanding the mandate of PEO. Subsequently, the Association of Geoscientists of Ontario (AGO) began working directly with the government of the province to develop a structure which will lead to independent licensure of geoscientists under a separate act before the end of 2000.

• Prince Edward Island: A very small number of geoscientists reside or practice in the province and little interest has been shown in obtaining licensure.

• Quebec: Geoscientists have been attempting to obtain professional licensure or certification for almost 30 years. Unfortunately, the body responsible for licensing engineers in Quebec - the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) - has not been sympathetic towards accepting geoscientists. The Association of Professional Geologists and Geophysicists of Quebec (APGGQ) has therefore approached the provincial government directly to provide right-to-title certification. The Office des Professions du Québec recommended several years ago that a new Order be created for geoscientists under existing legislation and given the exclusive right to use specified titles that would identify members of the Order. Unfortunately, the legislation as it relates to geoscientists has yet to be proclaimed by the government despite continuing efforts on the part of the APGGQ to encourage them to proceed.

• Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan began registering Professional Geoscientists under their Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act in 1997. A two-year transition period to accommodate existing practitioners ended in 1999 with more than 500 geoscientists becoming registered in the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS).

• Yukon: A relatively small number of geoscientists practice in Yukon. In the 1980s, geoscientists in the territory made efforts to become licensed but without success. Those practitioners who wanted or needed to be registered could become registered in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories or Alberta. Interest in obtaining registration for geoscientists in Yukon has recently resurfaced and could result in a combined engineering and geoscience act in the future.

THE CANADIAN COUNCIL OF PROFESSIONAL GEOSCIENTISTS

For several years, the professional associations that license (register) geoscientists in Canada have recognized that, because the responsibility for licensure is distributed among the provinces and territories, a national organization was needed to fulfil a threefold purpose:

1. To help coordinate standards and other activities affecting professional geoscientists, particularly their mobility, in Canada;

2. To act as a forum within which common issues could be addressed; and

3. To represent Canadian professional geoscientists nationally and internationally.

In the engineering professions, national coordination and representation has been provided by the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers since the 1930s. A parallel national organization for the geoscience professions, the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists/Conseil canadien des géoscientifiques professionnels (CCPG), was established in March, 1997, under federal legislation, and became fully operational on January 1, 1998. The CCPG is a completely autonomous body whose members are those provincial and territorial associations that license geoscientists under right-to-practice legislation, or which are working towards licensure or right- to-title certification.

The CCPG is a federation of the provincial and territorial professional associations; it exists solely to serve its member associations. CCPG does not license or certify geoscientists and has no power of compulsion over its member associations or their existing statutory authority. Individual geoscientists cannot become members of CCPG. Professional geoscientists must be licensed or certified by their provincial or territorial associations which, in turn, hold membership in CCPG.

OBJECTIVES OF CCPG

The purpose of CCPG is to assist its member associations by providing a national focus for their activities and concerns. Its principal objectives are to:

• safeguard and promote the present and future interests of the geoscience professions in Canada;

• establish and maintain liaison among the provincial and territorial associations and corporations of professional geoscientists in Canada and assist them in:
  1. coordinating, correlating and standardizing their activities, particularly in the areas of registration of geoscientists, mobility of registered practitioners and interprovincial practice;
  2. promoting and maintaining high standards in the geoscience professions;
  3. developing effective human resources policies and promoting the professional, social and economic welfare of members of the geoscience professions;
  4. promoting a knowledge and appreciation of geoscience and the geoscience professions, and enhancing the usefulness of the professions to the public;
  5. promoting the advancement of geoscience and related education;
  6. generally carrying out their various objectives and functions;

• act on behalf of, and present the views of its member associations in matters that are national or international in scope, including international registration or certification of geoscientists and reciprocal practice;

• act in respect of other matters of Canada-wide or international nature concerning the geoscience professions, either alone or together with other bodies.

THE CANADIAN GEOSCIENCE STANDARDS BOARD

To assist its member associations in developing and maintaining compatible academic and experience requirements for licensure, the CCPG has established the Canadian Geoscience Standards Board (CGSB). Composed of representatives of each member association of CCPG, the mandate of the CGSB is to:

• provide guidance to the constituent associations of CCPG on matters relating to professional qualifications and practice.

• publish and periodically update national guidelines and recommended knowledge requirements for licensure in the geoscience professions for use by the constituent associations in assessing qualifications and setting examinations.

• develop methods of assessing the extent to which Canadian geoscience university degree programs meet or exceed educational standards acceptable for licensure as a geoscientist in Canada.

• conduct research into foreign geoscience programs to determine the extent to which such programs may satisfy all or some of the academic requirements for licensure in the constituent associations.

• ascertain the equivalency of licensure or certification programs in other countries, recommend mutual recognition agreements with foreign organizations and monitor the activities of those organizations with which mutual recognition agreements have been signed.

Recommendations for minimum requirements of knowledge and work experience for the practice of professional geoscience in Canada have been developed by the CGSB and have been circulated to the member associations of CCPG for possible adoption as the basis for registration in the associations.

INTER-ASSOCIATION MOBILITY OF GEOSCIENCE PROFESSIONALS

Geoscientists, perhaps to a greater extent than other professionals, often practice outside the jurisdiction in which they are licensed. Increasingly, their practice in Canada spans more than one province or territory and many individuals work internationally.

To facilitate the mobility of professional geoscientists within Canada, CCPG has developed a draft Inter-Association Mobility Agreement for geoscientists that will expedite the transfer of registration among jurisdictions. It is hoped that all CCPG member associations will adopt the Agreement and put it into effect during 2000.

A further objective of CCPG is to develop an agreement that will permit professional geoscientists to practice outside their home province or territory for specified short periods without having to become licensed in each jurisdiction where they might work. Because of legal considerations relating to licensing requirements and disciplinary responsibility, such an agreement will require considerable work and time to develop.

The establishment of reciprocal relationships with licensing and certifying organizations elsewhere in North America and beyond is also an explicit objective of CCPG. Discussions are currently underway with several national geoscience professional associations in North and South America, Australia and Europe.

CONCLUSIONS

More than 5000 geoscientists are currently licensed in Canada, and that number will probably double over the next few years as Ontario and Nova Scotia move toward licensure, and Quebec implements right-to-title certification. CCPG, since its inception in 1997, has made considerable progress in advancing professional geoscience in Canada, specifically:

• Developed recommendations for minimum requirements of knowledge and work experience for the practice of professional geoscience in Canada.

• Developed a draft Inter-Association Mobility Agreement for geoscientists that will expedite the transfer of registration among jurisdictions.

• Begun work on a reciprocal practice agreement that would permit professional geoscientists to practice outside their home province or territory for specified periods without having to become licensed in each jurisdiction where they may work.

• Initiated discussions with national professional geoscience associations in North and South America, Australia and Europe to establish reciprocal arrangements for professional practice.

• Provided a much needed forum for provincial/territorial associations to discuss inter-provincial and international issues that are very important to professional geoscientists because of the high mobility of the profession.

In 2000 and beyond, CCPG will continue to focus on its core objectives to improve standards of geoscience practice in Canada and enhance mobility and transferability nationally and internationally.