INNOVATION November-December 2015

p ract i ce

Required Not Required

Certificate of Authorization or Permit to Practice

construction, the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies BC (ACEC-BC), and others. After considering all input, the Task Force will deliver a final recommendation to Council. Consultation Timeline Consultation will begin in 2016, with a goal of creating meaningful opportunities that enable members and stakeholders to provide informed input to the Task Force and Council. Consultation opportunities will be communicated to members, on a dedicated section of APEGBC’s website, at apeg.bc.ca/ corporatepractice. Summaries that identify key themes, concerns, challenges, and opportunities will be presented to Council regularly. The Task Force will also examine the history of the issue, associated legislation, and successful aspects of existing regulatory models in Canada and elsewhere. Concept development and consultation are expected to take up to 10 months. Council’s goal is to consider the recommendations of the Task Force at the end of 2016. It will decide then whether APEGBC should pursue authority for corporate regulation— and if so, within which sectors. More Information A dedicated section of the APEGBC website has been launched to communicate all information on this issue. Please visit apeg.bc.ca/corporatepractice to learn more. With a successful model for organizational quality assurance operating in BC, the question now facing APEGBC is whether more can be done to ensure public protection. 1. Insights West Public Opinion Survey 2014. Question: From the list below, please rate the importance of APEGBC’s current and potential responsibilities. “Regulate firms offering professional engineer and geoscientist services to the public to ensure they have qualified professionals and standards for quality assurance.” 81% ranked this as important. Early Council discussions about corporate-practice regulation in BC began with the Closkey Commission, which reviewed the Station Square Mall collapse in Burnaby. Since then, the issue has re-emerged periodically and whenever major incidents involving engineering or geoscience in BC occur. In 2012, APEGBC responded to the need for providing quality management support to engineering and geoscience businesses by launching the Organizational Quality Management (OQM) program. Through the voluntary program, the association assists organizations in helping their professional-member employees meet the quality management requirements under the Act and bylaws.

British Columbia and Quebec are the only two jurisdictions in Canada where engineering and geoscience companies remain unregulated.

APEGBC to Examine Support of Corporate Practice When the Mount Polley dam breached in August 2014, an issue discussed by APEGBC councils many times in recent decades resurfaced: the regulation of engineering and geoscience corporate practice in BC. Council has begun examining this complex issue again to determine whether the association should pursue regulatory authority for corporate practice. Since its inception in 1920, APEGBC has been responsible for maintaining standards of entry and practice for individual professionals. The Engineers and Geoscientists Act contains provisions for the association to issue certificates of authorization—licences issued to allow individuals and businesses to provide professional engineering or geoscience services. However, nothing in the Act prevents companies from operating without such certificates. In fact, BC and Quebec are the only jurisdictions in Canada where engineering and geoscience organizations remain unregulated. Other Canadian jurisdictions regulate organizational practice through certificates of authorization or similar permits to practice. Some jurisdictions regulate all companies that provide engineering and geoscience products and services, whereas others are restricted to certain sectors— for example, consulting. British Columbians appear to support corporate regulation. In a recent public opinion survey, 81% of respondents believed that regulating engineering and geoscience firms was an important function of APEGBC 1 . The matter is also raised regularly by members and organizations that look to APEGBC to ensure that practitioners and companies within various sectors meet the same quality assurance standards. The association’s primary mandate of public protection remains central to its consideration of the issue. Also key is ensuring individual members’ and industry’s perspectives are heard. To meet these requirements, Council has established an Advisory Task Force on Corporate Practice that will guide the process of concept development and member and stakeholder consultation. The Task Force will comprise APEGBC members and licensees and industry representatives, including government, manufacturing,

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