Information Bulletin
In order to keep e-mail correspondence to a minimum, an
information bulletin will be e-mailed to each member.
If you do not wish to be included on this circular, please
notify the ACPA office at acpaoffice@pchem.ca.
ACPA Office
P.O. Box 21017
Edmonton, AB
T6R 2V4
Phone:
780-413-0004
Fax: 780-413-0076
In this Bulletin:
Professional Regulation Summit
Canadian Society of Chemistry Update
ACPA Annual General Meeting
On-Line ACPA Membership Listing
Professional
Liability (Errors and Omissions) Insurance
INNOVATION ALBERTA Website
Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada
Website
All
contributions are welcome from the members for consideration in the monthly
bulletin. Please have submissions into
the ACPA Office prior to the 15th of each month. {{DUE BEFORE: September
15, 2005}}
Professional Regulation Summit
Attached (Professional Regulation Summit - Vancouver.pdf) find the outline of the Professional Regulation Summit in Vancouver on October 4-6.
Canadian Society of Chemistry Update - submitted by Dave Schwass
At the recent (05.06.01) Board of Directors
meeting in Saskatoon the CSC Board unanimously passed a motion that
"The CSC will raise the status of the chemist as a professional
in Canada." Along with myself as the CSC vice-president
and executive lead on this file, we have two new Directors (Ray
Clement and Yves Ducharme) with responsibilities to move this issue
forward along with the CIC Ottawa staff. With the full backing
of the CSC Board, support from the CIC Board including the
CSChE President, as well as the resources of the National Office means
that the CSC and CIC representing almost 6000 members (of which 4000
are chemists) along with the ACPA, ACPO, OCQ and the fledgling groups
in Nova Scotia and British Columbia we hope to have significant
resources to bring to this initiative with benefits to all chemists in the
Canada. We are all facing similar challenges to our profession
both collectively and individually and believe that through a
coordinated and leveraged approach we can increase awareness and
credibility of the profession of chemistry with our communities,
regulators and our other professional colleagues. We have developed
a strategy that I believe will have a connection to
all chemists regardless of their occupation, branch of chemistry
practiced or level of education.
ACPA Annual General Meeting
The 2005 Annual General Meeting of
the ACPA was held on June 25th in Airdrie, Alberta. The draft minutes of this
meeting are available for viewing at http://www.pchem.ca/Minutes/Minutes2005AGMdraft.pdf.
The minutes summarize the President's Report (Bob Taylor), the Treasurer's
Report (Roger Cowles), and the Registrar's Report (Trent Parks). These reports provide
an overview of the current status and activities of the ACPA.
The Frank W. Bachelor Service to the Profession Award for 2005 was presented to
Kevin Dunn. Kevin is a former Chair of the ACPA board and has freely provided
the ACPA with his time and considerable talents for many years.
Pat Kalita and Chris Swyngedouw were acclaimed for three-year terms on the
board of the ACPA. Two others (Elena Vaisman and John Banks) were declared as
candidates for the two remaining open positions. A special general meeting to
elect or acclaim these positions will be held in September.
A report on the ACPA Joint Professions Committee was presented by Roger Cowles.
This committee has recommended to the Alberta Minister of the Environment on
who should be allowed to sign off for reclamation and remediation work at
upstream oil and gas sites in Alberta. Their recommendation was that only
qualified members of regulated professional organizations (such as ACPA,
APEGGA, and the Alberta Institute of Agrologists) be allowed to sign off for
this kind of work. In addition, the new Agrology Profession Act will allow more
technologists to become members and be qualified to sign off as well.
The first guest speaker was Adrian Pritchard (Manager, Professions and
Occupations and Land Agents Licensing, Alberta Human Resources and Employment)
who provided a long-term outlook for regulation of the non-health-related
professions in Alberta. The new Agrology Profession Act now requires
"mandatory registration" for professional agrologists in Alberta.
This Act will be used as a template for all such professional organizations in
Alberta, which means that the legislation governing the ACPA will eventually be
changed to require mandatory registration for professional chemists as well. This
legal template also includes the incorporation of technologists as a separate
category of membership. If all goes as planned, the ACPA may even be awarded
"exclusive scope of practice"
within a decade or so, because the government wants to move towards symmetry in
its regulation of these professions (including APEGGA).
The second guest speaker was Dave Schwass (Vice-President, Canadian Society for
Chemistry, and ACPA member #001). He spoke on the CSC and the status of the
chemist as a professional in Canada. The CSC board is now committed to raising
this status across Canada. Except for Quebec, the progress in Alberta is far
ahead of that in the other provinces, in this regard. It is in the interests of
Alberta chemists to help their colleagues in other provinces in their battles
to be recognized as professionals. The CSC and the CIC have money and resources
available for this work, but would like to have the support of the ACPA as
well.
The final item on the agenda was a proposal put forward by ACPA member Eugene
Dakin on instituting a Chemist's Ring for ACPA members. After much discussion,
a straw vote of those present showed a majority in favour of some sort of
Chemist's Ring.
For more details regarding any of these reports or discussions, please see the
draft minutes on the ACPA website at http://www.pchem.ca/Minutes/Minutes2005AGMdraft.pdf.
Photos of the AGM:
Frank W. Bachelor Award Recipient Kevin
Dunn
On-line ACPA Membership Listing
ACPA is pleased to announce that our membership
listing (without contact information) is now posted on our website at www.pchem.ca in the membership area.
The listing is provided as a service to Association members and to the
public. Now the membership and the public have a convenient way to check
whether or not an individual is a member in good standing.
Professional Liability (Errors
and Omissions) Insurance
ACPA is considering participation in a group plan offering professional liability insurance for members who require this type of cover. The proposal involves setting up a group plan together with four other regulated professional associations (Alberta Institute of Agrologists, Alberta Society of Professional Biologists, College of Alberta Professional Foresters and the College of Alberta Professional Forest Technologists) through Morris and Mackenzie insurance brokers. Once the plan is in place, ACPA would inform members of the plan and refer them to Morris and Mackenzie who would handle all the administration. The main advantage of this approach is that the details of what chemists do and the insurance rates are evaluated once rather than for each individual application and hopefully, by working with the other associations there will be enough business to keep the policy in place at competitive rates. Also the broker and the insurance provider (Encon) are willing to provide seminars and advice relating to insurance and loss control.
The Professional Chemists Regulation defines the scope of practice for chemists in Alberta but we need help defining what consulting chemists do in order to ensure that the group plan covers those activities. So, if you work as a consultant it would be appreciated if could you send an outline of the types of service you provide and to whom to Roger Cowles (treasurer@pchem.ca). A brochure describing your business would also be helpful.
Link to the current
INNOVATIONS ALBERTA Website
http://www.innovationalberta.com/
Link
to the Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada Website
http://www.ptac.org/techenvf.html
The content
of this bulletin is provided only as an information service to members.
Inclusion of any information does not represent official positions, opinions or
support of the Association of the Chemical Profession of Alberta (ACPA),
members of the executive, board of directors or staff. The information is collected from a variety
of sources, including members, and circulated to the membership as information
only. ACPA does not guarantee all submissions will be circulated and is not
responsible for the accuracy of any information provided.