2021 APEGA Annual Report

2021 APEGA Annual Report

A Y E AR L I K E NO O T H E R

A NNUA L R E POR T

Banff, Alberta

A YEAR LIK NO OTHER

At work and at home, year two of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to upend our lives. It was a year dominated by the arrival of coronavirus vaccines and variants, social distancing, school closures, mask mandates, gathering restrictions, and some of the biggest social and economic challenges of the past century. Through it all, APEGA members, permit holders, volunteers, and staff faced the trials of 2021 with equal measures of tenacity, thoughtfulness, and compassion. We adapted. We found ways to survive and to thrive. We changed how we work, communicate, and collaborate—often for the better. Our collective willpower and spirit are what truly made 2021 a year like no other. Members and permit-holding companies deserve recognition for their extraordinary efforts in maintaining a high calibre of work throughout the chaos. So do our 862 devoted volunteers. APEGA’s strength and success as a regulator depend on their commitment and contributions to our organization. We focused our efforts this year on building a more inclusive and robust volunteer base that reflects our diverse membership. Working remotely, APEGA staff met and often exceeded performance expectations during disruptive and worrying times. We used technology to improve our application processing times and reduce the impact of pandemic interruptions for everything from examinations to hearings. Working with other provincial regulators, we enhanced public safety and addressed emerging issues. We provided members and permit holders with tools to help them improve their practices. Our virtual events brought people together, celebrated member achievements, and provided opportunities for continuing professional development. Most notably, we fulfilled our mission of safeguarding the public welfare of Albertans.

Our work as a regulator continues.

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CONTENTS

Pincher Creek, Alberta

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Summit Awards Our Volunteers Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Mentoring

46 48 54 56 57 58 58 59 60 62

iii 6 8 10

A Year Like No Other Key APEGA Milestones President’s Message Registrar & CEO’s Message

Indigenous Relations Government Relations

REGULATORY EXCELLENCE 12

Updating the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act Standards Matter Outreach Sponsorships

Regulatory Trends Co-Regulation Regulatory Division Review Training in Administrative Law and Regulatory Legal Processes Membership Trends Application Processing Times Fair Registration Practices Act Competency-Based Assessment Examinations Practice Reviews Practice Standards Continuing Professional Development Licensure Administration Investigations Compliance Discipline Appeal Board Professional Development

14 14 15 15 16 18 19 21 22 24 24 25 25 26 28 30 31 32 36 39 40 40 41 42 44 34

64 PERFORMANCE CULTURE

Employee Diversity and Retention Giving Back Crisis Management and COVID-19 Cybersecurity Introducing myAPEGA Council Election Special Committee of Council on Nominations and Bylaw Vote Council Annual General Meeting

66 68 70 71 72 73 74

76 77

Boards and Committees Appeal Board Council

78 79 80 81 82 83 85

TRUST & RELEVANCE

Our Membership Supporting Members Through a Crisis Branch Engagement Member Benefits and Discounts Member Employment Trends Member Achievements The How of Wow

Board of Examiners Discipline Committee Practice Review Board Summary Financial Statements

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KEY APEGA MILESTONES 2021

MAY

New Relying on the Work of Others and Outsourcing practice standard published

MARCH

First virtual APEGA Science Olympics kicks off

JUNE

myAPEGA online service portal launches for members and permit holders First virtual APEGA Nexus professional development conference

Graduated Risk Assessment of Permit Holders introduced JANUARY

First virtual annual general meeting held with record-breaking attendance APRIL

New memorandum of understanding signed with Alberta Safety Codes Council

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JULY

APEGA’s General Regulation extended

by five years to Sept. 30, 2026

A record 9,215 National Professional Practice Exams administered DECEMBER Attendance of APEGA virtual events grows 120% over 2020

SEPTEMBER

APEGA Summit Awards 30th anniversary and first virtual Summit Awards Gala

Second virtual Emerging Professionals Summit

NOVEMBER

APEGA’s Regulatory Division conducted an internal review AUGUST

APEGA members vote to amend the Council nomination process Final Women and Gender Equality report, Women in the Workplace: A Shift in Industry Work Cultur e, published

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MESSAGE PRESIDENT’S

Brian Pearse , P.Eng.

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APEGA has a number of statutory committees and boards that, like the PRB, assist in our governance and operations. Council provides oversight, but we alone cannot make APEGA a better regulator. It’s a joint duty that requires coordinated effort and regular interaction. That’s why I was so pleased to have board and committee representatives join Council at our strategic retreat in October. Planning our regulatory path forward Because of COVID-19, this was our first in-person strategic retreat since 2019. We gathered—following pandemic protocols—to envision APEGA’s future and create a new strategic plan. As always, serving the public interest is our mandate and our priority. But what steps do we need to take to continue building Albertans’ trust and confidence in our ability to regulate? Our efforts at the retreat were guided by two aspirations: being bold and challenging the norm. We pursued creativity and came together as a collective. It’s time to reimagine and reinvent our approach to engineering and geoscience regulation in Alberta. We must reinforce that we are, first and foremost, a regulator. Working in unison One of the highlights of my presidency has been engaging with members, connecting with them through virtual president’s visits, and responding to their questions about APEGA in my online Ask the President column. I certainly don’t have all the answers—but together, I believe we do. From Council and staff to volunteers and members, we must work in unison to accomplish our goals.

For many of us, our window to the world during the pandemic has often been through a computer screen. It’s been an adjustment, but we’ve made the best of a difficult situation. As APEGA’s 102nd president, I enjoyed my “commute” down the hall, connecting with councillors and fellow professionals (and sometimes their spouses, children, and pets!) via virtual meetings and gatherings. It took hard work, determination, and good humour, but we turned what could have been an obstacle into an opportunity to strengthen our communication and dialogue. This is vital, because we can’t determine where we need to go as a regulator—and how to get there—without open discourse. Communicate. Collaborate. Repeat. At Council meetings, we reinvigorated a process called generative discussions. It’s a clearly defined way for APEGA councillors and senior leaders to engage in thoughtful, future-focused conversations about issues and challenges we’re facing. It begins with an exchange of ideas, stories, and perspectives. Rather than leap to a solution, we explore a topic more deeply to gain a shared understanding. This has a far greater impact, resulting in solutions that are often more powerful than we originally envisioned. Generative discussions are a different approach to strategic planning, but collaboration is not new to APEGA. Indeed, it has been key to our continued growth and transformation. A recent example is this year’s launch of GRAPH, or Graduated Risk Assessment of Permit Holders, an important initiative that resulted from discussions between Council and APEGA’s Practice Review Board (PRB). GRAPH uses a progressive scale to evaluate the engineering and geoscience practices of APEGA permit-holding companies. It improves public safety through better risk management, enables us to complete more reviews, and helps us build a strong regulatory relationship with permit holders.

At APEGA, I believe we do that really well. Like anything, it takes work. It’s a journey we continue on.

And I’m very optimistic about where we’re headed.

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MESSAGE FROM THE REGISTRAR & CEO

Jay Nagendran , P.Eng., FCAE, ICD.D, FEC, FGC (Hon.) Registrar & Chief Executive Officer

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When COVID-19 arrived in Alberta back in March 2020, many of us prepared for a brief isolation, not expecting to still be washing hands, sanitizing, and distancing for months to come. We’ve now navigated through two full years of working from home and virtual gatherings, of pandemic restrictions and global disruptions. It’s been a time of uncertainty and unknowns, but APEGA has embraced this new reality. We know what we need to do to move forward as a regulator, and we have the technology and tools in place to do it. We remain focused on what matters most: keeping Albertans safe by proactively regulating the practices of engineering and geoscience. Delivering on our strategic priorities Succeeding in an unpredictable environment requires resourcefulness, creativity, and being open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. I’m proud to say our staff and volunteers—including APEGA councillors—are up to this challenge. In fact, I will remember 2021 not for the difficulties we faced, but for the resolution and resiliency I saw all around me. We united with a common purpose to continue delivering on the priorities in APEGA’s strategic plan. These priorities guide our actions every day.

You can find full details on these and our many other successes throughout this report.

Serving through remarkable times At the end of 2021, I am close to completing my fifth year as APEGA’s registrar and chief executive officer. While it has always been a privilege to serve Albertans and APEGA’s more than 70,000 members, it has been an especially remarkable experience to lead the association through these exceptional and unexpected times. There is no pandemic playbook to follow, but I think we got things right. For everyone’s safety, our offices in Calgary and Edmonton remained closed to the public in 2021, and most staff continued to work from home. All APEGA events— from webinars and Science Olympics to disciplinary hearings and Council meetings—were held online. The only exception was our strategic planning retreat and branch golf tournaments, which were held with all public health protocols being followed. It was a wonderful, intangible feeling to engage with my colleagues in person. I look forward to the day when that is once again the norm. A year like no other Looking back, it’s fair to say 2020 was a year for the history books. But 2021—with its ups and downs and highs and lows—was also a year like no other.

Protecting the public through regulatory excellence.

Building trust and confidence in our ability to regulate.

It pushed us to innovate. To continuously improve and do better.

Creating a culture in which people are empowered to grow and excel.

To find new ways to connect. To take care of each other.

This year’s annual report clearly shows the progress we have made towards achieving our strategic priorities, improving our performance, and being a leader in regulation. Some of our achievements include a new graduated risk assessment process for permit-holding companies, the launch of our myAPEGA online services portal, and the strides we’ve made to increase equity, diversity, and inclusivity within our professions and our organization.

And it showed us that no problem—not even the swell of a pandemic—is insurmountable when we work together.

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R E GU L AT ORY E X C E L L E NC E

As a leader in self-regulation, APEGA employs robust, proactive, and responsive systems, ensuring the protection of the public and the compliance of our registrants.

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WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE We recognize and address emerging issues affecting

our professions and our ability to self-regulate.

Regulatory Trends

We undertook several initiatives in 2021 to address emerging regulatory trends and issues. To remain a strong and progressive regulator, we must anticipate change—and be open and responsive to it.

Together, we have a mutual and shared responsibility to safeguard public welfare. We: signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Alberta Safety Codes Council (SCC) to close a gap in the safety codes system. The MOU outlined expectations and responsibilities for APEGA professionals sitting on SCC tribunals to ensure a fair appeals process by alleviating conflicts of interest while protecting public safety

CO-REGULATION

Our governing legislation—the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act —overlaps or interacts with the legislation of several other Alberta regulators. We worked closely with those regulators in 2021 to increase public safety through improved cooperation, communication, and information sharing, including clarifying boundaries between our legislations to ensure they work in harmony.

continued to work closely with Alberta Occupational Health and Safety based on the MOU, highlighting a commitment to increase communication and cooperation on investigations involving unskilled practice or unprofessional conduct by APEGA registrants

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continued discussions with the Alberta Association of Architects (AAA), clarifying the roles and responsibilities of architects and engineers working on building envelopes collaborated with the AAA, the SCC, and Alberta Municipal Affairs on updates to the National Building Code – 2019 Alberta Edition schedules continued our work with Alberta Municipal Affairs, focusing on matters involving professional regulation and public safety

We detailed key observations, findings, and opportunities from our 12-month review in a 100-page report.

No findings raised issues of non-compliance with our legislation or the common law, or raised issues of risk requiring immediate action. Most opportunities for improved efficiencies and procedures were operational in nature— their response was already underway or will be integrated into our departmental plans.

worked with the Alberta Energy Regulator to enhance investigative cooperation

TRAINING IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW AND REGULATORY LEGAL PROCESSES We collaborated with the Osgoode Hall Law School to develop a virtual course on administrative law and regulatory legal processes tailored to engineering and geoscience regulation. As part of the intensive, week-long training, staff and volunteers learned how to manage and run fair and effective administrative hearings. This was especially important for our statutory volunteers serving on quasi- judicial tribunal panels, who heard evidence and made decisions within a legislative framework.

held discussions with the Alberta Boilers Safety Association to clarify the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders governed by both, or either, the EGP Act and the Pressure Equipment Safety Regulation (part of the Safety Codes Act )

REGULATORY DIVISION REVIEW We completed an in-depth internal review of our Regulatory Division policies and procedures to discover any gaps in our regulatory framework. The results were positive, confirming we are meeting our public protection mandate. Several Canadian regulators have assessed their organizational structure and methodologies against the Standards of Good Regulation guidelines developed by the U.K.-based Professional Standards Authority, a world- leader in regulatory oversight and public protection. APEGA has used those assessments to complete an in- depth review of our regulatory policies and procedures and to discover any gaps in our regulatory framework. The positive results confirmed we are meeting our public- protection mandate.

Over the past two years, 53 volunteers and 13 staff completed the certification.

We continue to work with Osgoode on an advanced course for administrative and regulatory decision-making.

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WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE We ensure the compliance of registrants by establishing, maintaining, and enforcing qualifications and professional standards.

Membership Trends

Registration with APEGA is a critical step for those who are starting—or continuing—their engineering or geoscience careers in Alberta. Their skills are essential to building and sustaining our province’s economic prosperity. We work hard to process all applications honestly, fairly, and as timely as possible. Each application undergoes a comprehensive, transparent, and objective review. As a regulator, it is our responsibility to ensure only qualified, competent, and ethical individuals are licensed. Applicants must have the education, experience, English-language competency, good character, and professional knowledge required for professional practice.

Many applicants gained their education and work experience outside Canada. We are committed to treating these applicants equally based on their qualifications and not their country of origin. Since 2012, we have been the only engineering and geoscience regulator in Canada to have a full-time international qualifications officer providing newcomers with guidance and support on our application process and licensing requirements.

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“It’s my job to support internationally trained engineers and geoscientists through the registration process so they understand the licensure requirements. I help provide guidance based on their qualifications.” – Enayat Aminzadah, APEGA’s International Qualifications Officer

VOLUME OF APPLICANTS TRAINED IN CANADA VS. INTERNATIONALLY

Canada

International

Total

3,108

1,252

4,360

3,295

1,385

4,680

3,402

1,417

4,819

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APPLICATION PROCESSING TIMES We strive to eliminate registration obstacles and expedite our application process without compromising public safety. Our registration practices meet regulatory best practices and are aligned with the province’s foreign-qualification recognition framework. We invest time and resources to renew, develop, and improve our registration tools and processes.

After a successful trial, we fully implemented our new application tracking tool in 2021. It allows us to access and analyze detailed and current application >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88

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