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this page Mobility Update – We need your input! By George H. Wahl, P.Geo. APGO is participating in a Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists (CCPG) IP Task Force to address mobility of geoscience practitioners across Canada. Currently practitioners are required to fully register in every province they work in incurring multiple fees, exams, registration forms etc., for periods of work as short as a few hours. Only Quebec and Ontario have a mobility agreement which allows for temporary and incidental practice, however, this agreement also requires notification, and for those working in Quebec, purchase of Professional Liability Insurance. The CCPG IP Task Force has drafted a national mobility agreement. The agreement is founded on a set of principles which protects the public interest on a Canada-wide basis. The goal of the draft agreement is to reduce the inter-provincial red tape faced by mobile practitioners and is based on an existing Federation of Law Societies National Mobility Agreement. The agreement lumps both temporary work (field camp assignments) and incidental practice (phone calls, emails, short property visits, data compilations etc) under one Temporary Practice category. Ontario is seeking input on two key elements. Ontario needs to know from practitioners how hard to push for the following key negotiating points:
Some provinces are looking for notification through some form of registration for incidental or temporary practice. There may exist in some jurisdictions a legal requirement for registration for temporary practice. In order to become signatories to the mobility agreement these jurisdictions may require changes to their Acts which they may be reluctant to undertake. As a compromise we are considering the concept of using a Web based national notification system whereby practitioners disclose at year end where and for how long they have been practicing in each jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions such as NWT/Nunavut are heavily subsidized by fees from temporary practitioners who hold dual registrations. A national mobility agreement without additional fees may jeopardize their financial viability as a self-regulating body. APGO acknowledges that some fees will likely be required for those geoscientists wishing to practice nationally to address revenue losses for less populated jurisdictions. An option that we are considering includes continuing with the current APGO fee which allows practice only in Ontario and creating a second category of membership which would include a separate and higher fee which would allow for freer movement across Canada. We need some feedback on how much practitioners would be willing to pay. A majority of provinces are looking for a maximum three month term of working in a host province under a no-notification clause of the mobility national agreement. After three months of working in a host province, these jurisdictions would expect a practitioner to apply for full registration in the host province. Our questions to our mobile members are as follows:
Achieving consensus with so many players is difficult and time consuming so we appreciate your patience and input. Let us know what you think is reasonable. Contact george.wahl@sympatico.ca
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