print this page President's Perspective Scott McLean, P.Geo. - APGO President In conjunction with the Ottawa meeting, Mark Priddle, P.Geo., a member of the Environmental Geoscience Subcommittee organized a Professional Practice workshop for members. This is, I think, the 5th such workshop that this Subcommittee has arranged, but it is the first that I have attended. I found it a most informative and worthwhile event. APGO will endeavour to provide similar workshops at other venues on an on-going basis. Such forums not only elevate the awareness of issues affecting all disciplines of our profession, but also provide a chance for members to meet and network with one another. Five presenters offered excellent talks that stimulated much discussion. Copies of all presentations are available at http://www.apgo.net/news/presentations/index.html. Our Executive Director / Registrar, Oliver Bonham, P.Geo. gave us an overview of self-regulation of professions in Ontario together with a breakdown of the elements of the Professional Geoscientists Act, 2000 focussing on the Association’s mandate to manage Enforcement and Compliance of the Act to ensure that all those practising geoscience are licensed, as well as its duty to the public regarding the handling of Complaints and Discipline matters with respect to its members. Ken Lyon, P. Geo. (Chair of the Environmental Geoscience Subcommittee) and Milan Situm, P.Geo. (Chair of the Geophysics Subcommittee) discussed activities of their respective Committee’s and other Geoscience issues in the province associated with these disciplines. The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program was reviewed by Wayne Caston, P.Geo. – chair of that Committee. All members are encouraged to complete the CPD forms for 2005 and to submit them to the Association in early in 2006 as a record of their professional development activities in 2005. Although 2005 is a voluntary year, the reporting of each member’s CPD will be mandatory for 2006 (reporting in 2007).
Building on the recent MITAC report, “Prospecting the Future” (http://www.apgo.net/newsletters/2005-08/PTFSummaryRE5.pdf), I lead a discussion on the demographic outlook of the profession with focus on the mining sector. The profession and more specifically the profession within the mining sector is aging and a significant proportion of geoscience practitioners will be retiring with the next 10 years. The number of professionals available to replace our retirees and meet future demand is inadequate. The MITAC report graphically displays the age distribution of the mining workforce demonstrating a dramatic skew to an older population and a substantial deficit of young professional scientists. A review of our own APGO membership statistics shows similar demographic trends. Keeping in mind that about 70% of APGO’s members fall within the “Geology” discipline, we see that we have a significant deficit of practitioners who are under the age of 40.
This demographic skew presents some significant problems for meeting the demand for professionals in the future: 1) There are too few people entering the profession which will result in an overall shortage of Professional Geoscientists, and 2) There is a deficit of mid-career Professional Geoscientists which will result in a shortage of senior practitioners and mentors as older practitioners retire.
The overall decrease of new professionals is linked directly to a decrease in enrolment of students in earth science programs at our universities. Although many environmental geoscience programs have healthy enrolment levels, the core earth science programs such as mapping and structural geology, petrology, economic geology and mineral deposits studies are suffering. This will eventually result in an overall decrease in quality of education for new graduates if universities continue to not support such programs. Due to the forecasted shortage of senior practitioners over the next 10 years, a risk also exists that the quality of professional geoscience will suffer as the population of senior mentors diminishes. As a profession we need to address these demographic issues in order to meet the societal demand and maintain the high quality of professional geoscience within the province and indeed the nation. As a profession we should endeavour to increase collaboration between the Earth Science Departments in Ontario to make more effective use of talents, expertise, and equipment. Industry needs to work with the universities to develop quality Co-op programs that provide sound, relevant education. The on-going training and skills upgrading for existing P.Geo.’s. through University based CPD courses is essential to maintaining a high quality and current base of professionals. In addition, such professional programs could be developed to target geoscientists with experience that have left the industry to attract them back into their profession. Also curiosity in the geosciences needs to be sparked amongst our youth by establishment of geology courses and career guidance in the high school curriculum. The APGO Council has made this a focus issue. We have recently established a GIT (Geoscientist in Training) and Student subcommittee under the umbrella of the Registration Committee which is developing an aggressive program to attract students to the geosciences and provide network and mentoring opportunities for GIT’s. In addition, APGO has initiated a series of on campus meetings with each of the 12 Earth Science Departments at Ontario’s universities as a means of collaborating to ensure that students are aware of the academic requirement for licensure and to elevate awareness among students of the great career opportunities at present in the geosciences. |
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The 40th meeting of council was held in Ottawa on September 16th. Although most of our meetings are held in the Toronto area, APGO does endeavour to meet at least once a year outside of the GTA. This allows members in outlying areas to meet the councillors and even attend the council meeting, if they wish. 
