Alberta Act Amendments Recognize Professional Technologist Designation
Recent changes to Alberta’s Engineering, Geology and Geophysical Professions Act have created the new Professional Technologist (PTech) designation.
The Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA) and the Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET) will jointly establish and enforce a code of ethics for Professional Technologists, and will be jointly responsible for licensing, investigation and enforcement.
Professional Technologists will have the right to independently practise engineering/geology/geophysics within a specified scope of practice that is the routine application of industry recognized codes, standards, procedures and practices using established engineering or applied science principles and methods of problem solving as specified by the ASET/APEGGA Joint Board of Examiners.
While ASET membership will continue to be voluntary under the revised legislation, ASET now has all the responsibilities of a self-regulating professional association. It will govern the conduct and competencies of Certified Technicians and Certified Engineering Technologists in their practices.
Revisions to Alberta’s Engineering, Geology and Geophysical Professions Act also allow the creation of a new Professional Licensee category of APEGGA Membership, which will replace the existing Registered Professional Technologists (RPT) designation. Professional Licensees will be regulated solely by APEGGA, and are permitted to independently practise engineering, geology or geophysics in Alberta within narrow, defined scopes of practice and to take responsibility for that work. This category of licensure recognizes that certain qualified individuals can be permitted to independently carry out certain specific functions normally within the definition of professional engineering, professional geology or professional geophysics without the supervision of a professional engineer, professional geologist or professional geophysicist.
This governance framework, which recognizes the relationship that exists between engineers and technologists in the workplace, was jointly developed by the two associations, and is reflected in amendments to the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act that were proclaimed October 14, 2009.