B.C. engineers and technologist merger cools

The proposed merger between the associations representing engineering technologists and professional engineers in British Columbia has been stalled, partly due to the complexity of writing the revised legislation, but also because the technologists’ association is said to have fundamental issues still to be resolved over the agreement. The association’s website has no indication what those concerns are.
The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. remains committed to following the “vision” of the merger, believing that “the practices of engineering and geoscience technology are components of the field of engineering and geoscience, respectively … and should therefore be regulated in a common fashion to ensure full accountability.” Members of the engineering association voted to approve the merger in a referendum ballot last year.
However, the proposed merger has unleashed staunch opposition from some quarters. In the Letters to the editor section of the July-August issue of APEGBC’s magazine, Innovations, Russell Fraser, P.Eng., of West Vancouver, wrote:
“Let us get one thing straight: professional associations are exclusive by nature. Membership in these associations is meant to convey to the public the fact that members’ credentials have been examined, and that all are qualified to practise their chosen profession.
“You are either a doctor, lawyer, accountant or professional engineer or you are not. There is no such thing as an ‘almost’ doctor or lawyer. We do not see paradoctors with licenses to practise ‘some’ medicine.
“The current drive to give partial engineering licenses to technologists and technicians is not only plain nonsense, it represents an abdication of our responsibility to the public.”