SELF – REGULATION OF GEOSCIENCE PRACTICE IN CANADA AND THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPETENCY PROFILE DESCRIBING THE ARRAY OF ABILITIES FOR SAFE, EFFECTIVE AND ETHICAL PRACTICE

Geoscience is a regulated profession in all but one province and one territory in Canada through license-to-practice legislation which places each individual Professional Geoscientist (“P.Geo”) under a code of ethics and makes them directly accountable to the public for the work they perform.

Geoscientists Canada is the national organization of the provincial/territorial professional associations, each established under separate legislation to self-regulate practice in the public interest. At the end of 2013, there were over 10, 000 professional geoscientist registrants across the country.

This paper outlines how the practice of geoscience is governed in Canada, and briefly describes the role of Geoscientists Canada and work that it conducts on behalf of its member associations. In particular, it will present a recently developed competency profile describing the array of abilities - technical and non-technical - that the geoscientist brings to the workplace at entry-to-practice.

The development of the competency profile is consistent with a 20-year trend among Canadian professional regulators to establish competency-based standards, which are seen as being more defensible in the public interest and as fostering a higher level of accountability among practitioners than credential-based criteria.

Achieving a competency profile is seminal for any profession. For geoscience, the profile will have many uses: enabling clear communication to governments, employers, students and the general public about the work of geoscientists; informing the assessment of candidates for licensure; creating stronger links between education and practice; and assisting regulatory bodies to address issues such as continuing competence, practice guidance and disciplinary matters.

Development of the competency profile followed an iterative process that included: (1) an international literature review, (2) input from diverse subject matter experts, (3) a survey of practice tasks, and (4) extensive consultation and validation.

Subsequent work is expected to include determining competency assessment methodologies and specific indicators of proficiency, thereby enabling licensing decisions to be based upon a demonstration of competence.