Board Member’s Corner
Public Appointee’s Perspective By Abigail Fulton, LL.B.
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here are several professions operating in British Columbia that the government has seen fit to regulate. It is really a badge of honour – a public acknowledgement that the occupation impacts a significant number of people directly and must, therefore, have some rigor around its practice. Very early on in the history of this province land surveying was identified as one of those professions.
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It is appropriate, therefore, that there is an industry specific regulating body evaluating and overseeing the educational qualifications, experience and professional skills of each practising land surveyor.
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December 2020 | the LINK
Professional land surveyors not only provide services to clients, they play a key role in protecting the fabric of our towns and cities, and in the management of effective land use. They are critical to the success of construction projects, public infrastructure, and land ownership. Highly technical, yet requiring an ability to solve puzzles and decipher the historical boundaries and descriptions of real property, to the general public the land surveyor is both a scientist and an artist. The skill sets learned and practised are essential but somewhat incomprehensible to those of us on the outside looking in. It is appropriate, therefore, that there is an industry specific regulating body evaluating and overseeing the educational qualifications, experience and professional skills of each practising land surveyor. In this province the Association of BC Land Surveyors is the designated regulatory body. The
organization has been carrying on its duties for well over a century – in effect overseeing a self-regulation of the profession. Professional self-regulation is not a new concept, however, increasingly it has become a topic of concern within government and in the public sphere. The primary concern is: are the best interests of the public being considered or are they falling to the wayside in an effort to promote and achieve the goals of the profession? The concern led the BC Government to commission a report in 2018 to review, among other topics, how best to ensure that selfregulating professional organizations in BC were employing best practices to protect the public interest. It was following the release of the report that the Professional Governance Act was enacted, and the Office of the Superintendent of Professional Governance created. The goal was to provide a consistent governance framework for self-regulating professions and more oversight of their activities. While the regulatory bodies currently within the scope of this Act do not include the Association of BC Land Surveyors, it is certainly a strong indicator of the direction Government is taking with self-governing professional organizations and the
