For Association of Saskatchewan Forestry Professionals

1. ForAssociation of Saskatchewan Forestry Professionals Results Based Legislation – a British Columbia Forest Professionals Perspective By: John Harkema, RPF Senior Provincial (BC) Compliance and Enforcement Forester, BC MFR

2. Objectives: • Historical context • Practicing environment • Opportunities and accountabilities

3. Historical Context: • Foresters Act initially in effect April 3, 1947, in BC • Repealed and replaced in 2003; with subsequent minor amendments • Registered Forest Technologists becoming a part of the association in 2003 • National “Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)” (Labour mobility across provinces)

5. In the background – changing provincial legislation – FA - Code/FA – FRPA/FA/WfA • 1987 – revised FA; abrupt, no transition; September 31, contractual – October 1, statutory • 1995 – Code; 6 month transition, more items brought into being statutory in nature, e.g., roads • 2004 – FRPA; up to a 4 year transition, plus legacy continuation of old, or opt out and place legacy obligations into new FSP • 2005 – Wildfire Act brought into effect

6. Changes? Yes, and don’t know yet Yes • Greater public and licensee involvement in development of local objectives and subsequent results or strategies in FSPs • Greater clarity in dealing with other values, e.g., Mountain Caribou, deer winter range, etc. Don’t know • Due to long transition period majority of areas harvested to date where governed by the previous Code

7. Interaction changes • Pre 2002 the Code specified that a Forester must sign FDP – gov’t enforced • Post 2002 Code  FRPA – Foresters Act, in short, specifies signing of FSP – Association enforces • Errors and omissions are a bigger issue, and depending on whom you work for will lead to varying degrees of insurance coverage requirements

8. BC Foresters Act – excerpt from definition: “…auditing, examining and verifying the results of activities involving the practice of professional forestry, and the attainment of goals and objectives identified in or under professional documents… ” SK Forestry Professions Act – excerpt from definition: “…the administration, inspection or monitoring of forested land…” Practice of Professional Forestry

9. Dealing with complexity • Complexity and interaction between the biophysical, social, economic and environmental places challenges for consistency – can be managed to a large extent through training, and providing clarity in legislation

10. preliminary evaluations: • Effectiveness evaluations (audits) by Forest and Range Evaluation Programhttp://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/frep/ • Multi – agency/professions/industries/persons

11. Evolving roles: • Under FRPA, Certification of FSP content – use of professional reliance • Various assessments fall to various professionals, e.g., terrain, streams, visuals, etc. – greater need for education/training(?) • Differences between professional reliance and deference – not able to apply “blind” deference

12. Evolving roles: • Understanding the different roles between professionals and or management prerogatives • E.g., road location by RPF, layout by RFT, bridge design by PENG • Understand the different roles for public official who belongs to professional organization

13. For the public professional involved in C&E type actions: Example from BC: Compliance and enforcement decisions include, among other things: • forming an opinion as to whether there is compliance or non-compliance with legal obligations imposed by statute or regulation; and • deciding what actions to take based on that opinion. These decisions and actions will be guided by FRPA s.71(5) and compliance and enforcement policies and procedure. They are not governed by the Foresters Act nor are persons carrying out solely those decisions and actions required to be registered.

14. Professional Association outcomes • Greater need to provide guidance and standards http://www.abcfp.ca/regulating_the_profession/policies_guidelines.asp#Guidelines

15. Questions Thanks