Wakeup call: Geoscientists need to stay current

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

With professional geoscientist registration in every jurisdiction in Canada, there is a necessity for P. Geos to maintain their proficiency in the discipline of geology, and part of that includes reading journal papers.

The problem is that out of the thousands of professional geoscientists across Canada, less than 5% of those registered subscribe to journals. In order to maintain accreditation, every registered geoscientist must record their professional development in their logbooks, but most do not have access to the scientific journals they must read to stay current.

Similarly, on other professional development fronts, they need to take in conferences, short courses, professionally organized field trips, etc.

By far, this is not happening, as they are all too busy (most say). However, when they are audited, they could be disciplined and/or lose their licences to practice.

Many jurisdictions are clamping down, and have allocated additional personnel resources for these audits to maintain the integrity of the profession for both geoscientists and engineers — based on what I have been hearing here in New Brunswick and from my contacts at the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists (www.ccpg.ca), the umbrella organization for geoscientists.

So, members of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada can get the Geological Society of the CIM’s journal, Exploration & Mining Geology at a member rate now, or subscribe to any professional society and get their journal.

It’s a wakeup call to geoscientists to keep professional development high on their lists.

David Lentz, professor

Dept. of Geology

University of New Brunswick

Fredericton, NB