May 23, 2017 – We have been given the “go ahead” from the Professional Governance Unit of the Ministry of Labor to resume our application work after our several month hold due to the government’s internal review of legislation. As such, we are “sleeves rolled up” on our 3+ year project.
CAPPA will be reaching out to key Stakeholders to formally notify of our intention to file an application for self-regulation under the Professional and Occupational Associations Registration Act (POARA).
CAPPA was incorporated under the Societies Act in 1961 and currently has approximately 1000 members. CAPPA is the professional association for petroleum production, revenue and royalty accountants. In addition to our industry recognized certificate program, CAPPA also provides opportunities for continuing learning, advocates on behalf of membership to industry and government, and provides career support and networking opportunities.
Production Accounting is a unique blend of accounting, regulatory, data analysis and reporting of revenues and royalties. Production accountants receive information from the field, land administrators, joint venture analysts, marketing and financial departments in order to perform monthly requirements of their role. Production Accountants work with volumes of oil, gas and water produced from the wells, inventory at facilities and distribution from the facility including revenue, division of ownership and royalties.
Self-Regulation provides that, through legislation, the Alberta government may delegate self-governing responsibilities to professional organizations. Self-regulation is the government sanctioning, and overseeing our doing so, the responsibility of daily governance of our profession.
We are taking this step because:
As a self-regulated association, CAPPA would be empowered to enforce a set of standards of practice and code of ethics to protect the reputation of the profession and protect the interests of stakeholders and the public. Production accounting would be a formally recognized profession with the appropriate levels of standards, competency and practice. Correspondingly, regulation then also protects the professional titles and designation of members.
Importantly, by regulating the profession of production accounting, this serves and protects Albertans by/thru:
The privilege of Self-Regulation is an opportunity to elevate the standing of Production Accountants. It is a professional status deserving of those fully trained and engaged in the career of production accounting. It is also represents our collective identity, our brand as a sector.The guiding principle with any professional organization becoming Self-Regulated is that of safeguarding the Public Interest. Professional governance shall not be self-serving but will be fair, transparent and equitable to the public.
Professional and Occupational Association Registration Act (POARA)
The process is lengthy; 3 – 5 years is a typical timeframe.
Once registered, the association receives official governmental sanctioning of the daily governance and regulation of the profession of Production Accounting. The responsibilities of the association include developing standards of practice, ensuring practitioner competency and maintaining a process to hear complaints.
As a Self-Regulated Association, CAPPA would be empowered to enforce a set of standards of practice and code of ethics to protect the reputation of the profession and protect the interests of stakeholders and the public. As well, we would also become responsible to investigate complaints and undertake appropriate action. Board members would include public member appointments of a ratio set by the government (such as 1 in 10).
Production Accounting would be a recognized profession with the appropriate level of standards, competency and practise. The granting of regulatory authority provides a framework for the regulation of our profession. As with other regulated professions, this provides comfort and reliability to the Public, Government, Employers and other Industry Stakeholders. Protection of the Public is a primary benefit.
CAPPA Members who are Productions Accountants, Revenue Accountants, Royalty Accountants and similar positions would be able to benefit from “right of title” and the many other benefits of being a part of the professional association. Membership tells others, such as employers, that you comply with a high level of standard and ethical conduct.
A designated title means the name and title and abbreviations of the name and title designated.The title could, for example (only), “Production Accountant”The abbreviations could, for example (only), be “PA”
This cannot be answered today, however the Ministry is aware of other related job titles and we will fully explore this in our application process. While we would not be able to include all job titles or less common job titles, we will certainly address with the Ministry “Revenue Accountant” and “Royalty Accountant” along with “Production Accountant”. An example of a solution could be “Production Accountant (Revenue)” or “Production Accountant (Royalty)”. These are examples of potential solutions and determinations will be made as we work our way through the process. Regardless of the solution, there would likely be only one designation abbreviation (initials), such as PA.
This cannot be answered today, however we could anticipate the right of title separate from one’s current job title. The right to title would be granted based on the criteria that membership will vote on at a later date and as approved by the Government of Alberta. Some early assumptions are that the qualifying requirements to the title and designation would be issued regardless of current job title. No guarantees can be offered today, but it would be reasonable to imagine the following examples: Jane Smith, Joint Venture Accountant, PA (or whatever initials the title granted to us would be), or John Brown, Director of Vendor Sales, PA.
As mentioned in question 16, the right to title would be granted based on the criteria that membership will vote on at a later date and as approved by the Government of Alberta. We would expect some form of “grandfathering” based on criteria agreed upon, such as X number of years as a production accountant, and/or X number of years as a CAPPA member, and/or those with a CAPPA certificate as well as a go-forward criteria. In addition, there may be additional ongoing requirements to be met such as X amount of continuing professional development hours per Y amount of time.
Current CAPPA Members who are not Production Accountants or similar or trained as Production Accountants and who are Members to stay informed, engaged and networked (such as vendors, government, educators) will be offered an Associate level of Membership.
Self-regulation offers “Right of Title” but does not prevent others from working as a Production Accountant, nor does it restrict the level of practice. They could not, however, call themselves “Production Accountants” or publicize/promote themselves as “Production Accountants”.
Regulation protects the professional titles of Members within CAPPA as a registered association. CAPPA, with Membership, will establish and enforce a set of standards for our association. By restricting the use of a designated title to only those Members that have met the professional requirements of the association, this provides valuable information to consumers, employers and other stakeholders which in turn enables them to make informed choices when making hiring and other decisions. By having standards of practise and ensuring ongoing practitioner competence (and the process to hear complaints) this provides a measure of protection to the public and others. Self-regulation also indicates the maturity of the profession of Production Accounting (as a distinct profession) and our ability to govern Members.
Any future changes to the regulation is a lengthy government process.
As well, Members who may not view positively about “standards of practice” may be unhappy with entry to practice and ongoing competency education requirements.Any legal issue or complaint tribunal will incur a level of cost.
The government has a process that we must follow in an application for self-regulation and the details such as use of protected title, standards of practice, code of ethics and more are to be developed and voted on by membership at a later stage of the application.
Please direct your questions to CAPPA’s CEO Sheila McFadyen at smcfadyen@cappa.org .
