LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — Chemists deserve QP consideration

I read with interest the letter by Ed Alvarez that appeared in your March 15-19 issue, in which he proposes that chartered chemists be considered as “Qualified Persons.”

I have no problem with this concept, except to point out that in most provinces of Canada, there is no equivalent of the Association of Professional Chemists of Ontario. In addition, the only jurisdiction in which chemists are legally recognized as a professional, self-regulating body is, as far as I know, Quebec. The significance of this is that in many regions of Canada where mineral exploration is carried out and where large commercial laboratories operate, the term “chartered chemist” has no meaning. There are provisions for professional engineers from one jurisdiction to be able to work in another (and be recognized), but this is not the case with chartered chemists.

The Ontario Securities Commission and Toronto Stock Exchange mining standards task force was asked to make recommendations involving a global industry, and the inclusion of a provision for regional considerations — such as specifying chartered chemists as QPs — is clearly not appropriate.

It may be that in the future this situation will be rectified (as I feel it should be, as soon as possible) and professional chemist associations will be recognized in the same way as professional engineers are. Until then, however, the task force had no way of including chemists as QPs.

Wes Johnson, PhD, FCIC

Kelowna, B.C.