Publication of AIBC Disciplinary and Illegal Practice Matters: Update
The AIBC has a long tradition of publishing the outcomes of disciplinary matters, whether decisions and orders of disciplinary committees or consensual resolution agreements approved by the consensual resolution review panel. Years ago, these documents were mailed to members and others on green paper, leading to the descriptive term “green sheets”.
Publication of disciplinary outcomes is a fundamental aspect of regulatory transparency and enhances public confidence in the integrity of how professions are self-governed. Publication acts as both a deterrent and as a valuable educational opportunity for architects, associates and others.
In April 2007, the AIBC began digital publication of disciplinary orders and consensual resolutions to architects and other registrants. These went out by a special e-mailout called the “GreenSheet” and were posted on the AIBC web site for a minimum of six months.
In 2009, as a result of a court decision involving the professional engineers and one of their members, the AIBC ceased its consensual resolution process and began working with the provincial government to amend the Architects Act to provide explicit authorization for consensual resolution. Those amendments were enacted in 2012, and in mid-2013, AIBC members voted in favour of bylaws to establish the process for consensual resolution. In the 2010-2012 period, when consensual resolution was not offered, more than a dozen disciplinary inquiries were held. The orders of the disciplinary committees were all published via the “GreenSheet”.
The Act and bylaws establish the consensual resolution review panel – comprised of architects and non-architect ‘lay’ appointees – which must approve consensual resolution agreements and in so doing, have regard to the public interest.
The panel is again reviewing consensual resolution agreements. In the late 2013 period and through 2014, the AIBC and many members, firms and associates involved in the disciplinary process have been attempting to resolve conduct issues by consensual resolution. The institute will be resuming publication of consensual resolution agreements – and any disciplinary orders in the event disciplinary hearings are required – in late 2014.
Illegal practice publications provide similar transparency, public interest, deterrence and educational value for those situations in which non-architects (and non-associates) are holding themselves out to be architects, associates or otherwise practising the profession of architecture unlawfully. These resolutions include ‘undertakings’ by non-architects who agree not to hold themselves out as architects or to practise as such. Summaries of illegal practice resolutions have been published continuously on the AIBC web site since April 2007.