Two Sea to Sky Corridor residents are being recognized for their many years of contributions toward a distinguished body of B.C. scientists and engineers.The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC) awarded 18 of its current 25,000 members with fellowships in a Vancouver ceremony on June 12, which included among the honorees Squamish's Tim Smith and Whistler's Linda Thorstad. While Thorstad was unable to attend the ceremony because she was in Mexico on mining business, Smith said he enjoyed being lumped into such a distinguished group. "I was excited," said Smith. "I look around at all the other people and I'm proud to be included in the same group as they are."The fellowships were awarded in recognition of years of hard work and dedicated service to both the engineering and geoscience professions. Smith is an engineering geologist, and works for Westrek Geotechnical Services in Squamish. He has been active on APEGBC Council since 2001 and is its most recent Past President. "My goal coming into it [being president] was to do a paradigm shift in the way we do things," said Smith, who had been on council for three years prior. "I wanted to look at strategy and policy."During his presidency, Smith and members of the board established a government relations policy, a sustainable financial model, and a quality assurance strategy that will allow British Columbians to hire engineers of good quality."Being president was a team exercise," said Smith. Smith also worked hard to raise awareness involving climate change, an issue he is passionate about, and encouraged engineers to "think outside the box." "I wanted to encourage people and raise awareness," he said. "Like have engineering companies think about carbon footprint. A lot of members travel for committee meetings. Do we really need to fly in? What about video conferencing? "And reducing paper copies of meeting minutes? I asked them, 'Have you got some stuff out there that's sucking power?'"Smith also worked with the provincial government on developing the green building code. At the end of his presidency, Smith received a standing ovation from over 500 members."I didn't want to do it half-assed," he said. "If I don't want to do it one hundred per cent, then what's the point in doing it at all?"For her part, Thorstad was the first geoscientist to be elected APEGBC president in 1995. During her time on council, Thorstad co-founded a sister organization called the Canadian Council of Professional Geoscientists, and was also actively involved with the Sustainability Committee, which created a set of environmental standards and guidelines. She drafted the guidelines for sustainable development that became the standard for sustainability. "I championed that for many years," Thorstad said.Thorstad was also the recipient of APEGBC's Professional Service Award in 1998.Both she and Smith are still actively involved with their work on the past presidents' council.
