Geotechnical News • September 2012
7
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY NEWS
Dr. Derek Martin received the John B.
Stirling Medal, and Mr. Fred Matich
won the Julian C. Smith Medal. The
accompanying photograph shows the
three CGS medal winners that evening
in Edmonton. Also attending the
awards dinner were Dr. N.R. Morgen-
stern and Dr. Dennis Becker.
In my June message, I reported that
the CGS must be compliant with the
new Canada Not-for-profit Corpora-
tions Act (NFPAct) by October 17,
2014 or be dissolved! We posted the
Articles of Continuance and the CGS
bylaws on the website in August and
informed all members that we would
be voting on these two items at the
luncheon business meeting at the
Winnipeg Conference on October 2,
2012. On the website you will see
that the Articles of Continuance are
simply a list of facts about the society;
e.g. name, address, purpose, board
members, etc. The bylaws are those
from the Administrative Manual and
have been updated over the years.
These two documents must accepted
by 2/3 of the CGS members present at
the Winnipeg meeting. A quorum is 30
CGS members. I am looking forward
to seeing everyone in Winnipeg and to
getting this registration behind us.
le Message du président
En juin, j’ai eu le plaisir d’assister
au 11e symposium international et
2e symposium nord-américain sur
les glissements de terrain qui avaient
lieu du 4 au 8 juin. M. Corey Froese
présidait le symposium, alors que
Erik Eberhardt, Ph. D., présidait le
Comité technique. Le symposium était
aussi l’hôte de la réunion du Conseil
de l’IAEG, ou International Associa-
tion for Engineering Geology and the
Environment. Au nom du Canada, j’ai
assisté à cette réunion et ait eu le plai-
sir de rencontrer le président Carlos
Delgado et les membres du Conseil
de l’IAEG. Le symposium a attiré 450
personnes à l’hôtel Banff Springs.
Cet emplacement était particulière-
ment approprié, car la construction du
chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique à
travers la vallée Bow et le col de mon-
tagne Kicking Horse marque incon-
testablement le début de la géologie de
Derek Martin, Fred Matich, and Kerry Rowe (left to right) with their awards
in Edmonton on June 7th, 2012.
Bank and its affiliates were original ad-
dressees thereof; provided, however,
that U. S. Bank and its affiliates shall be
deemed not to be subject to or bound by
any of the obligations of any original
addressee or owner of the Property in
any agreement related to the Report....”
In essence, this wording would require
environmental professionals to commit
risk management suicide. It gives the
Bank all the benefits of being able to
rely on the report (plus a potential es-
cape from the constraints of the eco-
nomic loss doctrine) with absolutely
none of the liabilities or responsibilities
that comprised the business context
through which the report was devel-
oped. In a best-practices scenario – the
type of scenario to which, I presume,
the Bank subscribes – the client selects
a particularly qualified consultant, dis-
cusses its needs with the consultant, and
then works with the consultant to mutu-
ally establish a scope of service for the
engagement. The consultant and client
then discuss the consideration the con-
sultant needs to fulfill the scope of ser-
vice and manage the risk associated
with potentially lifelong responsibility
for the deliverable. Such consideration
includes the fee and certain risk man-
agement provisions of the contract,
such as limitation of liability.
By requiring a consultant to prepare
a d s gn its form letter, the Bank is stat-
ing, in essence, “We wa t t be able to
r ly on the report indefinitely (and even
if we do not is u he fi anc ng, by he
way) without having to accept any of
your contractual afeguard , without
having to compensate you for any of
y ur customary, anticipated r sks, and
without having to compensate you for
your new, significa tly expanded risks,
especially the new risk that arises be-
cause you designed yo r service for
some other party, and with no knowl-
edge of the Bank’s nee s and prefer-
ences, and no knowledge of the rvice
scope the Bank believes is best-suited to
address those ne ds d preferences.”
To a very r al extent, Mr. Grundhofer,
this is like requiring a physician t be li-
able for your he lth after you decide to
follow the course f tr atment the phy-
sician prescribed for you frie d whose
illness (in your opinion) was kind of
like your own.
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