Indigenous Cultural Competency Education Requirement Update
At the Feb. 29, 2024 Board meeting, the Benchers approved an update to the Indigenous Cultural Competency Education (ICCE) requirement for Alberta lawyers. If you previously met the ICCE requirement, there is no further action for you to take. This update only affects lawyers becoming active in Alberta moving forward.
When the course launched in April 2021, the requirement for Alberta lawyers was to complete the course called the Path (Law Society of Alberta) – Your Journey Through Indigenous Canada. This course included Alberta-specific information.
Since the launch, the course provider has made necessary updates and changes to the course content and delivery format. While the Alberta-specific content is no longer contained in the course, the Law Society has decided to continue offering the new version of The Path as the method for fulfilling the ICCE requirement for Alberta lawyers. While some of the content has changed, please note that this new version will still be identified as “The Path (Law Society of Alberta)” by the provider, NVision, so that Alberta lawyers can distinguish it from other course versions offered. The User Guide and other information on the Law Society website has been updated to reflect these changes.
The Law Society will continue to develop other educational resources for Indigenous cultural competency in addition to this course, including those that are specific to the Alberta context.
Timeframe to Complete the ICCE
Once a lawyer becomes active in Alberta, they will have nine months to fulfil the requirement from the date they become active, as opposed to the previous 18 months. This shorter timeframe reflects how lawyers have been completing the course to date. Feedback from those who completed the course suggests that on average lawyers took approximately 30 days to complete the course in its entirety. Most lawyers completed the course in the final months before their deadline rather than using the full 18 months.
If you were already in the process of completing the requirement, the Law Society will still honour your 18-month deadline. The new nine-month timeframe will apply to any lawyer becoming active in Alberta as of Feb. 29, 2024.
The Law Society will continue to automatically exempt lawyers who have completed the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP) through the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education (CPLED) in Alberta. Otherwise, lawyers becoming active in Alberta must continue to complete the course or certify an exemption by their deadline to avoid administrative suspension.
Visit our website for more information on the ICCE.