Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2003
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What does it mean to be a consulting engineer?

By Terry Hardy, P.Eng.
President & CEO, Ainley Group,
and Chair, Consulting Engineers of Ontario


Who is responsible for the Consulting Engineer designation? If your answer is the Consulting Engineers of Ontario (CEO), you're in good company - if not in the majority! It's my experience that most people involved in engineering, be they practitioners, owners or various levels of government, mistakenly believe that being a Designated Consulting Engineer means that the firm is a member of CEO. I only wish this were the case.

Contrary to this widespread impression, the Consulting Engineer designation actually falls under the jurisdiction of Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), in accordance with Regulation 941 of the Professional Engineers Act. Moreover, the designation applies to individual licensed professional engineers, not consulting engineering firms.

Why is it that PEO administers a program aimed at the business aspects of the engineering profession, whereas there isn't a comparable program which focuses on the technical aspects of the profession? Why was it that a number of years ago, back in the 1980s, PEO decided to abandon its Specialist designation program while retaining the Consulting Engineering designation? This decision was puzzling since it seemed to indicate that PEO felt it more important to regulate who could call themselves a consulting engineer rather than who could claim to be a technical expert.

While PEO is mandated to regulate the right to practice professional engineering in accordance with the Professional Engineers Act, the lack of a technical designation process sometimes results in the “right to practice” amounting to little more than a “right to title”. As a result, I question whether the best interests of the public are always as protected as they would be if technical designations were regulated. An individual licensed professional engineer is governed by ethics when it comes to the provision of engineering services and normally an electrical engineer would not offer, say, structural engineering services unless he or she is skilled in both disciplines. That being said, how does a member of the public or, perhaps, even a small, unsophisticated client go about determining whether a particular engineer has the right training and experience to perform a particular task? I understand that PEO has recognized this situation and is currently considering ways to address it.

A few weeks ago, John Gamble, President of CEO, and I, met with Ken McMartin, President of PEO, and Kim Allen, CEO and Registrar of PEO, to discuss the Consulting Engineer designation and to explore how the two organizations might cooperate in carrying out a review of the designation program. As an initial step, we proposed that a joint review panel be formed to address and answer the following fundamental questions: While the proposed review process would draw heavily on the past experience of PEO’s Consulting Engineering Designation Committee, CEO firmly believes that it should also consider the current needs and expectations of the public and of those who use and rely upon consulting engineering services.

Since its formation in 1975, CEO has grown to be the voice of consulting engineering firms across Ontario and actively promotes consulting engineering services to government, industry and the general public. The organization represents consulting firms of all sizes and disciplines and, by extension, the vast majority of engineers, technologists, technicians and others involved in the consulting engineering industry. CEO clearly has a vested interest in the Consulting Engineer designation and looks forward to cooperating with PEO with a view to enhancing what it truly means to be a Consulting Engineer.

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