ekalfwonS
Mechanical
- Mar 5, 2021
- 5
Long time browser but first time poster, so bear with me.
Are there any Engineers here from British Columbia, Canada, who work in high tech? Can I ask how you, and your company, are responding to the new Professional Governance Act?
I am a P.Eng and have worked in high-tech for most of my career. I started off as a Production Engineer, and have moved through a number of production- and design-related roles to where I am now, officially the Lead Mechanical Engineer, and only P.Eng., at a contract design firm.
About 2/3 of the employees here hold Engineering degrees, across many disciplines (Electrical, Firmware, Software, Mechanical, Chemical, etc.). The company has been providing product development services for startups and assistance for more established companies who need temporary staff to deal with work surges or special projects. The company has also developed some products of their own that were sold into specific niche markets.
Until February, the Engineers and Geoscientists Act had a vague definition of Professional Engineering. It was long, convoluted, grammatically obtuse, and was used by most high tech engineers to justify not obtaining P.Eng. status following graduation. That, coupled with zero enforcement of any kind from APEGBC, has resulted in hundreds of small (and large) companies employing a lot of engineers in design roles that do not, have never, and never intend to, hold a P.Eng. Some of us did get our P.Eng.'s, but apart from paying $500/year and getting a magazine that talks about construction projects once a month, we don't see a lot of value in our registrations.
With the introduction of the Professional Governance Act, the definition has been changed. It now explicitly, and broadly, spells out what an Engineering Discipline is (listing electrical, mechanical, mechatronics, etc). And then it goes on to say that Professional Engineering is the "provision of advice or services that are based on an Engineering Discipline." (edit: Note that this wording didn't make it into the PGA, but into an Order in Council that was issued on February 23rd of this year... Presumably legally binding nonetheless).
So it now appears that the PGA has closed the loophole on whether or not Engineering graduates need a P.Eng. to work as Engineers in BC. If you're doing Engineering, you need a P.Eng. If your firm is doing Engineering, it has to be Registered.
It seems like EGBC has managed to birth a bit of a cash cow here with all the new registrations this could result in. Hopefully the money will go towards more services for the new recruits. And coupled with the Mandatory Professional Development provisions in the act, it's going to be trivial for EGBC to pick out what firms aren't registered and go after them. What will that mean for the P.Eng.'s working for these firms?
Is anyone else struggling with this?
Are there any Engineers here from British Columbia, Canada, who work in high tech? Can I ask how you, and your company, are responding to the new Professional Governance Act?
I am a P.Eng and have worked in high-tech for most of my career. I started off as a Production Engineer, and have moved through a number of production- and design-related roles to where I am now, officially the Lead Mechanical Engineer, and only P.Eng., at a contract design firm.
About 2/3 of the employees here hold Engineering degrees, across many disciplines (Electrical, Firmware, Software, Mechanical, Chemical, etc.). The company has been providing product development services for startups and assistance for more established companies who need temporary staff to deal with work surges or special projects. The company has also developed some products of their own that were sold into specific niche markets.
Until February, the Engineers and Geoscientists Act had a vague definition of Professional Engineering. It was long, convoluted, grammatically obtuse, and was used by most high tech engineers to justify not obtaining P.Eng. status following graduation. That, coupled with zero enforcement of any kind from APEGBC, has resulted in hundreds of small (and large) companies employing a lot of engineers in design roles that do not, have never, and never intend to, hold a P.Eng. Some of us did get our P.Eng.'s, but apart from paying $500/year and getting a magazine that talks about construction projects once a month, we don't see a lot of value in our registrations.
With the introduction of the Professional Governance Act, the definition has been changed. It now explicitly, and broadly, spells out what an Engineering Discipline is (listing electrical, mechanical, mechatronics, etc). And then it goes on to say that Professional Engineering is the "provision of advice or services that are based on an Engineering Discipline." (edit: Note that this wording didn't make it into the PGA, but into an Order in Council that was issued on February 23rd of this year... Presumably legally binding nonetheless).
So it now appears that the PGA has closed the loophole on whether or not Engineering graduates need a P.Eng. to work as Engineers in BC. If you're doing Engineering, you need a P.Eng. If your firm is doing Engineering, it has to be Registered.
It seems like EGBC has managed to birth a bit of a cash cow here with all the new registrations this could result in. Hopefully the money will go towards more services for the new recruits. And coupled with the Mandatory Professional Development provisions in the act, it's going to be trivial for EGBC to pick out what firms aren't registered and go after them. What will that mean for the P.Eng.'s working for these firms?
Is anyone else struggling with this?
