CANADIAN FRAMEWORK FOR LICENSURE

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1 Element: Definition of the Practice of Professional Engineering Step #: 1. Research Issue Date: January Step 5: for Constituent Association Approval Purpose establishing one definition of what constitutes the practice of professional engineering promotes a common standard, provides clarity for the public, applicants, registrants, engineering organizations, and the engineering regulatory bodies. A single national definition of the practice of professional engineering is fundamental, especially for defining experience requirements and as the basis for uniform enforcement actions. Based on the research contained in this document, it recommended that the following Key Considerations form the basis for the Definition of the Practice of Professional Engineering: 1. The definition must accommodate new and emerging fields of engineering. 2. The definition must clearly differentiate professional engineering from engineering. Differentiation occurs where the public expectation is that the practitioner is held publicly accountable for safeguarding and protecting the public interest. 3. The definition shall state what professional engineering is, and not include what it is not. 4. Exceptions to requiring a licence to practise professional engineering should be specifically set out in the Act, not incorporated into the definition. 5. The National Definition of the Practice of Professional Engineering states: The "practice of professional engineering" means any act of planning, designing, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising that requires the application of engineering principles and that concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare or the environment, or the managing of any such act. 6. The definition has three elements: i. Any of various particular intellectual activities or combinations of them, ii. iii. The application of engineering principles, and Safeguarding the public interest. A particular work or undertaking is only considered to be the practice of professional engineering if all three elements are present. 7. The accompanying interpretive notes in the Engineers Canada Guideline on the Practice of Professional Engineering in Canada dated June 2011 provide the information required for application of the definition. Consultation Definition of Engr Page 1 of 11

2 Definitions Engineering principles means the professional application of the principles of mathematics, chemistry, physics or any related applied subject. Public interest 1 - the public interest is inclusive of all people and refers to the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare and the environment and balancing with social interests that change as society's values and preferences evolve over time. Research Current Situation within Engineers Canada, January The exact term defined which is defined in each Act varies. This difference is important, as it makes it appear that some acts (and activities) are allowed in some jurisdictions but not others. The terms used include: Practice of professional engineering Practice of engineering Practice of the engineering profession Professional engineering Engineering Some associations have adopted a definition that is substantially equivalent to the one contained in the Engineers Canada Guideline on the Practice of Professional Engineering in Canada dated June The following table provides a list and notes some differences: APEGS APEGM PEO NAPEG Associations with definitions of the practice of professional engineering substantially equivalent to Engineers Canada Equivalent Equivalent The management of any such act is the last clause Do not include safeguarding the public The definitions can be divided into two main types: those that list activities (actions) and those that list specific works and systems. Activities include things such as consultation, investigation, evaluation, 1 When courts or boards define the public interest, they usually tie the term s meaning to the purposes of the statute in which it appears. Accordingly, the meaning of the public interest varies depending on the subject matter of the statute. Some boards have published their own definition of the public interest, such as the National Energy Board which uses this definition: [t]he public interest is inclusive of all Canadians and refers to a balance of economic, environmental, and social interests that change as society's values and preferences evolve over time. As a regulator, the Board must estimate the overall public good a project may create and its potential negative aspects, weigh its various impacts, and make a decision. Consultation Definition of Engr Page 2 of 11

3 planning, design, inspection, management, research and development, while lists of engineering works and systems typically include specific things like public utilities, industrial works, railways, bridges, highways, canals, harbour works, river improvements, lighthouses. Some acts refer to the application of engineering principles, while others are more flexible and call out the application of principles of mathematics, chemistry, physics or any related applied subject. Finally, only a few acts make the distinction that protecting or safeguarding the public is a required aspect of professional engineering. APEGBC Elements of the national definition included in each act Association List of activities Application of (engineering) principles Safeguarding the public APEGA APEGS APEGM PEO OIQ APEGNB Engineers Nova Scotia Engineers PEI PEGNL APEY NAPEG There are other common terms that appear in the definitions in the regulators acts, but that are not in the national definition. They include: Association List of specific engineering works & systems aimed at the discovery, development or utilization of matter, materials or energy Teaching engineering APEGBC APEGA APEGS APEGM PEO OIQ APEGNB Engineers Nova Scotia Engineers PEI PEGNL APEY NAPEG Consultation Definition of Engr Page 3 of 11

4 Full details are available in Appendix A. Situation in Engineering World Wide Most other jurisdiction, worldwide, do not regulate the practice of engineering, instead it is more common to regulate the use of the title engineer, or its affiliates: professional engineering, chartered engineer, registered engineer, etc. As a result, there is no need to define the practice of professional engineering in most jurisdictions. Those who do define it include: National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying From the 2012 Model Law: 8. Practice of Engineering The term Practice of Engineering, as used in this Act, shall mean any service or creative work, the adequate performance of which requires engineering education, training, and experience in the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences to such services or creative work as the following: a. Consultation, investigation, expert technical testimony, evaluation, planning, design, design coordination, and/or commissioning of engineering works, products and systems b. Planning the use of land, air, and/or water c. Teaching of advanced engineering subjects d. Performing engineering surveys and studies e. The review and/or management of construction for the purpose of monitoring and/or ensuring compliance with drawings and specifications Any of the items above that embraces such services or work, either public or private, in connection with any utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, work systems, projects, communication systems, transportation systems, and industrial or consumer products, or equipment of a control systems, communications, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, environmental, or thermal nature, insofar as they involve safeguarding life, health, or property, and including such other professional services as may be necessary to the planning, progress, and completion of any engineering services are considered the practice of engineering. Design coordination includes the review and coordination of those technical submissions prepared by others, including as appropriate and without limitation, consulting engineers, architects, landscape architects, surveyors, and other professionals working under the direction of the engineer. Engineering surveys include all survey activities required to support the sound conception, planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operation of engineered projects, but exclude the surveying of real property for the establishment of land boundaries, rights-of-way, easements, and the dependent or independent surveys or resurveys of the public land survey system. A person shall be construed to practice or offer to practice engineering, within the meaning and intent of this Act, who practices any discipline or branch of the profession of engineering; or who, by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, card, or in any other way represents the person to be a professional engineer, or through the use of some other title implies that the individual is a professional engineer or Consultation Definition of Engr Page 4 of 11

5 that the person is licensed or authorized under this Act; or who holds the person out as able to perform, or who does perform any engineering service or work or any other service designated by the practitioner which is recognized as engineering. Engineers Ireland The Chartered Engineering Regulations define a professional engineer in a way that is helpful to this discussion: A professional engineer is competent by virtue of his / her fundamental education and training to apply the scientific method and outlook to the analysis and solution of engineering problems. He/she is able to assume personal responsibility for the development and application of engineering science and knowledge, notably in research, design, construction, manufacturing, superintending, managing and in the education of the engineer. His/her work is predominantly intellectual and varied and not of a routine mental or physical character. It requires the exercise of original thought and judgement and the ability to supervise the technical and administrative work of others. Engineers Australia From the 2002 Professional Engineering Act (Queensland): professional engineering service means an engineering service that requires, or is based on, the application of engineering principles and data to a design, or to a construction or production activity, relating to engineering, and does not include an engineering service that is provided only in accordance with a prescriptive standard. Other Definitions of Engineering General definitions of engineering can be in many dictionaries and include: 1. The application of science for directly useful purposes, as construction, propulsion, communication or manufacture 2 2. The application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people 3 3. The application of scientific and mathematical principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes, and systems 4 4. Engineering is the science, skill, and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes. 5 2 engineering. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. First edition1998. Print. 3 retrieved on January 2, retrieved on January 2, retrieved on January 2, 2013 Consultation Definition of Engr Page 5 of 11

6 5. Engineering is the profession in which knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize economically the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind. 6 Some of these definitions touch on the broader applications of engineering, including economic and social implications. However, none of them embrace the concept of a profession. While engineering is simply the application of science to practical ends for the benefit of humankind, professional engineering encompasses a responsibility to society. The fundamental principles of a profession and what it means to be a professional engineer are explained in the Engineers Canada Guideline on the Practice of Professional Engineering in Canada of June A complete definition of the practice of professional engineering for the Canadian context should address both sides: the technical work, and the societal responsibilities. 6 The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Consultation Definition of Engr Page 6 of 11

7 Appendix A Definitions of the Practice of Professional Engineering in the Engineering Acts APEGBC 1 1 practice of professional engineering means the carrying on of chemical, civil, electrical, forest, geological, mechanical, metallurgical, mining or structural engineering, and other disciplines of engineering that may be designated by the council and for which university engineering programs have been accredited by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board or by a body which, in the opinion of the council, is its equivalent, and includes reporting on, designing, or directing the construction of any works that require for their design, or the supervision of their construction, or the supervision of their maintenance, such experience and technical knowledge as are required under this Act for the admission by examination to membership in the association, and, without limitation, includes reporting on, designing or directing the construction of public utilities, industrial works, railways, bridges, highways, canals, harbour works, river improvements, lighthouses, wet docks, dry docks, floating docks, launch ways, marine ways, steam engines, turbines, pumps, internal combustion engines, airships and airplanes, electrical machinery and apparatus, chemical operations, machinery, and works for the development, transmission or application of power, light and heat, grain elevators, municipal works, irrigation works, sewage disposal works, drainage works, incinerators, hydraulic works, and all other engineering works, and all buildings necessary to the proper housing, installation and operation of the engineering works embraced in this definition; APEGA 1 (q) practice of engineering means (i) reporting on, advising on, evaluating, designing, preparing plans and specifications for or directing the construction, technical inspection, maintenance or operation of any structure, work or process A. that is aimed at the discovery, development or utilization of matter, materials or energy or in any other way designed for the use and convenience of humans, and B. that requires in that reporting, advising, evaluating, designing, preparation or direction the professional application of the principles of mathematics, chemistry, physics or any related applied subject, or (ii) teaching engineering at a university; APEGS 2 (1) (m) practice of professional engineering means any act of planning, designing, composing, measuring, evaluating, inspecting, advising, reporting, directing or supervising, or managing any of the foregoing, that requires the application of engineering principles and that concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public interest or the environment; APEGM 1 "practice of professional engineering" means any act of planning, designing, composing, measuring, evaluating, inspecting, advising, reporting, directing or supervising, or managing any of the foregoing, that Consultation Definition of Engr Page 7 of 11

8 requires the application of engineering principles and that concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public interest or the environment; («exercice de la profession d'ingénieur») PEO 1 practice of professional engineering means any act of planning, designing, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising that requires the application of engineering principles and concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare or the environment, or the managing of any such act; ( exercice de la profession d ingénieur ) OIQ II 2. Works of the kinds hereinafter described constitute the field of practice of an engineer: (a) railways, public roads, airports, bridges, viaducts, tunnels and the installations connected with a transport system the cost of which exceeds $3,000; (b) dams, canals, harbours, lighthouses and all works relating to the improvement, control or utilization of waters; (c) works of an electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, aeronautical, electronic, thermic, nuclear, metallurgical, geological or mining character and those intended for the utilization of the processes of applied chemistry or physics; (d) waterworks, sewer, filtration, purification works to dispose of refuse and other works in the field of municipal engineering the cost of which exceeds $1,000; (e) the foundations, framework and electrical and mechanical systems of buildings the cost of which exceeds $100,000 and of public buildings within the meaning of the Public Buildings Safety Act (chapter S- 3); (f) structures accessory to engineering works and intended to house them; (g) temporary framework and other temporary works used during the carrying out of works of civil engineering; (h) soil engineering necessary to elaborate engineering works; (i) industrial work or equipment involving public or employee safety. 3. The practice of the engineering profession consists in performing for another any of the following acts, when they relate to the works mentioned in section 2: (a) the giving of consultations and opinions; (b) the making of measurements, of layouts, the preparation of reports, computations, designs, drawings, plans, specifications; (c) the inspection or supervision of the works. APEGNB 2 (1) engineering means the application of scientific principles and knowledge to practical ends such as the investigation, design, construction, or operation of works and systems as defined in sub-section (2); Consultation Definition of Engr Page 8 of 11

9 practice of engineering means the provision of services for another as an employee or by contract; and such services shall include consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, design, inspection, management, research and development of engineering works and systems; 2(2) Without restricting the generality of the definition of practice of engineering, engineering works and systems shall include: (a) transportation systems and components related to the movement of goods or people by air, water, land or in outer space; (b) works related to the location, mapping, improvement, control and utilization of natural resources; (c) works and components of an electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, aeronautical, electronic, thermic, nuclear, metallurgical, geological or mining character and others dependent on the utilization or the application of chemical or physical principles; (d) works related to the protection, control and improvement of the environment including those of pollution control, abatement and treatment; (e) the structural, electrical, mechanical, communications, transportation and other utility aspects of building components and systems; (f) structures and enclosures accessory to engineering works and intended to support or house them; (g) systems relating to surveying and mapping; (h) investigations, evaluations, consultations or management relating to geoscientific properties, conditions or processes that may affect the well-being of the general public; (i) the discovery or development of water resources, and investigation of surface or subsurface geological conditions; and (j) the use of computer systems and software relating to any engineering performed under paragraphs (a) to (i). 2(3) The practice of engineering and geoscience includes the use of computer systems and software relating to such practice. Engineers Nova Scotia 2 (g) "engineering" means the science and art of designing, investigating, supervising the construction, maintenance or operation of, making specifications, inventories or appraisals of, and consultations or reports on machinery, structures, works, plants, mines, mineral deposits, processes, transportation systems, transmission systems and communication systems or any other part thereof; (n) "professional engineering" means application of engineering for gain, hire or hope of reward, either directly or indirectly; Engineers PEI 1 (s) professional engineering or the practice of engineering means the provision of services for another as an employee or by contract, and such services shall include consultation, investigation, instruction, evaluation, planning, design, inspection, management, research, development and implementation of engineering works and systems; Consultation Definition of Engr Page 9 of 11

10 (k) engineering works and systems'' includes (i) transportation systems and components related to air, water, land or outer space, movement of goods or people, (ii) works related to the location, mapping, improvement, control and utilization of natural resources, (iii) works and components of an electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, aeronautical, electronic, thermic, nuclear, metallurgical, geological, mining or industrial character and others dependent on the utilization or the application of chemical or physical principles, (iv) works related to the protection, control and improvement of the environment including those of pollution control, abatement and treatment, (v) the structural, electrical, mechanical, communications, transportation and other utility aspects of building components and systems, (vi) structures and enclosures accessory to engineering works and intended to support or house them, and (vii) systems relating to surveying and mapping; PEGNL 2 (h) "practice of engineering" means reporting on, advising on, evaluating, designing, preparing plans and specifications for or directing the construction, technical inspection, maintenance or operation of a structure, work or process (i) (ii) that is aimed at the discovery, except by the practice of geoscience, development or utilization of matter, materials or energy or is designed for the use and convenience of human beings, and that requires in the reporting, advising, evaluating, designing, preparation or direction the professional application of the principles of mathematics, chemistry, physics or a related applied subject, and includes providing educational instruction on the matters contained in this paragraph to a student at an educational institution, but excludes practising as a natural scientist; APEY 1 practice of engineering means (a) reporting on, advising on, evaluating, designing, preparing plans and specifications for, or directing the construction, technical inspection, maintenance, or operation of, any structure, work, or process (i) that is aimed at the discovery, development, utilisation, storage, or disposal of matter, materials, or energy, or is in any other way designed for, the use and convenience of persons; and (ii) that, for the protection of persons, requires in the reporting, advising, evaluating, designing, preparation, or direction, the professional application of the principles of engineering or any related applied subject; and (b) teaching engineering at a university or college; «exercice de la profession d ingénieur» Nunavut Consultation Definition of Engr Page 10 of 11

11 1 "professional engineering" means any act of planning, designing, composing, measuring, evaluating, inspecting, advising, reporting, directing or supervising, or managing any of those acts, that requires the application of engineering principles; (profession d ingénieur) NWT 1 "professional engineering" means any act of planning, designing, composing, measuring, evaluating, inspecting, advising, reporting, directing or supervising, or managing any of those acts, that requires the application of engineering principles; (profession d ingénieur) Consultation Definition of Engr Page 11 of 11