july 2009 issue
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Compliance
Member Seeks More Info On Use of
Eng. Designations
BY FRANK PERICH, P.ENG.
Director, Compliance
In this space in May, under the headline Let’s Protect Our Titles, I discussed the issue of non-members holding themselves out as licensed APEGGA professionals. I explained that this isn’t always some nefarious action by someone intent on duping clients.
It’s often an honest mistake, or a case of someone thinking he or she is bending the rules in some minor way. A common example is someone arriving in our province, taking a position and not getting an APEGGA licence, yet continuing to use an out-of-province designation.
I used the example of someone entitled to use the Chartered Engineer designation in the U.K. If you want to practice legally in Alberta, you need our licence, and to use C.Eng. is to strongly imply you have one. Therefore, to do so without your licence is illegal.
Perhaps I needed to be a bit broader in my explanation, as a letter writer pointed out. (Incidentally, my department loves to receive letters and questions about these matters. The more members who have a clear understanding of compliance issues, the better.)
Here’s the gist of the question, edited to fit the space available.
Please clarify the understanding in APEGGA’s eyes of the use of any title that has Eng. in it. Does this mean that no one can use anything in Alberta which has Eng. after his or her name unless licensed with APEGGA?
What about engineers registered in a different Canadian province or a different country?
What about academic qualifications? Many degrees have Eng. in them.
My medical doctor has Eng. after his name as he has a degree in engineering. He is not a member of APEGGA, but can he not use Eng. to show that he his proud of his engineering degree?
As you state, the average member of the public would not know the difference between different jurisdictions, or a degree for that matter, that has Eng. in the title. So should anything that has Eng. in it not be allowed in APEGGA’s eyes?
As your article was very narrow and only concentrated on one jurisdiction outside of Alberta, I would like this point clarified.
First, thanks very much to the member who asked this question. We’re pleased to be able to discuss this more broadly.
Let’s get academic degrees out of the way. We have no right or legislative backing to stop people from displaying their education. That means the commonly accepted B.Eng. for a bachelor of engineering degree and M.Eng. for a master of engineering are fair game for those who hold those degrees, regardless of whether they are licensed.
To much of the public, use of the degree abbreviations probably does suggest licensure. However, B.Eng. and M.Eng. are not among our protected titles, so there’s nothing we can do about their use.
In the case of the medical doctor mentioned in the question, using the shorter Eng. — which does not appear to suggest the degree he has — after his name is in contravention of our enabling legislation, the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical Professions Act. I am sure he is very proud of his engineering education and he is entitled to put his degree designation behind his name. But being an engineer is about qualifying for a licence in other ways and actually obtaining it, as well as education.
If we had evidence of the doctor’s contravention, we would contact him and ask him to
remove or modify the title on any of his listings, signs, business cards and other documentation.
On the other point — the use of designations from other jurisdictions — we centred on C.Eng. and the U.K. in the last article. Our stance is the same with all other jurisdictions, whether in Canada, elsewhere on the continent or overseas.
We have excellent mobility agreements in place for geoscientists and engineers in Canada. Our relationship with the U.S. improves all the time, state by state. But until a member from, say, Ontario has an APEGGA licence, he or she cannot use the title P.Eng. in our province.
Some recent arrivals try to get around this by using, for example, P.Eng.(Ont.) after their names. Sorry. Explaining where your licence is from does not allow you to use the designation or to practice here.
An engineer licensed by an American state cannot use the title P.E. in Alberta — until he or she has an Alberta licence. Then P.Eng., P.E. or both are fully acceptable.
I won’t repeat the reasoning behind our compliance work. I think that was covered thoroughly in the last article and earlier ones. The one mentioned here appears in the May PEGG Online on the APEGGA website, www.apegga.org.
I do want to emphasize, though, that protection of the public interest is the duty of not only your Association but all members of APEGGA. The letter writer mentions “APEGGA’s eyes” in a few places.
We are nothing but the sum of our members. It is your professionalism, your eyes and your ears that protect the public and ensure the integrity of the practices of engineering and geoscience in Alberta.
See the Report a Violation box on this page. Use my contact information to file
complaint — or to send me a letter on any compliance matter.
Report a Violation
If you are aware of practice or title violations and you are able to provide evidence (reports, letters, business cards, websites, etc.), we encourage you to contact
Frank Perich, P.Eng., Director, Compliance, at fperich@apegga.org.
Because the Compliance Department deals with non-members, we do not reveal
the source of complaints when you make contact.
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