September 2007 Issue
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
APEGGA members with professional practice or ethics questions are welcome
to mail them to Ray Chopiuk, P.Eng., Director, Professional Practice, APEGGA,
1500 Scotia One, 10060 Jasper AV NW, Edmonton, AB T5J 4A2; fax them to 780-426-1877;
or e-mail them to rchopiuk@apegga.org.
Q A design document is prepared initially by a senior professional
engineer. A junior non-engineer checks the document and signs it. The last signature
on the document is that of the discipline coordinator (mechanical), who happens
to be a senior non-engineer and a specialist in that field. Could you please
advise if this is in compliance with the Engineering, Geological and Geophysical
Professions Act?
Also please clarify if the initiation and the checking procedure should differ if the project is in Canada, North America or overseas.
A To be in compliance with the act, a document of a professional nature (in this instance, an engineering design document) must be stamped, signed and dated (authenticated) by a professional engineer to show who is taking responsibility for the engineering contained in that document.
While other individuals who are non-engineers might be involved in some fashion and might “sign off” on the document for an organization’s administrative control or other reasons, those sign-offs are not governed or required under the EGGP Act. The non-engineers’ signatures would not reduce or delegate the professional responsibility of the professional engineer who stamped the document. Non-engineers are not allowed to take responsibility for engineering work.
The requirements of the act with respect to authenticating a final engineering document don’t change because of where the document is destined. The same holds true for geological or geophysical documents, by the way.
APEGGA’s Practice Standard for Authenticating Professional Documents deals with numerous other matters related to stamping documents. You can find the practice standard at www.apegga.org/pdf/Guidelines/26.pdf.
Note: Even though only the terms “professional engineer” and “engineering” are used, the principles apply to any APEGGA member licensed in some way to practice engineering, geology or geophysics.
Q Does a British Columbia engineering company need to show an APEGGA permit number on design drawings that it is providing for a project in Alberta? The company’s engineers who prepared the drawings are professional engineers registered with APEGGA.
A The EGGP Act requires a company practicing engineering in Alberta to have a permit issued by APEGGA. If the British Columbia company does not practice in Alberta, it would not need an APEGGA permit and, therefore, would not need to put a permit number on the drawings prepared by its engineers, even if the engineers are registered in Alberta.
This holds true unless there is some Alberta legislation that specifically requires the engineering drawings to show an APEGGA permit number or that specifically requires the involvement of an APEGGA permit holding organization.
Although it may seem counter-intuitive, submitting engineering drawings for use in Alberta is not the same as practicing engineering in Alberta. If the company’s office was located in Alberta, it would be regarded as practicing in Alberta. If the company’s engineers were actually in Alberta engaging in engineering, the company would be regarded as practicing in Alberta.
If neither of these is the case, then the company would not be practicing in Alberta — even though its engineering drawings were being used here.