February 2007 ISSUE
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE & ETHICS CORNER
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.
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Q I graduated with a bachelor of civil engineering degree. I am a registered member of APEGGA and have over 25 years’ experience in planning and engineering within the telecom industry. I will be assisting in the design of voice and data cabling in an office area.
Is it OK for me to stamp telecom cable drawings or should only a P.Eng. with an electrical degree stamp these drawings? An in-house peer review with registered electrical engineers will be carried out before my stamping of any drawings.
A As a professional engineer, you are entitled to stamp work for which you have sufficient knowledge and experience (i.e., competence). Just because your degree is in civil engineering does not restrict you from stamping electrical work if you have gained that particular competence since receiving your degree.
APEGGA registers individuals as professional engineers without designating specific disciplines in engineering. Under the Code of Ethics, members are expected to limit their work to those areas in which they have become competent through a combination of training and experience.
You’ve said that you will be assisting in the design. While the other electrical engineers are not absolved from professional responsibility, you should recognize that, by stamping a document, you may be seen as saying that you are accepting primary professional responsibility for the engineering contained in that document.
Q I will soon start some contract engineering work with a refinery. In general, do I need to purchase any kind of insurance for working at an oil refinery, for example, liability insurance? If so, what type and how much? As an APEGGA member, do I have any insurance coverage provided to me by APEGGA?
A APEGGA has no requirement for members to obtain insurance of any kind in order to practice. Members will need to assess the circumstances under which they practice and determine for themselves whether insurance coverage is advisable. Your prospective client/employer would be the place to start asking about those circumstances. You should not assume that you are covered under some other party’s insurance plan.
The only insurance coverage provided as part of APEGGA members’ dues is a national secondary professional liability plan. You can obtain details of that coverage from APEGGA’s website, www.apegga.org/members/Benefits/natliability.html, and see if it applies in your situation.
While the main purpose of the program is to insure individuals engaged in
areas other than stand-alone consulting, there are some distinct situations where
the policy may apply to consulting engineers or geoscientists. The Q&A document
referenced on our webpage deals with some situations.
You can clarify particular scenarios by contacting the program’s broker.
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