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Cooperative Effort
APEGGA Executive Director
& Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng., seated at left,
and APEGGA President Mike Smyth, P.Eng., seated at
right, sign the new memorandom of understanding to
cooperate on discipline and enforcement matters. Hollis
Cole, P.Eng., outgoing CCPE president, stands behind
them. The signing - and others just like it by representatives
of constituent associations across Canada - took place
May 24 during the CCPE Annual General Meeting in Calgary.
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Canada's engineering regulatory associations
signed a landmark memorandum of understanding to cooperate
on discipline and enforcement activities, during the annual
general meeting of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers
in Calgary on May 24.
APEGGA Executive Director & Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng.,
said; "This MOU essentially puts on paper in a more formal
manner many of the ways in which the associations have been
cooperating in the past, but it also includes many areas where
we can all be more effective and efficient by working even
more closely together. Discipline and enforcement are responsibilities
bestowed by legislation on each licensing authority and it
is appropriate that we use every means at our disposal to
do the job well."
Government has mandated APEGGA to administer the Engineering,
Geological and Geophysical Professions Act in a manner that
ensures that public safety and well-being are well served
through licensure of only fully qualified and experienced
persons, and by taking appropriate action against unqualified
and unlicensed persons and companies.
"Council takes this responsibility seriously," says
APEGGA President Mike Smyth, P.Eng. "Our first duty is
to the public we serve, who have a right to expect that we
fulfill our obligations openly and honestly, and with fairness
and justice to all parties."
Said Marie Lemay, P.Eng., the CEO of CCPE: "Increasingly
in Canada, engineers are licensed and practicing in more than
one province or territory. This agreement addresses the need
for consistent discipline and enforcement activities among
the engineering licensing bodies and will foster cooperation
when they see the need to take joint action."
As with most professions in Canada, engineering regulation
falls under the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories,
whose statutes call for engineers to be licensed. In 1999
Canada's 12 engineering licensing bodies were among the first
professional regulators in Canada to sign an inter-association
mobility agreement to simplify multi-jurisdictional practice
for their members.
This most recent document addresses the need to ensure that,
wherever they practice, Canada's engineers continue to meet
the standards of conduct and practice necessary to protect
public safety. It calls for cooperation between the provincial
and territorial engineering regulators on the exchange of
information for the purposes of discipline and enforcement.
The memorandum includes appropriate investigative and disciplinary
action against licensed individuals and corporations practicing
professional engineering or using engineering titles without
the appropriate licence in another jurisdiction. The regulators
have also agreed to work together on lack of compliance, which
is the unlicensed practice of engineering and the misuse of
engineering titles.
The document was signed at the CCPE Annual General Meeting
on May 24 in Calgary.
CCPE is the national organization of the provincial and territorial
associations/ordre that regulate the practice of engineering
in Canada and license the country's more than 160,000 professional
engineers.
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