Professional Engineers Act and Regulation
May 15, 2007

OSPE’s Professional Engineers Act Task Force was created to develop recommendations on how the Professional Engineers Act (PEA) can be modernized and what legislative changes are necessary to further that end. Most recently, the Task Force tackled the issue of the so-called “industrial exception” contained in the current version of the Professional Engineers Act.

Section 12 of the PEA prescribes when licences or certificates of authorization are required and Section 12.3 lists exceptions to the prescribed requirements.

Unfortunately, the wording of Section 12.3 is somewhat equivocal. Even PEO’s own legal counsel stated that “when analyzed in detail this provision may be somewhat broader than intended and appears to yield some anomalous and uncertain results.”

In response to those comments, as well as to the potential for misinterpretation and misapplication of Section 12.3, OSPE’s PEA Task Force is proposing changes.

Specifically, the Task Force suggests the following:

• Revising 12.2 to hold companies who perform their own engineering to the same standards as engineering firms who deliver services to the public;
• Revising 12.3 to explicitly assure public safety, worker safety and the environment are protected, and to more closely link the activities of the individual engineer with the company’s certificate of authorization.

Do you have any experience with the exception clauses of the Act? Interested in promoting the changes? Tell us what you think by visiting our online Issues Forum.