What is a Professional Engineer?
The practice of professional engineering is defined in Section 1 of the Professional Engineers Act and is comprised of three tests. Professional engineering is:
- any act of planning, designing, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising (or the managing of any such act);
- that requires the application of engineering principles; and
- concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare or the environment.
If what you do meets all three tests, you are practising professional engineering and must be licensed by the association.
Like medical and legal professionals, professional engineers are licensed to be accountable to the public for their work. Their duty is to safeguard life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare or the environment where engineering is concerned. Professional engineers subscribe to a strict code of ethics and practice standards. The practice of the profession is regulated by Professional Engineers Ontario.
In Canada, the title "professional engineer" is restricted by law. In Ontario, only those individuals who have demonstrated that they possess the necessary qualifications and have been licensed by PEO can use the title, which is often abbreviated as "P.Eng."
Professional Engineer's Seal
The Professional Engineers Act requires every holder of a licence, temporary licence, limited licence or provisional licence to have a seal issued by PEO denoting the type of licence held. The appearance of the seal has been altered from time to time. The current seal for professional engineers includes the holder’s licence number and identifies the holder as a “Licensed Professional Engineer.” Older seals did not include the licence number and may identify the holder as a “Registered Professional Engineer.” Any of these seals is acceptable.
Seals for holders of temporary or limited licences differ in form from that of a professional engineer. These seals are rectangular and contain additional information. The limited licence seal includes a description of the holder’s allowed scope of practice. The seal provided to temporary licence holders includes the expiry date of the holder’s licence and the name of the Ontario professional engineer collaborating with the temporary licence holder.
Section 53 of the act sets out the proper use of the seal. The seal must be signed and dated by the licence holder. Clients and other parties should not accept a document that has been sealed but has not been signed or dated.
Affixing the seal on documents and drawings indicates the documents and drawings are final for the intended purpose and have been prepared by or under the supervision of a person licensed to practise professional engineering who is assuming responsibility for them. By sealing documents and drawings, licence holders acknowledge that they assume professional responsibility for the design, opinions, judgments or directions given in the documents and drawings. The seal is a "mark of reliance," indicating that a licence holder attests that other people can rely on the information provided in the documents and drawings.
