Knowledge Centre

Professional Engineers Ontario, or PEO, is the regulatory body that licenses professional engineers in Ontario. PEO sets standards for and regulates the practice of professional engineering in the province.

Under the Professional Engineers Act, PEO has the mandate to serve and protect the public interest where the practice of engineering is concerned. PEO enforces compliance with the Act so that only those with a licence may practice engineering or advertise their engineering services. The association also disciplines engineers and companies that fail to maintain the profession’s standards.

Professional Engineers Ontario fulfills the same role the College of Physicians and Surgeons does for physicians and the Law Society of Upper Canada for lawyers.

The EIT program provides guidance and assistance to engineering graduates as they acquire the 48 months of acceptable engineering work experience, including annual reviews of experience to ensure that an applicant is “on the right track” for licensing.

Benefits of the EIT program include:

• the opportunity to receive detailed, confidential, annual; work experience reviews;
• eligibility to participate in PEO’s Mentorship Program;
• access to Engineering Dimensions, the association’s official journal;
• opportunities to attend EIT seminars at PEO’s office or through sponsoring chapters;
• the opportunity to join a PEO chapter, attend meetings and network with professional colleagues;
• email notices of events or items of interest pertaining to your development into a licensed engineer;
• access to the Licence Holders’ only section of PEO’s website and the opportunity to participate in online discussions with other PEO members through the Discussion Forum; and
• the opportunity to join the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and participate in their member-only services, such as insurance and investment plans, and online Career Centre.

As well, becoming an EIT demonstrates to employers that an applicant is serious about being licensed as a professional engineer.

To enroll in the EIT program, you must be an applicant for licensure – meaning you have met the academic requirements of licensure (e.g. graduated from a CEAB-accredited program). You can apply as soon as you graduate by filling out an application for licensure form.

Financial Credit Program (FCP): Graduates of CEAB-Accredited engineering programs and international engineering graduates (IEGs) with a bachelor of engineering or applied science degree may be able to participate in PEO’s Financial Credit Program. Under the program, eligible participants can have the cost of their application fee credited towards payment of their registration and initial P.Eng. licence fees once they have been approved for a licence. CEAB-accredited graduates who apply within six months of their degree conferral and IEGs who apply within six months of their date of receiving permanent residence status in Canada are eligible for the program.

Yes. You may do engineering work, provided a licensed professional engineer takes responsibility for your work. In Ontario, it is illegal to use the title “professional engineer” or any variation thereof as an occupational or business title if you are not licensed by PEO.

Sales or marketing jobs where you do not apply theory and/or engineering principles might not meet PEO’s experience requirement. A data entry job or simple programming or database manipulation, where you use a software package designed by someone else might not qualify if your work does not include engineering analysis and design.

Providing technical support for a software company while studying to become a civil engineer would likely not qualify as pre-graduation experience as it is not in your field of study unless you prove through your post-grad experience that you are practising in a field that combines the two streams.

As with medicine and law, you require a licence to do certain engineering work within the province of Ontario. However, not everyone working in engineering requires a licence. Whether you require a licence depends on the type of engineering work you are doing, and the level of responsibility you have. The ability to practise engineering in Ontario is regulated by the Ontario Professional Engineers Act and its regulations, which outline who requires a licence, how to obtain a licence, and when a licence may be revoked. The Act is administered by Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), a self-governing organization that grants licences to qualified individuals, disciplines licence holders who are found guilty of incompetence or misconduct, and enforces compliance with the licensing requirements of the Act. You require a licence if:

• Your work requires you to design, compose, evaluate, advise, report, direct or supervise; and
• The work will safeguard life, health, property or the public welfare; and
• The work requires the application of engineering principles.

You are not required to be licensed if, for example:

• Your work is strictly related to research, testing, or inspection; or
• There is no risk to life, health, property or the public welfare if your work is performed incorrectly; or
• The work is strictly scientific in nature.

There are also other exceptions to licensure in the Act:

• You do not need to be licensed to do professional engineering if a licensed Ontario professional engineer takes responsibility for your work.
• You do not need a licence to design tools and dies.

Any question regarding the need for a licence in a particular situation should be directed to PEO at [email protected].

No. Legally speaking, you are an engineering graduate, not an engineer. Only holders of a P.Eng. license are legally permitted to use the title “P.Eng.” or the term “engineer” in their job title, or to use any other term, title or description that may lead to the belief that they are authorized to practice professional engineering. An engineering education is the first step to earning your license and eventually having the right to call yourself an engineer, but you may only use the term “engineer” in your job title once you have P.Eng. licence.

The practice of professional engineering is defined in section 1 of the Professional Engineers Act and comprises three tests. Professional engineering is:

1. any act of designing, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising, or the managing of any of these acts
2. wherein the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare or the environment is concerned, and
3. that requires the application of engineering principles.

If what you do meets all three tests, you are practising professional engineering and must be licensed by the association.

The definition applies to all situations where this particular combination of intellectual activity, societal protection and methodology exists regardless of whether the position is in industry, government or consulting.

If you are going to be responsible for work that is defined as professional engineering according to the Professional Engineers Act, a P.Eng. licence may be required by law.

Becoming licensed gives you the right to use “P.Eng.” after your name and “engineer” in your job title. Under the Professional Engineers Act, you may only use “engineer” in your job title if you hold a P.Eng. licence.

The P.Eng. licence also demonstrates that you have met a rigorous educational standard, have through a demanding, hands-on internship process, and are obliged to adhere to a strict code of ethics that puts the public interest first. All of these are valued within the engineering working community and society at large, awarding you credibility and recognition.

Licensing also puts you within the professional membership community of the other 75,000 licensed professional engineers organized across the province in 36 PEO chapters.

There is no legal requirement stipulating how long documents must be retained. The documents belong to the person who created them and that person is at liberty to do with them as s/he sees fit. The most pressing reason for keeping documents is the possibility of future legal action. At present there is essentially no period of limitation so it is possible that someone can bring legal action against an engineer many years after a project is completed. Since document retention is really a matter of legal protection, you should discuss the matter with your insurance provider.

The Professional Engineers Act makes no distinction between providing professional engineering services for a fee or on a volunteer basis. The individual or volunteer organization providing professional engineering services will need a Certificate of Authorization. You should also remember that providing services as a volunteer does not make one immune to liability. Since either the client or a third party affected by the work can bring a lawsuit against the engineer or the volunteer organization, volunteers are urged to investigate their need for professional liability insurance.