The positive impact and prowess of Canada’s professional engineers are evident in all corners of Canadian society. As engineers work to do even more to contribute to Canada’s social betterment and economic competitiveness, prime opportunities are being created for men and women with aptitudes for science and math, and penchants for getting jobs done right.
ENGINEERS CANADA
How far-reaching is the impact of Canadian engineering? How great are the employment opportunities? Consider the theme of the 2009 engineering summit “Leading a Canadian Future: The New Engineer in Society.”
This landmark event, which will take place in Montreal, will bring stakeholders together from an array of sectors to gather input to allow for future development and implementation of engineering innovation, which is critical to Canada’s future.
“As engineers, we want to try to achieve, through this summit, a better understanding of Canada’s society and its trends, and how we can respond to them so our contribution can be more significant in the future,” says Chantal Guay, Eng., M.Env., chief executive officer of Engineers Canada.
The summit’s organizing committee is a who’s who of Canada’s leading engineering organizations – Engineers Canada, Engineering Institute of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering, Association of Canadian Engineering Companies, National Association of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students.
Each group has a role to play, spearheading the summit’s diverse and socially pervasive topics that are both current and that will impact our society in the future: health, quality of life, competitiveness in a global economy, safety and security, and finally, the environment.
CFN Consultants’ John Leggat, P.Eng., a 30-plus-year veteran engineer who is also president-elect of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, says engineers are at the forefront of technology development and implementation.
“We’re talking about everything from municipal projects, biomedical engineering and leading-edge communications techniques to oil and gas, transportation and space exploration.”
Ken Putt, P.Eng., president of the Canadian Society for Senior Engineers and the Engineering Institute’s representative on the engineering summit organizing committee, calls engineers “entrepreneurial integrators” – people who bring together pieces of the puzzle and various disciplines to make projects happen.
“They are spread throughout most organizations, from the technical specialists, designers, software developers, project managers and up through organizational management and executive positions in industry, government, regulatory and nonprofit organizations.”
Mr. Putt says the energy sector offers an example of how important engineers are to Canadian competitiveness. Here, Canadians are at the forefront of new technologies including nuclear, oil sands, heavy oil, carbon capture and sequestration, and alternatives such as fuel cells and solar energy. Even in areas such as wind energy, Mr. Putt says Canadians have been innovators. “While we weren’t the major developers of wind technology, we have done the project management to integrate energy generated by wind power into the grid.”
Our future will provide engineers with many opportunities to contribute to its development, but Canada may be facing a shortage to meet that challenge.
Ms. Guay says “From Consideration to Integration” – a project started six years ago – offers an example of the forward-thinking role engineers have played in Canada’s economic growth and global competitiveness.
This initiative developed new processes and improved current processes by which international engineering graduates are able to obtain an engineering licence without compromising public safety or lowering professional standards, and to find meaningful engineering employment.
“Through From Consideration to Integration, we looked at how to facilitate the integration of internationally trained engineers into the workforce,” says Ms. Guay, adding that Engineers Canada has also signed a number of agreements with countries to recognize one another’s engineering credentials at the educational and professional levels.
Meanwhile, as Mr. Leggat puts it, Canada’s engineers will continue to engage in “the art of the possible,” bringing more understanding to others about technological advances and their implications for our future. But he underlines the important role the education system plays in that dialogue.
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Also appearing in this special report:
Chantal Guay
Eng., M.Env.
Chief Executive Officer Engineers Canada
Promotion, encouragement, scholarship and education – these are the basic tenets that drive the goals of the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation (CEMF)
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