November 16, 2001

At the Meeting of the Board on Friday, November 16, 2001, the following decisions and reports were made:

Report from the Chair
The Chair noted that in September 2000 PEO rejected the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers' offer to participate in their Secondary Liability Insurance plan.

Report from the CEO
The CEO noted that 2002 Budgets will be presented at the 17-Jan-02 board meeting.

OSPE/PEO Working Group on Province-wide Participation
PEO has informed us that the three participants taking part in the working group on behalf of PEO are Richard Weldon, P.Eng., Seimer Tsang, P.Eng., and Michel LaBonte, P.Eng.

C. Morris, the Chair of this working group, noted that all OSPE members with an e-mail address who had indicated an interest in volunteering were contacted about participating in this working group before three members were chosen. The following OSPE members were appointed to the OSPE/PEO Working Group on Province-wide Participation: Michael Crutchley, P.Eng., Chris Farrow, P.Eng., and Scott Gibbs, P.Eng.

Safe Water Task Force
The following members were appointed to the OSPE Safe Water Task Force core group: Hershel Guttman, P.Eng., Jim Merritt, P.Eng., Andre Proulx, P.Eng., Ken Wallenius, P.Eng., Dr. David Rudolph, P.Eng. There will be a secondary challenge review group of all those members who indicated an interest in serving.

OSPE Geographic Regions
David Small, an electoral map specialist who was commissioned to recommend geographic divisions for OSPE, was asked to join the meeting and briefly describe the options he developed. It was agreed that OSPE adopt six regional districts for membership representation, as follows:

Northern Ontario (Population: 790,430)
Toronto (Population: 2,275,771)
Golden Horseshoe (Population: 1,868,701)
Eastern Ontario (Population: 1,476,028)
Southwestern Ontario (Population: 2,081,269)
Central Ontario (Population: 1,490,561)

2002 OSPE Election
The 2002 election timetable and candidate eligibility criteria were presented. It was noted that there will be one geographic and one sectoral exclusion this year, Toronto and Consulting Engineering respectively.

It was agreed that C. Karakatsanis be appointed Chair of the Nominations Committee and that C. Cragg and J. Cook be appointed as members. The terms of reference for the committee were approved.

Provincial PC leadership race strategy
The current race for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party will be a 'dry run' for OSPE's public affairs strategy, raising OSPE's profile within the governing party and with the men and women who want to become the next Premier. An e-mail will be sent to all OSPE members next week asking if they'd like to be involved. OSPE is non-partisan, which is meant to say we engage with all political parties equally.

Travel Policy
A new OSPE travel policy designed to ensure that travel arrangements for OSPE employees and volunteers are convenient, efficient and cost effective was presented and accepted.

Premises Task Force
The terms of reference for the Premises Task Force were presented and accepted. This task force was created to assist the Board in reaching consensus on OSPE's current space needs and future growth requirements, and the best location for OSPE operations.