Finally, 2020 is coming to a close! This year has been extremely trying for many. That’s why at OSPE we’ve been trying our best to support and inform our members through this difficult time. This isn’t exactly how we expected to celebrate our 20th year as an organization, but are always thankful to have the continued support of our members. It’s thanks to your support that we’re able to continue to aid Ontario’s engineers via our Career Centre job board, the Ontario Engineering Academy, and advocacy of the issues that matter most to you.
Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to achieve a lot this year thanks to our members, volunteers and of course the OSPE staff. Here’s a look back on a few of the key highlights from our year!
Advocacy
- On March 1st, OSPE celebrated the third annual P.Eng. Day, by engaging with members of Provincial Parliament to highlight the important contributions and work engineers do in Ontario. MPP Deepak Anand and MPP Stan Cho both delivered a message during the daily question period to celebrate engineers.
- In early April, OSPE assembled its COVID-19 Economic Recovery Working Group to propose concrete, and actionable recommendations on ways OSPE can assist the Ontario and Federal governments to achieve immediate, short and long-term economic recovery.
- The Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MECP) funded OSPE to manage and deliver the project Beneficial Reuse of Excess Soil at Aggregate Operations, which involves producing a scientific report and a best management practice document. Both reports will be published and available on the OSPE web site by March 2021.
- After consultation with OSPE members, the CBC reported about the widespread forgery of an engineer’s seal. Without a strong regulator focused on protecting the public and the environment, the public perception of the engineering community in Ontario is in jeopardy. OSPE has been advocating for changes at PEO for years, calling on its leadership to solely focus on their primary objective to regulate the practice of professional engineering
- Engineers hosted our annual diversity and inclusion forum The #EDIAdvantage. The event took place virtually and brought together 2000+ delegates from across Canada to discuss why achieving diversity and inclusion in engineering and STEM more broadly will change the Ontario and Canadian economies for the better.
- OSPE launched Engineering for Change to advance diversity and inclusion within the engineering profession. As part of this initiative, OSPE has released a four-point action plan to tackle bias and discrimination in the profession.
Gone Virtual…
Like many other organizations this year, when the pandemic hit, we had to transition many of our events to virtual environments.
- In May we held our Annual General Meeting virtually. We welcomed new faces to our Board, said goodbye to others, and celebrated the recipients of 2020’s President’s Award winners.
- We took our Engineering Employment Events from being large, in-person networking events, to being a slimmed down, job seeker-to-employer virtual interviews.
- Like we mentioned above, once the pandemic hit, we hit to quickly pivot our #EDIAdvantage Forum from being a big in-person event to being solely online. The event featured a number of great panels and speakers like Hamlin Grange of DiversiPro, a Fireside Chat from Queen’s University featuring their Dean of Engineering, and many more sessions.
- Our annual Ontario Professional Engineering Awards (OPEA) Gala had to be rescheduled to 2021. Next year we’ll be holding two awards galas – one virtual at the start of the year, and another in-person near the end of the year.
Member Services
Even when working from home, OSPE staff is always looking for new ways to engage with our members. This year we:
- Launched the ENGage Forum for members to discuss topics relevant to the engineering profession in Ontario with other OSPE members.
- Launched a new Career Centre for members and non-members to find nationwide engineering jobs.
- Created a new video series called ENGtalks which include live sessions recorded from members of our community on topics that matter to our members.
- Rebranded our professional development offerings as the Ontario Engineering Academy (OEA). Along with the rebranding, we launched a number of new courses and certifications to help engineers with their professional development
Nominations for OSPE’s Board of Directors
The members who are elected to OSPE’s Board of Directors are committed to ensuring that your profession is headed in a direction where your work is valued and your voice heard. You have a say in who represents you.
- Nominations for our Board will open for members on January 4, 2021 and close January 29, 2021. For more information, click here.
On behalf of everyone at OSPE, we wish you a warm and festive holiday season! We look forward to continuing to work together in 2021, to raise awareness about the vital role that the engineers play in our province and around the world.
