1. You have a professional obligation to support your advocacy organization
“OSPE is a voluntary organization. If an engineer is interested in advocacy issues related to the profession, they have the choice to join OSPE.
While we like to believe that every engineer has a professional obligation to support their advocacy organization, the reality is they still have a choice.
That requires OSPE to ensure we are providing a genuine and distinct value proposition to our members. That is what we are trying to do through our advocacy efforts and results, our member affinity and professional development programs, and our career services.
In an ideal world, we would have every engineering graduate join OSPE and thus, we would have the resources to do all the advocacy work the profession needs, to ensure the voice of engineers is heard and considered in all policy decisions.”
2. OSPE has a different mandate than PEO
“PEO, as the Registrar, has a fiduciary responsibility to focus on licencing and regulating the profession, while protecting and maintaining the safety of the public.
By and large, members of PEO have no choice but to join and pay their membership fee if they wish to retain their licence and their Professional Engineer designation.
PEO is responsible for ensuring that the membership fees are used for this sole purpose. As the regulator, PEO should not be involved in advocacy issues related to ensuring the economic benefits of the individual engineer.
There are times when these are at cross purposes, thus to ensure there was no conflict of interest, two separate organizations were formed in 2000.”
3. We need your voice in order to be heard
“The reality is that only about 10% of the engineers in Ontario actually join OSPE, so we are limited in what we can do.
If Engineers want to have more advocacy work done on their behalf, then they need to join OSPE and get engaged with the various advocacy committees, working groups and task forces we have. PEO, the regulatory body, cannot do this work alone, as it only creates confusion among the policy makers.”
So, we want to know, will you join us?
Great points Sandro! In my view – governments and policy makers are too often lacking in engineering and technical experience. OSPE can play a critical role in this area.
Thanks for your response Jonathan. One of OSPE’s key priorities is ensuring engineers are at the table to provide their expertise to government on issues like infrastructure, transit, energy and climate change.