Let me first say that the opinions I am expressing in this letter are my own, not those of my employer. After nearly a decade as ah engineer working mainly in civil engineering consulting, I have worked for the Ontario government for the last few years. A significant part of my job is reviewing and approving the work of other engineers as part of legislated approval processes. Seeing first hand the quality of some plans and reports signed, sealed and delivered by "self-declared" competent professionals has been a real eye-opener, to say the least. While I don't agree totally with the details of Bill 124, and I am afraid the insurance requirements may prove overly onerous for small companies and sole practitioners, I agree that something needs to be done to raise the standard of practice within my small sub-discipline of the civil engineering profession. My general observation is that the overall level of understanding of codes, standards, practices and accepted guidelines among practising engineers is quite poor. One would expect some need for checks and balances in approval processes where public safety is at stake. That is why my current position exists in the first place. But the frequency with which I and my colleagues encounter engineering work falling far short of accepted standards is appalling. It compels me to conclude that something about our profession is terribly broken, and needs to be fixed if we expect our status as a self-regulating group of professionals to endure.
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