engineering, or replace a practitioner’s professional judg-

1. P
 EO Mandate and Criteria ment when providing professional engineering services.
for Guidelines Subject to provisions in the guideline that incorporate
professional conduct requirements or legal requirements, a
Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) produces guidelines
decision by a practitioner not to follow the guideline will
to educate licensees and the public about standards of
not, in and of itself, indicate that a member has failed to
practice. This is done to fulfill PEO’s legislated objectives.
maintain an acceptable standard of work. On the other
Section 2(4)2 of the Professional Engineers Act states: “For
hand, following the guideline may not ensure that a mem-
the purpose of carrying out its principal object”, PEO shall
ber has provided services conforming to an acceptable
“establish, maintain and develop standards of qualification
standard. Determining whether a practitioner’s service is
and standards of practice for the practice of professional
acceptable will depend upon the circumstances of each case.
engineering”. The association’s Professional Standards Com-
mittee is responsible for developing practice standards and See Appendix 2 for a list of PEO professional practice
preparing guidelines. guidelines.

This guideline has been developed by a task group of the Pro-

fessional Standards Committee (PSC), reviewed and approved 2. Preface
for publication by the full PSC and by PEO Council.
Though professional engineers are often asked to review
PEO produces guidelines to meet the following objectives, documents prepared by other professional engineers, PEO
which were used to develop the content of this document. does not have any policies addressing this issue. Due to the
large number of inquiries from members of the public, regu-
1. Guidelines are intended to aid engineers in performing
latory bodies and practitioners asking for policies or advice
their engineering role in accordance with the Professional
on this practice, PSC concluded a guideline for reviewing
Engineers Act, O. Reg. 941/90 and O. Reg. 260/08.
another practitioner’s work was necessary.
2. Guidelines are intended to describe the necessary pro-
cesses associated with specific professional services pro- During 2005, PSC prepared terms of reference for a sub-
vided by engineers. They do not aim to be short courses committee comprising both practitioners and representatives
in an engineering subject. from regulatory bodies who had experience as reviewers of
3. Guidelines provide criteria for expected practice by engineering documents. This group was asked to address
describing the required outcome of the process, identify- questions about the proper role and responsibility for profes-
ing the engineer’s duty to the public in the particular sional engineers conducting practice and technical reviews.
area of practice, and describing the relationships and The subcommittee was also instructed to prepare a guideline
interactions between the various stakeholders (i.e. gov- offering best practice recommendations for this activity.
ernment, architects, other engineers, clients).
The subcommittee met for the first time on December 5,
4. Guidelines add value to the professional engineer licence
2005 and submitted a completed draft in May 2007. Fol-
for licensed engineers and for the public by outlining
lowing a reader review process, public consultations and PSC
criteria for professional standards of competence.
consideration, the draft was substantially revised. The final
5. Guidelines help the public to understand what it can
draft of the document was submitted to PSC for approval on
expect of engineers in relation to a particular task within
October 18, 2011. The completed guideline was approved by
the practice of professional engineering. By demonstrat-
Council at its meeting on November 11, 2011.
ing the task requires specialized knowledge, higher stan-
dards of care, and responsibility for life and property,
guidelines help reinforce the public perception of engi-
neers as professionals.

This guideline is not intended to establish a “one method

of practice for all” approach to the practice of professional

P r o f e ssi o n a l E n g i n e e r s O nt ar i o 3