Grandfathering supposed to ease withdrawal pains for Manitoba engineers

Engineers in Manitoba are facing an upcoming deadline on June 29 to register for grandfathering status under the province’s new rules for designing and managing building projects.
Last November the Engineering and Geoscientific Professions Act of Manitoba was amended by a unanimous vote of the Manitoba Legislature. The vote followed a protracted dispute between architects and engineers over their allowable territories of practice.
Under the new regulations professional engineers are no longer allowed to design, construct or manage building projects in certain classes which have now been defined as “architecture.” The buildings proscribed to engineers include, for example, residential and office buildings and retail outlets over 600 square metres.
To soften the blow for engineers the province has allowed some grandfathering provisions to enable them to continue practising in the above building areas under certain circumstances. The conditions for allowing grandfathering, however, are strict and onerous. The engineers must apply for a recognition certificate and demonstrate their past experience and competence in the particular building area they want to practise in. They have to pass architectural examinations in areas like pre-design, site planning, building planning and building technology and they have to carry the same levels of insurance as architects. Grandfathered engineers also have to attest to the fact that they earned a substantial part of their livelihood from the relevant area of practice in the last five years, and had direct personal involvement in those projects.
Engineers in the province are still allowed to do design and project management of other types of buildings, such as industrial buildings, farm buildings, certain arenas and other buildings less than 600 square metres.
For a full list of the requirements to be grandfathered, see www.apegm.mb.ca/news/grandfather.html