Professional Engineers Ontario, Toronto Humber Chapter;
Vice-Chair Advocacy Report, Leon Wasser, MBA, P.Eng.; November 24, 2019
The key role of the Vice-Chair (Advocacy) is to strengthen our chapter’s relations to the broader engineering community. This role led me to take the following actions to achieve this goal:
Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) www.peo.on.ca: The primary role of PEO is to regulate the professional engineering profession in Ontario, including both entries into the professional and continuing education of practicing engineers. Our chair Bilal Shirazi is our primary liaison to PEO but in my role I offer some support including leading our National Engineering Month event, “Hydrogen Canada’s Fuel” which took place March 27, 2019 and actively participated in PEO’s AGM which took place on May 4, 2019, The PEO AGEM is open to all PEO member and I encourage all to participate.
PEO Toronto Humber Chapter (PEO TH) www.tohumber.on.ca: Toronto Humber is the local chapter of PEO serving the northwest quadrant of the City of Toronto. My role at the chapter level is to welcome new and continuing participants in all our chapter events. I encourage all our members to attend our monthly educational chapter events and support our chapter through voluntary service to our chapter and our board. You can visit our chapter’s Eventbrite page to learn more about our upcoming events.
Ontario Professional Engineers Foundation for Education (OPEFE): www.engineersfoundation.ca. OPEFE is “the official charity of the Ontario engineering profession.” It currently offers $153,000 in scholarship funding annually to deserving engineering students in order to nurture young engineers through financial and recognition”. These scholarships are issued to student engineers from all of Ontario’s accredited universities. I had the privilege of participating in the OPEFE awards ceremony at the offices of PEO on June 25, 2019. OPEFE is support by donations from PEO, OSPE as well as members of the general and engineering community so all are encouraged to contribute to this worthy cause.
Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) www.ospe.on.ca: OSPE is “the voice of the engineering community, providing opportunities for networking, learning, advocacy and career development”. I supported our relationship with OSPE by attending their AGM and Town Hall on March 6, 2019. I also attended OSPE’s Queen’s Park Day on April 9, 2019, to present a report on Retail Energy Pricing. Our chapter welcomed Paul Acchione, former Chair and Energy Committee Chair for OSPE for a presentation which took place on June 19, 2019. I also contributed to an OSPE study on Ontario’s Energy Policy which was submitted to Queen’s Park on October 9, 2019. I encourage all PEO members to also become members of OSPE.
Engineers without Borders Canada (EWB-C) www.ewb.ca EWB was born in 2000 at Ontario’s University of Waterloo with a vision to “harness the untapped potential of innovative and impassioned engineers” along the lines of Doctors Without Borders and other global service organizations. EWB has grown then to engineering faculties across Canada and internationally. EWB is also the key hub for National Engineering Month (NEM), which takes place each March. I was able to tap into EWB’s support for our chapter’s NEM program “Hydrogen: Canada’s Future Fuel” which took place March 29, 2019 at Plug’N Drive, Canada’s National EV Demonstration Centre. Engineers who want to contribute to a better world are strongly encouraged to join EWB Canada.
Association of Consulting Engineering Companies — Ontario www.acecontario.ca represents the many firm that offer consulting engineering services in Ontario. Up to this year our chapter did not have relationships with this organization. To remedy this, I invited Executive Director Chris Matthews to offer a presentation to our chapter on September 25, 2019. In addition, ACE Ontario is one of the sponsoring organizations for National Engineering Month. We hope to have further activities with ACE Ontario in the future. PEO members who offer professional engineering services to the public should join CEO.
Engineers without Borders Canada (EWB-C) www.ewb.ca EWB was born in 2000 at Ontario’s University of Waterloo with a vision to “harness the untapped potential of innovative and impassioned engineers” along the lines of Doctors Without Borders and other global service organizations. EWB has grown then to engineering faculties across Canada and internationally. EWB is also the key hub for National Engineering Month (NEM), which takes place each March. I was able to tap into EWB’s support for our chapter’s NEM program “Hydrogen: Canada’s Future Fuel” which took place March 29, 2019 at Plug’N Drive, Canada’s National EV Demonstration Centre. Engineers who want to contribute to a better world are strongly encouraged to join EWB Canada.