We provide resources to assist our stakeholders in understanding our regulatory role and how we protect the public interest.
As part of its regulatory mandate, PEO establishes, maintains and develops: standards of knowledge and skill; standards of practice for the profession; standards of professional ethics; and promotes public awareness of its role. The following are resources to assist PEO stakeholders--licence holders, applicants, and the public--in understanding their roles and responsibilities and the regulator’s work protecting the public interest.
Resources
Ontario professional engineers are part of a community of more than 87,500 PEO licence and certificate holders committed to enhancing the quality of life, safety and well-being in the province.
As Ontario’s engineering regulator, PEO relies heavily on its volunteers. More than 1,000 professional engineers, engineering interns and non-engineers volunteer their time each year on behalf of the association through their participation.
PEO's mandate, as described in the Professional Engineers Act, is to ensure that the public is protected and that individuals and companies providing engineering services uphold a strict code of professional ethics and conduct.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, if you are not practising—either because you self-declared as “Not practising” or your licence is suspended—you are not permitted to use the licence seal. You should only use the licence seal to stamp engineering documents when you are practising and confirming your responsibility for the work.
Yes, you can use the P.Eng. title when you hold a P.Eng. licence; but you cannot use the P.Eng. title while your licence is suspended.
Your practice status reflects whether you are currently engaged in the practice of professional engineering in Ontario. Two practice status options are available: “Practising” and “Not Practising.” Practice statuses are displayed in your private PEO portal account.
Your licence status reflects whether PEO allows you to practise professional engineering, and there are two licence status options available: “Eligible to practise” and “Not currently eligible to practise.” Licence statuses are displayed on the public-facing PEO directory.
The Professional Engineers Act describes the practice of professional engineering as: “any act of planning, designing, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising that requires the application of engineering principles and concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare or the environment, or the managing of any such act.” If your work—paid or unpaid—involves any of these elements, you are practising professional engineering.
Acceptability of the validator is at the discretion of PEO. Family members and relatives are normally not acceptable as validators and will be assessed on a case by case basis.
No. Candidate self-assessments and validator ratings are submitted to PEO independently. Validators should rate competencies and submit the ratings in confidence to PEO.
Technically, yes. However, you won’t be able to submit your application until you have completed a CBA with at least 48 months of engineering experience.
Canadian environment competencies can be demonstrated by experience obtained abroad. For example, a candidate working for Shell Oil in Nigeria might use the same American Petroleum Institute (API) engineering standards used in Norway, the United States or Windsor, Ontario.
Visit https://peo.on.ca/apply/become-professional-engineer to see the CBA application process steps and get started.