As part of our mandate to protect the public interest, PEO has a duty to ensure all licence holders meet standards of learning, professional competence and professional conduct that are appropriate for the engineering services they provide.
Mandatory CPD is a quality improvement initiative that complements PEO’s other public protection activities including licensing, complaints and discipline, and practice standards and guidelines. It is a proactive measure to ensure competence and reflects a profession-wide commitment to quality.
The new CPD requirement, established in Ontario Regulation 353/22 under the Professional Engineers Act, reflects PEO’s dedication to promoting and increasing the knowledge, skill, and proficiency of its licence holders, and administering the Professional Engineers Act to serve and protect the public interest. Implementing a mandatory program also conforms with recommendations from several key government-related stakeholders, and meets the regulatory expectations that have been communicated by the Attorney General of Ontario, who is the Minister with responsibility for PEO and the Professional Engineers Act.
Although the primary goal of the CPD program is to support and enhance PEO’s public interest mandate, the program also provides value to licence holders, including:
- Providing a benchmark and assurance that licence holders are maintaining competency;
- Showing the public and employers that licence holders are qualified and up to date;
- Demonstrating the commitment of licence holders to continually improving their engineering practice;
- Helping licence holders plan their professional goals;
- Enhancing the ability of licence holders to work across Canada; and
- Completing the requirements may provide licence holders with valuable networking opportunities.