Electrical Engineers: directory of firms

Engineering is regulated province by province and territory by territory rather than nationally. Engineers Canada lists the twelve regulators that license professional engineers, among them Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia, APEGA in Alberta, Professional Engineers Ontario, the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec and the Atlantic and northern associations. A licence from the regulator where the work is done is what lets someone practise there.

Titles are protected, not only the work. Engineers Canada states that titles such as Professional Engineer, P.Eng. or any title including the word engineer can only be used by those who are licensed, and that unauthorized use can result in legal action. If a company describes its staff as engineers, the regulator's public register is where you confirm it.

Firms are often regulated too, not just individuals. APEGS says any professionals undertaking engineering work in Saskatchewan must be licensed, and regulators run firm-level authorizations, such as a Certificate of Authorization or a Permission to Consult, for companies offering engineering services to the public. Ask which individual will seal the drawings and which authorization the company itself holds.

A licensed electrician installs and alters wiring under provincial trade and electrical-safety rules, and is normally the person who takes out the electrical permit and does the physical work. An electrical engineer is licensed under engineering legislation and is responsible for the design: deciding what the system has to be, documenting it, and standing behind that design professionally.

An electrical designer or technologist may produce competent drawings but is not a licence holder, so a licensed engineer still has to take professional responsibility where the law requires it. For a straightforward circuit change an electrician alone is usually the right call; once a permit authority, an insurer or a landlord asks for a sealed drawing, or once the service itself is changing, the design has to come from a licensed engineer.

The seal is how an engineer accepts responsibility for a document. Professional Engineers Ontario says the Professional Engineers Act requires every licence holder to have a seal issued by PEO, and that the seal should be used to stamp engineering documents only when the holder is practising and confirming responsibility for the work. A licence holder who has self-declared as not practising, or whose licence is suspended, is not permitted to use it.

Regulators also stand behind the licence after the work is delivered. The Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec describes professional liability insurance requirements, continuing education obligations, professional inspection, disciplinary procedures and an office of the syndic that monitors illegal practice. Ask a firm to confirm the professional liability insurance it carries for the kind of project you are planning, and keep the sealed drawings: they are the record of what was designed and by whom.

Fees follow the amount of design and documentation a project needs. A short capacity assessment for a single new load is a small piece of work; a full set of construction documents for a building, coordinated with the architect and the mechanical engineer and carried through construction review, is not. Drawings that must be issued for permit and tender take far more time than a memo answering one question.

The condition of the existing building matters too. Where record drawings are missing, the engineer has to survey what is actually installed before designing anything, and older buildings hide surprises behind finished walls. Utility lead times, phased work that keeps a building operating, and after-hours site visits all add effort. Agree in writing which deliverables you are buying, which construction-phase services are included, and how revisions after issue are handled.