Engineers Canada’s mandate is to advance engineering through national collaboration. This includes facilitating the cooperation and collaboration of regulators through meetings, discussions, and information-sharing on matters relevant to enhancing the competency, integrity, and public accountability of the profession. Engineers Canada’s Manager, Regulatory Liaison, Megan Falle, supports three National Officials Groups, comprised of representatives from each regulator, who work together on projects and initiatives. Learn more about this area of work and the role of our Manager, Regulator Liaison.
- Can you share a bit about your professional background and how it led you to your current role at Engineers Canada?
I went to the University of Waterloo and majored in Geography and Environmental Resources as I really wanted to work in something related to environmental protection. I had grown up lucky enough to get a chance to explore many areas of the globe and had a major obsession with animals and wildlife and really wanted to do my part to help protect our planet. After graduating with my degree, I ended up getting a job with Electricity Canada (the national association for the electric utility companies across Canada) working in their environmental policy branch. This led to me working with committees made up of staff from across the country to collectively respond to any federal environmental legislation and regulation changes and navigate their impact on the electricity sector. I found the content fascinating, but this role predominantly really helped me realize that committee management, facilitation, and project management was something that I could really excel in.
I found that I really enjoyed meeting people from across the country and hearing diverse viewpoints and working to collectively find a shared path forward that all could agree on. After a few years at Electricity Canada, I ended up getting reached out to by a recruiter for my role at Engineers Canada... and the rest is history!
- What does your role as Manager, Regulatory Liaison entail?
The main aspect of my role is to support and manage the work of the three Officials Groups: National Admissions Officials Group (NAOG), National Practice Officials Group (NPOG), and National Discipline and Enforcement Officials Group (NDEOG), and any other sub-groups or projects they formulate. This includes the creation of meeting agendas, briefing materials, and presentations; project management; meeting facilitation; and more. The role really requires me to stay on my toes and up-to-date with all the current practices and policies related to professional regulation at the 12 regulators. I also try to form connections between the regulators and Engineers Canada staff/work products and other priorities wherever possible. Lastly, I also help support and manage several different tools, databases, and services that are offered to the regulators (such as our National Membership Database (NMDB)).
- Can you share a recent project or regulatory change implemented by Engineers Canada and its anticipated impact on the engineering community?
We recently achieved an exciting milestone at Engineers Canada whereby all 12 regulators signed the very first National Statement of Collaboration that solidifies their commitment to working together on projects and initiatives that will lead to greater consistency of their systems, processes, and tools within the regulatory framework. While the regulators and Engineers Canada have always been great at collaborating, I’m hopeful that the signing of this statement will lead to better and more equitable approaches for engineers and firms across the country on their regulatory requirements. The Statement will also undoubtedly help the regulators to have greater efficiency of operations and less duplication of work due to an increase in the sharing and adoption of similar work products (such as Continued Professional Development (CPD) programs, assessment practices, etc.).
- What methods do you use to gather feedback and collaborate with the provincial and territorial engineering regulatory bodies?
The face-to-face and virtual committee meetings are the best method (in my view) to consult, collaborate, and discuss issues with the various regulatory bodies. Other than that, I’m in constant discussions with the various groups/regulator staff members via our Teams pages, email distribution lists, surveys, 1:1 conversations, and more. As another example, for the work of Strategic Priority 1.2 (Strengthening Collaboration and Harmonization), we individually visited and consulted all 12 regulators in person and then held a national consultation where we brought regulator Presidents, CEOs, and members of our Board together to collectively discuss, brainstorm, and chart a way forward. We used these conversations to then draft the Statement of Collaboration that was shared (via the CEO Group) and modified according to the written feedback/edits we received.
- Can you explain how Engineers Canada influences or supports regulatory changes?
Engineers Canada influences and supports regulatory change through enabling an environment in which the regulators can lean on each other’s collective learnings. All regulators encounter the same or similar struggles navigating their regulatory environments and often will come up with unique solutions to tackle these issues. Engineers Canada exists to help them share that information with each other to incorporate and further develop in their own jurisdiction. Furthermore, in certain cases, we also provide funding, project management, and facilitation support to help advance or launch new or different regulatory services (an example of this being the transition to a Pan-Canadian Competency Based Assessment (CBA) system several years ago).
- What do you find most rewarding about your work?
There are many rewarding areas of my work but the most tangible “success” feeling I get is after each face-to-face Officials Group meeting. These meetings often take a lot of coordination, preparation, and research beforehand and can be intensive for the few days they are occurring . That said, I almost always have regulator staff approach me afterwards to tell me that they found the meeting content and discussions to be very helpful and informative and that they believe it would really lead to beneficial changes in their day-to-day operations. That flight home after a successful meeting always comes with a satisfied “phewph… I did it!” feeling.
