Engineers Canada recently made recommendations to the federal government on procurement pricing and National Occupational Classifications.
In late July, Engineers Canada responded to two separate consultations, submitting recommendations to the federal government on procurement pricing and on the National Occupational Classifications (NOC).
On July 22, 2019, Engineers Canada submitted comments to Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) on Phase 1 of their Practitioner’s Guide for Procurement Pricing. The Guide is intended to inform those involved in federal government contracting of the steps required and the factors to be considered in making procurement pricing decisions. Engineers Canada focused its recommendations on qualifications-based selection.
Engineers Canada’s submission recommended that, in the interest of public safety and to maximize the value of capital investments, the federal government should adopt policies requiring that qualifications-based selection be used as a pricing strategy for engineering-related procurements of goods and services under section 5.3 of the Practitioner’s Guide for Procurement Pricing.
Engineers Canada also made a recommendation on the many elements of the Guide that refer to “professional judgment” and “expert advice.”
“Where such professional judgement and expert advice are with respect to engineering matters, those exercising this professional judgement should be licensed by a provincial or territorial engineering regulatory body,” wrote Engineers Canada CEO Gerard McDonald in the letter to PSPC “This should be noted in the guide, along with the requirement that other professionals be so licensed.”
Engineers Canada also submitted recommendations to Statistics Canada on July 24, 2019, in response to a consultation about a newly created classification variant of the NOC 2016 Version 1.2 – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Perspective. These classifications are intended for the analysis of occupational data.
Engineers Canada made three recommendations to Statistics Canada. First, rather than including software engineers and designers as part of the A3 STEM Variant for Mathematics, Computer and Information Sciences, Engineers Canada recommends that it would be more appropriate to align them with Engineering and Engineering Technology, and that this NOC be split with one classification for occupations that relate to software engineering and a separate NOC for software developers and designers.
Second, Engineers Canada recommends that “Forest Engineer” be moved to the A1 or A2 variant as there are licences and registrations required for both a Forest Engineer and a Registered Professional Forester.
Third, Engineers Canada recommends parsing some of the STEM variants into occupations that are subject to professional regulation, and those that may or may not require a professional licence.
