Q1A. What is the principal objective of the Association?

Answer 1A. As stated in A2(3): "The principal object of the Association is to regulate the practice of professional engineering and to govern its members, holders of certificates of authorization, holders of temporary licenses, holders of provisional licenses and holders of limited licenses in accordance with this Act, the regulations and the by-laws in order that the public interest may be served and protected."

Q1B. PEO issues both a Certificate of Authorization and a Consulting Engineering Title. Briefly explain the purpose of each.

Answer 1B. Certificate of Authorization: Necessary for anyone to provide engineering services to the public (See A12(2)). May be issued to companies. Must employ Members who will oversee/be responsible for said engineering. Consulting Engineer: Full P.Eng who has applied for this further designation and received it. Requirements: 1) Member 2) more than 2 years independent practice 3) more than 5 years satisfactory experience beyond the 4 years required to become a member (9 years minimum) 4) passed exams as prescribed by Council So, a CoA is required by a company or person to provide engineering services directly to the public while "consulting engineer" is merely a designation granted to individuals who apply for it and meet the requirements (one of which is independent practice, which requires holding a CoA, or being an engineer named on a CoA; etc. See R56-R68). You don't need to be a consulting engineer to hold a CoA. You can be a consulting engineer without holding a CoA, if, for example, you are a partner in/employee of a holder of a CoA, and is the designate in the CoA app as the responsible engineer for the CoA services to the public (R60).

Q 1C. What is the "Fees Mediation Committee"? Describe its function.

A 1C. Basically, the Fees Mediation Committee is a committee of Members which exists to mediate disputes relating to fees for professional engineering services. A32(2) explains: "Duties of Fees Mediation Committee (2) The Fees Mediation Committee, (a) shall, unless the Committee considers it inappropriate to do so, mediate any written complaint by a client of a member of the Association or of a holder of a certificate of authorization, a temporary licence, a provisional licence or a limited licence in respect of a fee charged for professional engineering services provided to the client; and (b) shall perform such other duties as are assigned to it by the Council. R.S.O. 1990, c. P.28, s. 32 (2); 2001, c. 9, Sched. B, s. 11 (48)."

Q 1d . Professional engineering in Ontario is described as a self-regulating profession. What does this term mean? In your answer, briefly describe three different features in the way professional engineering is regulated in Ontario that are consistent with this term.

A 1d. Professional engineering in Ontario is "self-regulating" because rather than passing laws directly regulating engineering, the government here has passed laws giving engineers the ability to make and enforce engineering-governing laws.

The three features of this regulation scheme:

1) The PEO Council establishes committees (made up of engineers) & directs staff who administer the Act and Regulations, 2) The PEO Council appoints a committee of peers (engineers) to carry out discipline, and 3) The majority of the PEO Council is selected from and by engineers.

Q 1e. Does a holder of a Certificate of Authorization need to carry insurance? Explain.

A 1e. Section 74(1) of the Regulations requires every holder of a Certificate of Authorization to carry liability insurance, and specifies the requirements on this insurance. Holders are exempt, however, if they satisfy any requirements of Section 74(2) of the Regulations, which can be being in an industry with uninsurable hazards (nuclear, aviation, etc.) or making a disclosure of this lack of insurance, subject to the terms of section 74(3) of the Regulations.

Q 1f. Briefly define the practice of professional engineering.

A 1f. The definition of professional engineering given at section 1 of the Professional Engineers Act sets out the criteria that must be met to determine whether an act is within the practice of professional engineering. 1. Is it an act of designing, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising? 2. Does it involve the safeguarding of life, health, property or the public welfare? 3. Does it require the application of engineering principles? If what you do meets all three tests, and you are not a natural scientist, then you are practising professional engineering. The definition applies to all situations where this particular combination of

intellectual activity, societal protection and methodology exists regardless of whether the position is in industry, government or consulting

Q2 AgriFab is a designer and manufacturer of farming equipment.

Recently, Fanner was seriously injured while operating a tractor designed and manufactured by AgriFab. In a letter to AgriFab, Fanner's lawyer claimed that the injury was due to a malfunction caused by a design error by AgriFab's engineering department. The letter threatened that AgriFab would be sued on account of Fanner's injuries.

AgriFab retains you (a Consulting Engineer) as an expert. Your services would be to investigate the failure and to give AgriFab your expert opinion on the cause of the failure. If the case goes to court, you could be called to testify as AgriFab's expert witness. For your services, AgriFab would pay you at an hourly rate. If you are called to testify in court and AgriFab wins the case, AgriFab would pay you a bonus in addition to your hourly rate.

Following your investigation, you conclude that the tractor was not designed properly and that Farmer was injured when certain safety features of the tractor failed to function. You also conclude that it is likely that other farmers could be seriously injured while operating the particular tractor model. You report your conclusions to AgriFab.

Based on your report, AgriFab promptly agrees to pay Farmer $1 million. In exchange for the payment, Farmer agreed to give up the lawsuit and agreed to keep the payment a secret. The secrecy agreement was very important to AgriFab because AgriFab did not want future tractor sales to suffer from bad publicity.

AgriFab thanks you for your services and pays your fee

(a) Is there anything else you should do?

(b) Please comment on the appropriateness of the fee structure according to which you would be paid.

A2 a) Under the Code of Ethics, R77(2)(i) requires an engineer to regard as paramount his duty to safeguard public welfare. Under the definition of Professional Misconduct, an engineer has a duty to safeguard health and property (R72(2)(b)), correct or report something endangering the public (R72(2)(c)), and comply with statutes (R72(2)(d)), including statutes regarding safety. These obligations, which exist solely from being a professional engineer and not through the contract or his current work relationship with any employer, oblige me to take action to fix/report the situation of AgriFab; in this case, asking AgriFab to remedy/warn against the situation in outstanding or future models seems necessary.

b) Disclosing conflicts of interest is required by R72(2)(i), and R77(3 & 4). It is doubtful that a jury would take an someone as seriously knowing that they have a monetary incentive to respond a certain way. For this reason, expert witness schemes with fees dependent on the outcome are never appropriate when not ridiculous. (See also page 213 of the ethics text).

Q3 Elixir Engineering Ltd. ("Elixir") was engaged by Potion Pharmaceuticals Inc. ("Potion") to design a new production line at its pharmaceutical plant in Littletown, Ontario. In addition to preparing the design, Elixir would provide professional services during the installation of the project. You are a professional engineer employed by Elixir. The president of Elixir (who is also a professional engineer) has been very impressed with your work over the years and has personally requested that you be assigned to Potion's project to act as project manager. This is a very important job for Elixir and the assignment represents an important career opportunity for you (and rumours have it that a successful project would result in your being promoted to vice president).

The completed design of the new production line includes a sophisticated new proprietary quality control system (designed and manufactured by Calibre Systems Corp. ("Calibre")). The system employs laser coding and machine vision to accurately identify, and label, injection bottles containing various drugs that will be produced at the new facility. The technology uses a laser to code the cap of each injection bottle immediately after it is filled. After the bottles are sterilized, filled and transported through the system, a scanner reads the laser codes on the bottle caps and the appropriate labels are automatically printed and applied to the bottles. With the system, wrongly labelled bottles would be eliminated. The project has progressed well (both on schedule and on budget) and is ready for start up, commissioning and testing. Unfortunately, during testing, the quality control system malfunctions and incorrectly labels 20% of the bottles. Calibre's technical personnel at the site are able to fix a number of problems contributing to the malfunction, and the error rate is reduced to 3%. Calibre advises you that it will be unable to eliminate the remaining error without redesigning, manufacturing and testing a scanning component, a process which is expected to take at least two months. You e-mail the bad news about the delay to Potion. The next day, Potion's project representative sends you an e-mail instruction that the production line be accepted with the 3% error rate. Potion's project representative explains that Potion is planning to use the new production line to manufacture a new patented drug which will benefit thousands of people. Given the immediate demand for the drug, a twomonth delay is not acceptable. The representative also indicates that Potion's and Elixir's presidents have already discussed the problem and have agreed that Potion would assume responsibility by legally indemnifying Elixir for any liability that could arise from the incorrect labelling.

(a) Discuss your duties to the public. How do you evaluate the impact on the public interest? Does the drug's potential benefit to thousands of people affect your duties? Explain. (b) Do you have any duties to Potion and to your employer? What are they? (c) Are you able to fulfill all of your duties above? If not, what should you do? (d) What are the potential consequences to you if you do not fulfill your duties? Does Potion's promise to assume responsibility change things?

A3. a) Under the Code of Ethics, R77(2)(i) requires an engineer to regard as paramount his duty to safeguard public welfare. Under the definition of Professional Misconduct, an engineer has a duty to safeguard health and property (R72(2)(b)), correct or report something endangering the public (R72(2)(c)), and comply with statutes (R72(2)(d)), including statutes regarding safety. These obligations, which exist

solely from being a professional engineer and not through the contract or his current work relationship with any employer, oblige me to take action to fix/report the situation.

Evaluating the impact on the public interest of allowing the production to continue or not is somewhat difficult given the promise of the drug to help so many people. Mathematically, one may be able to argue that the two month delay fixing the system would require would damage more people than the amount of people getting the incorrect drug would damage if the system is released as-is. However, that is unlikely given the high rate of error. In any case, the company has a duty to disclose the possible mislabeling of bottles to the public using the bottles, and my obligations, given the likely danger of taking an incorrect drug, implore me to ensure that it happens.

b) R77(1)(i) requires me to act with fairness and loyalty to my employer and clients.

c) Assuming the company will not listen to my arguments to correct the situation now rather than releasing the system as-is, then I will find it difficult to act with both fairness and loyalty to my employer while safeguarding the public welfare (my paramount duty). I should let my duty to the public welfare (being paramount) trump my duty to my employer and should continue to act to correct the situation in any way that I can.

d) If I do not fulfill my duties I can be charged with professional misconduct. The consequences of being found guilty of professional misconduct are laid out in A28(4). Potion's promise to assume responsibility only changes the consequences to my company if I do not insist on correcting the system, but the main reason for doing so was my duty to public welfare. As such, this does not change the decision.

Q4 You are a professional engineer and have been hired recently as the chief operations and maintenance engineer of a paper mill near a remote village in northern Ontario. The mill is the largest industry in the area and employs {directly or indirectly) most of the workers in the region.

Upon starting your new job, you review the facilities at the mill and its operation and maintenance procedures. You discover that your predecessor (also a professional engineer) had been operating the mill for several years with inadequate environmental equipment. The mill has been discharging hazardous substances into a nearby river contrary to legal limits. You also learn that government authorities are not aware of the illegal discharges.

You discuss the situation with the company's vice president in charge of Canadian operations. You report to the vice president that a number of environmental measures would be necessary in order to stop the illegal discharge. In your estimation, the measures would require a substantial capital investment in the plant. The vice president informs you that the mill has been earning very small profits in the last decade and that the capital expenditure could not be justified at this time. According to the vice president, the company's head office would likely close the mill rather than spend the money. You are told that some of the environmental measures you are proposing could be implemented gradually as the mill's financial performance Improves.

(a) Discuss your obligations with respect to the company.

(b) Discuss your obligations with respect to the ~. What is the public interest in this case? How is the public interest impacted by your actions? Comment on the vice president's promise to gradually implement the environmental measures. In addition to the measures you propose, what other steps should be taken with respect to the public interest?

(c)Discuss your obligations with respect to your predecessor

A4. This situation places me in an unfavorable position. a) On the one hand, I have an obligation to my company under the Code of Ethics section 1.i to "act at all times with fairness and loyalty" and under section 3 of the Code of Ethics I must regard the information about the pollutants as confidential. Reporting the pollutants to the relevant regulating body would have a very adverse affect on the company, contrary to these obligations.

b) However, these obligations pale in comparison to my obligations to the public in this matter. The definition of professional misconduct states as professional misconduct in items b through d: "(b) failure to make reasonable provision for the safeguarding of life, health or property of a person who may be affected by the work for which the practitioner is responsible, (c) failure to act to correct or report a situation that the practitioner believes may endanger the safety or the welfare of the public, (d) failure to make responsible provision for complying with applicable statutes, regulations, standards, codes, by-laws and rules in connection with work being undertaken by or under the responsibility of the practitioner," and so, while reporting the situation would economically damage the town and company, not reporting it would damage the environment of the town and perhaps the surrounding area, as well as the town and company's integrity should the environmental problems eventually be discovered externally.

The promise to gradually implement the environmental measures is vague in its timeframe, and while a step in the right direction is not enough of a step. The fact is that failing to comply with the applicable statutes regulations in such a blatant manner is very unethical and not in the best interests of the town in this circumstances. People respect honesty; reporting a problem in the mill's operations and intent to comply with the environmental statutes may incite government aid for doing so given the adverse impact on the town of shutting down the mill in response to this honesty.

c) The Code of Ethics states in item 2.ii that I have an obligation to enhance the public regard for my profession, and in item 7.iii not maliciously injure the reputation of another practitioner. While reporting the failure of the company to comply with the environmental statutes would likely enhance the reputation of engineering, reporting the other practitioner as the source of the noncompliance would likely not. At the same time, to allow the pollution to continue illegal for so long is blatent professional misconduct on the part of my predecessor, and he therefore has questionable business practicing engineering. To report the fact that he was overseeing the operations during the time the pollution was occurring would certainly injure his reputation, but in this case I argue that the injuring is for the greater public good and not malicious. To steel my resolve, item 8 of the Code of Ethics states that I will "without fear or favour expose before the proper tribunals unprofessional, dishonest or unethical conduct by any other practitioner" for the purpose of maintaining "the honour and integrity of the practitioners profession".