"Our dues are too high!!"

Often when I engage engineers in discussions about PEO and the election, I hear “What happens to my dues?" or " I don’t get anything out of the PEO!" or "The dues are way too high for what I get in return!”

Where do your dues go? They contribute to the regulation of the profession.  According to the PEO web page (http://www.peo.on.ca/index.php/ci_id/1994/la_id/1.htm) “The annual fees from licensed practitioners enable PEO to take responsibility for the licensing and discipline of engineers and companies providing engineering services. As part of its mandate, PEO also establishes, maintains and develops:

-  standards of knowledge and skill;

-  standards of practice for the profession;
-  standards of professional ethics; and

-  promotes public awareness of its role.”

So what exactly does that encompass? Annual dues and other revenues help to provide the solid infrastructure to ensure that only qualified individuals earn the right to call themselves professional engineers; that appropriate action is taken against those that use the P.Eng. designation in an unauthorized fashion or taken when discipline action is required; that we defend the PEO to protect our position or when others take legal action against us; that we participate at a national level to ensure that Ontario is consistent with other jurisdictions and to help our engineers practice across the country; that we reach out to our licencees and future engineers; that we ensure accredited universities are periodically assessed; that we continue to build the profession; that we develop and modify regulations, policies and guidelines as needed; that we as a regulator, build relationships with politicians so we can get support for regulatory changes that we bring to Queen’s Park; and so on…

That's a long list and it is far from complete.

All of the above requires staff, physical infrastructure, consultants, capital equipment, lawyers, supplies, insurance, advertising, database software, mortgages, and the day-to-day expenses to support all of this.

The PEO does all of this on an annual budget of about $25 million. (If you are interested in viewing the draft 2014 operating budget, it is embedded in the agenda of the 487th Meeting of Council held on 26 September 2013 on page 152 http://www.peo.on.ca/index.php/ci_id/27094/la_id/1.htm).

While you may not tangibly see the direct impact of much of this in your day to day life – it is what makes us all proud to be an engineer – a well respected and well regulated profession in Ontario.

Are our dues too high?  Ask any P.Geo. in Ontario their thoughts on whether our P.Eng. dues are too high - APGO 2013 practicing member dues were $420.  Or how about Chartered Professional Accountant Ontario dues - $1084 in 2013.   PEO dues are the lowest professional engineering association fees in Canada and they have been frozen at $248 per year for at least 5 years in a row.  There is currently no plan to raise them this year.

I’m not going to agree with you that our dues are too high - because I don’t believe that.  I sit here and wonder how we can do so much with the dues we pay.  I was speaking to a fellow councillor last fall and he asked if I knew that in the 1970s, discipline decisions were written up by staff.  For those of you who are unaware, discipline decisions are now written up by volunteers.  I believe our ability to keep our dues where they are has a lot to do with our growing army of almost 900 volunteers who freely donate thousands of hours of their personal time to PEO activities and business every year. 

Let’s all take a moment to thank our volunteers for their time and dedication!