Down to the Short Strokes

Not only are the Olympics winding up, we are entering the last week of PEO elections. 

Licencees now have all three eBlast, access to the recorded all candidates meetings, had the opportunity to review the additional material provided by the candidates and had the opportunity to contact candidates with outstanding questions and concerns.  I hope you’ll now take a few moments to vote at www.peovote.ca

Voting couldn’t be easier, it takes less than one minute.

I also want to ask you to please ask all the professional engineers that you know to also vote. 

With less than a 10% voter turnout last year, I find it difficult to consider ourselves a selfregulated profession.  We can only do that together.

Below, I’ve reproduced my three eBlasts.

eBlast #1

Andrew Carnegie, the great Scottish industrialist and philanthropist summed up the importance of the PEO elections thus “As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say and I look at what they do”.   Those of you who believe in improving our organisation by casting a vote, should do the same.

Fellow engineers, hindsight is always 20-20.  Past council mistakes have hurt our organization and slowed our growth, but we now stand on the threshold of many great opportunities.  How do we begin?  By working together, by leading our council to be fiscally realistic and sensible in the spending of licence holder’s money, by striving to be relevant and by attracting our future – young engineers with fresh ideas and enthusiasm. 

My two years on council as Northern Region Councillor and past year as Appointed Vice President have been true learning experiences.  I have participated in chapter events across Northern Region, been active on the Regional Councillors Committee (RCC) and the Executive Committee, and contributed to the significant positive steps forward that PEO Council has made in the last 2 years.

Teamwork is still a work in progress at council; team building is a strength I bring to council.

eBlast #2

Isaac Bashevis Singer must have been reading my opponents misleading election materials when he said “If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet”.  Looking at the election material that is circulating, I really do think that if half of this were true, we certainly don’t deserve to be a self-regulated profession!  We hear the same criticisms of council and the PEO loudly repeated by the same group of people – you know who these critics are.  Dig deeply into their criticisms.  PEO does not need leadership that thrives on criticism, and they certainly do not need individuals who don’t understand our political and financial environment. 

Let’s focus on the strengths and significant accomplishments of our hardworking and dedicated council, staff and countless volunteers.  Together as a team we do great things.  Leadership builds on the strengths and skills of each individual contributing to our great organization and profession creating a team that will carry us into a successful future.  Mistakes are only true mistakes if we do not learn from them and improve.

I believe we face real challenges, including attracting and retaining young engineers not only to the profession but to full participation in our association.  Let us create a welcoming and diverse profession that reflects our society in the 21st century.   

Let’s ask ourselves: are we prepared to move into the 21st century of self-regulation?  Or are we going to remain the self-regulator of 1922?  Only you through your ballot can make that decision.

eBlast #3

“I have voted for the very first time in a PEO election.  Good luck lady!”  These words of support came this week in the form of an email from someone who has held a licence for over 10 years.  I’m hoping that this election will inspire 10,000 more members to vote for the first time!

In the most recent eBlast we read much about the direct “attacks” to our self-regulated profession.  I’m concerned about our ability to call ourselves a self-regulator when less than 10% of our licencee’s vote.  Our direction, future and how we respond to challenges is not in the hands of 77,000 members, it is in the hands of barely 7,000 members. 

Did you participate in the membership survey?  Of those that responded, two of the top 5 reasons given for not voting are #1 “There have been no pressing issues which inspired me to vote” and #5 “PEO elections are not relevant to me”.   We are not effectively communicating to our members.  Why are the most recent headlines about challenges to our profession not of major concern to all licencees? 

We must demonstrate leadership on challenges with PEO solutions for Ontario engineers.  Challenges such as the potential imposition of continuous professional development resulting out of the Elliot Lake inquiry; the ongoing work to repeal the industrial exception; Bill 141 - Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, 2013 - that requires architects to be involved in the preparation of a design for the construction of defined infrastructure projects, but not engineers; and the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s challenge to our reasonable requirement of one year of Canadian experience for licensure.