2023-02-14 PEO Update

Dear Students. 

At the request of the BTA we are providing you with an update on the PEO situation. Moving forward, we will try to provide you with monthly updates.

We are pursuing official avenues to reverse and/or amend the new PEO Application Rules to permanently restore a pathway to the P.Eng. for all B.Tech. students (and other affected students in Ontario), having solicited the support of all Engineering Deans in Ontario in that effort.  The details of these actions have a degree of sensitivity; that’s all we can say at the moment.

We are also investigating avenues for you to pursue your professional engineering license within other jurisdictions in Canada if all efforts fail with the PEO.  Early indications are positive.  It should be noted that if you are granted a P.Eng. in another Province or Territory, it will be easily transferrable to Ontario (and while you are working towards your P.Eng. you do not need to move to another Province!).

We have also arranged with the Registrar’s Office to facilitate the early degree conferral of all students who completed their degree requirements in December 2022 – if you finished your courses in December and you are on the June graduand list, you will receive an email from your Program Chair with instructions. This will enable these students to apply to the PEO before the new rules officially come into effect.  Even though the new PEO rules officially come into effect on July 1^st, 2023, there will be a ‘blackout’ period, tentatively planned to begin in May, during which the PEO will not be accepting applications.  Because of this timing, even students who completed their degree requirements in December 2022 will be affected by the new PEO rules, unless their degree gets conferred before the June Convocation.  Unfortunately, this workaround will not work for students finishing their courses in April, if the dates provided by PEO hold.  This was all done as a ‘Plan B’ for these students; ‘Plan A’ is to continue our efforts to reverse the PEO application rules for everyone.

We hope this update helps you feel a little better, and we hope it helps convince you that this issue is our top priority and we will not stop until it is resolved. 

More to come in next month’s update.

Regards,