Candidate for Executive Council: Natasha Avila, P.Eng.
Candidate Overview
- Professional engineer with 15+ years of experience leading work in Canada’s oil and gas sector and international manufacturing environments, delivering innovation, safety, and operational improvements.
- Process engineer with expertise in process safety, risk management, and implementing novel technologies in regulated, high-hazard industrial operating environments.
- Governance experience through APEGA Council and Engineers Canada, including chairing bylaws modernization and supporting national collaboration and harmonization initiatives across regulators.
Personal Statement
Natasha Avila, P.Eng., is a chemical engineer who earned her Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Waterloo in 2009. She brings over 20 years of experience delivering practical engineering solutions in complex, high-risk environments.
At Cenovus Energy, Avila leads innovation projects addressing real operational challenges, including surface casing vent flow mitigation technologies and solvent pilot programs. She is responsible for the technical, safety, and risk management for innovation pilots from design through field execution. She has also led early-career and student recruitment initiatives, partnering with HR to improve consistency in selection, interviewing, and mentoring across multiple disciplines.
At Procter & Gamble, Avila led engineering teams across the Americas, focused on cost reduction, quality assurance, and supplier root-cause investigations. This work included leading the development of global Standard Operating Procedures and driving corrective actions that improved quality and reduced waste.
Avila has also served in professional governance roles with APEGA and Engineers Canada, giving her experience with how regulatory policy and standards translate into expectations for professionals in practice. She currently applies those expectations as a Responsible Member for a Permit to Practice.
As APEGA transitions into the Professional Governance Act, Avila seeks to bring practical, results-driven engineering judgment to Council to support public trust and ensure regulatory change remains workable for professionals doing the work every day.
Candidate Resume
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Get to Know the Candidate in Four Questions
What does self-regulation mean to you as a member of APEGA?
Self-regulation means the people setting and enforcing standards understand the work—because they’re doing it. Our professions are complex, and public protection requires technical judgement, not just rules on paper. Peer-based regulation brings real-world context to competence, ethics, and discipline, and it can do so efficiently because the expertise resides in the membership. Done well, it stays rigorous, fair, and focused on the public interest.
What would you bring to Council?
My experience bridges governance and practice. I have led safety-critical engineering work in industry and apply regulatory expectations in operational settings. I have also served in professional governance roles at both the provincial and national levels. This perspective helps me assess council decisions through a practical lens—how they affect public trust, professional accountability, and the day-to-day realities of engineers and geoscientists.
As the regulator of engineering and geoscience, what challenges does APEGA face?
APEGA faces several interconnected challenges: maintaining the right to self-regulation as the Professional Governance Act is implemented, responding to increasing government expectations for flexibility in registration and mobility, and protecting the public as engineering and geoscience work becomes more diverse and interdisciplinary. The regulator must be clear about what needs to be regulated, why, and how—so standards remain focused on public risk while staying practical, defensible, and trusted.
What is the value of a professional licence with APEGA?
A professional licence creates a shared system of accountability that protects the public and supports professionals when they are under pressure to make difficult decisions. It helps translate emerging technical issues into guidance and standards informed by member expertise, supporting consistent practice across sectors. It also sets clear expectations for competence and ethics, and provides a mechanism to address misconduct when it occurs. The value of licensure isn’t status—it’s a collective commitment to responsible practice and public trust that no individual can uphold alone.