Bilingual Engineering and Geoscience Work Products—A New, Enforceable Requirement for Federal Procurement

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Updated May 16 — Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) will require submissions of engineering and geoscience work products in both official languages—French and English—each being of equal quality and published at the same time. This requirement came into force on May 13, 2022.

Read Policy Notification 48R1

This change to contracting professional services may place a professional engineer who knows only one of the two official languages in the position of stamping work they are unable to verify. The challenges with precise translation of technical work means the translator may need engineering or geoscience competence and will need to collaborate with the responsible professional engineer.

Registrants may consider declining to authenticate submissions for federal tenders, but that action places them in violation of the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act and APEGA’s Authenticating Professional Work Products standard.

APEGA’s Professional Practice team is continuing to engage with PWGSC regarding this new requirement and will provide updates as new information becomes available.

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