The government’s decision to remove title protection for “software engineer” stemmed from lobbying by the technology industry as they believed that not using the title prevented them from recruiting top talent in Alberta.

Public safety is the top priority for APEGA. We will continue to use our regulatory tools to ensure engineering is only done by licensed individuals and companies. This exemption, however, makes it harder to regulate the software industry.

Licensed professionals will have a P.Eng. designation after their names, and the public can verify their credentials by checking APEGA's register on apega.ca.

Engineering and the title of engineer are regulated in all Canadian provinces and territories. Removing title protection for “software engineer” in Alberta makes the province an outlier to the rest of Canada. This change may affect inter-provincial mobility and the job market for engineers in our province, as Alberta is now the sole Canadian jurisdiction without complete protection of the title “engineer.” 

APEGA does not have jurisdiction to investigate or determine consequences of any incidences unless the work done was engineering or the individual or company is licensed with APEGA.

Software engineering is a nationally and internationally recognized discipline of engineering. There are at least 14 accredited software engineering programs at Canadian universities, including one at the University of Calgary.

The software engineering field is concerned with the application of engineering processes to the creation, maintenance, and design of software. Two key aspects indicate whether an activity is considered to be software engineering:

1. It concerns the public interest; and
2. It requires the application of engineering principles in its development.
   

APEGA receives its direction on how to regulate the practices of engineering and geoscience in the province through the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act. Through the Act, APEGA is also legally required to regulate the restricted use of titles and designations.

Reserving the “software engineer” title for those who perform the work and meet the requirements to use the designation is necessary to maintain the public’s trust in the engineering profession.

There is a national working group looking at this specific issue: the Task Force on Software Engineering. Chaired by a member of the Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board, the task force includes representatives from provincial regulators and other domain experts. The group can also consult engineers practising in different fields to provide expertise on the areas of practice contained in the paper.

The group is currently providing feedback on the Engineers Canada paper on professional practice in software engineering. The document addresses the nature of engineering practice in software engineering, in comparison with common software development. Section 3 of the document speaks to engineering principles and the software development process.

You can learn more about the Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board, along with its subcommittees and task forces, on the Engineers Canada website.

APEGA receives its direction on how to regulate the practices of engineering and geoscience in the province through the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act. Through the Act, APEGA is also legally required to ensure those using restricted titles or designations are licensed to do so.

There is, however, an exception: Section 2(4)(f) of the Act states that members of the Canadian Forces can engage in the practice of engineering while actually employed on duty with the Forces. This exemption is what makes the titles of “combat engineer” and “military engineer” possible.

There are three key differences to consider when comparing power engineering and software engineering.

First, software engineering already exists as a distinct discipline of engineering. We do have licensed professional members who are software engineers. One reason we cannot allow those who are not licensed to use the same title is because there would be no way for the public to easily distinguish which software engineer was professionally licensed and which wasn’t.

Second, power engineers in Alberta are certified through the Alberta Boiler Safety Association. They must meet established safety codes and standards relating to their work, whereas there is no comparable regulation of safety codes and standards for developing software.

Last, power engineers must meet established testing and qualification requirements to be certified, and there is no indication this type of stringent certification process will be established for individuals and companies that want to use the title “software engineer.”

For these reasons, power engineering should not be used as a template to create an exemption for software engineering.