Chapter 1 – Engineering
Engineering Ethics from EGBC
https://www.egbc.ca/Complaints-Discipline/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics
The Engineers and Geoscientists Act
The Engineers and Geoscientists Act, the professions’ governing legislation, guide the association and its members and licensees in performing their duties.
As it stated on the EGBC web site as of March 20 2022, The Code of Ethics required under the Professional Governance Act, S.B.C. 2018, c. 47 and created in the Bylaws of Engineers and Geoscientists BC provides a set of principles that all registrants are required to follow.
Code of Ethics
A registrant must adhere to the following Code of Ethics:
Registrants must act at all times with fairness, courtesy and good faith toward all persons with whom the registrant has professional dealings, and in accordance with the public interest. Registrants must uphold the values of truth, honesty, and trustworthiness and safeguard human life and welfare and the environment. In keeping with these basic tenets, registrants must:
- hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public, including the protection of the environment and the promotion of health and safety in the workplace;
- practice only in those fields where training and ability make the registrant professionally competent;
- have regard for the common law and any applicable enactments, federal enactments, or enactments of another province;
- have regard for applicable standards, policies, plans, and practices established by the government or Engineers and Geoscientists BC;
- maintain competence in relevant specializations, including advances in the regulated practice and relevant science;
- provide accurate information in respect of qualifications and experience;
- provide professional opinions that distinguish between facts, assumptions, and opinions;
- avoid situations and circumstances in which there is a real or perceived conflict of interest and ensure conflicts of interest, including perceived conflicts of interest, are properly disclosed and necessary measures are taken so a conflict of interest does not bias decisions or recommendations;
- report to Engineers and Geoscientists BC and, if applicable, any other appropriate authority, if the registrant, on reasonable and probable grounds, believes that:
- the continued practice of a regulated practice by another registrant or other person, including firms and employers, might pose a risk of significant harm to the environment or to the health or safety of the public or a group of people; or
- a registrant or another individual has made decisions or engaged in practices which may be illegal or unethical;
- present clearly to employers and clients the possible consequences if professional decisions or judgments are overruled or disregarded;
- clearly identify each registrant who has contributed professional work, including recommendations, reports, statements, or opinions;
- undertake work and documentation with due diligence and in accordance with any guidance developed to standardize professional documentation for the applicable profession; and
- conduct themselves with fairness, courtesy, and good faith towards clients, colleagues, and others, give credit where it is due and accept, as well as give, honest and fair professional comment.
Frequently Asked Questions
https://www.egbc.ca/Complaints-Discipline/Code-of-Ethics/Frequently-Asked-Questions
Why does the Organization have a Code of Ethics that applies to all its registrants?
There are two essential aspects of being an accredited professional engineer or professional geoscientist through registration with a professional organization such as Engineers and Geoscientists BC.
The first is the ability to assure the public that by virtue of your professional qualification you possess a level of expertise, knowledge, and experience appropriate to activities and undertakings that potentially carry significant risks to public health and safety and to the physical and natural environment. The second is the ability to assure the public that you are governed not only by legal and regulatory requirements and standards, but also by an additional higher standard of ethics and integrity—set out in the organization’s Code of Ethics — that places on you the paramount duty to uphold the values of truth, honesty, and trustworthiness, and to safeguard human life and welfare and to protect the environment.
The Code of Ethics is a condition of acceptance into and continued registration with the organization. It sets a high standard of conduct that is binding on and applies consistently to all registrants of Engineers and Geoscientists BC.
What is the difference between the legal or regulatory standards requirements and ethical standards?
Generally speaking, laws and regulations establish the thresholds and formal boundaries that set the minimum requirements or standards necessary, acceptable, and permissible to balance and protect competing interests in society.
Complying or operating in conformity with laws and regulations is the first step in ethical practice, but merely asking “what is necessary to comply with the law or regulation” is not the same as asking the ethics question “what is right?”
Ethical standards go beyond what is required to comply with the law to address what is necessary to ensure honesty, integrity, respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, and concern for others in all actions and decisions. As a registrant with Engineers and Geoscientists BC, your conduct must meet the higher ethical standards outlined in the Code of Ethics over and above what is required by law.
Why are the standards in the Code of Ethics higher than those required by law?
Generally speaking, laws and regulations establish the thresholds and formal boundaries that set the minimum requirements or standards necessary, acceptable, and permissible to balance and protect competing interests in society.
Complying or operating in conformity with laws and regulations is the first step in ethical practice, but merely asking “what is necessary to comply with the law or regulation” is not the same as asking the ethics question “what is right?”
Ethical standards go beyond what is required to comply with the law to address what is necessary to ensure honesty, integrity, respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, and concern for others in all actions and decisions. As a registrant with Engineers and Geoscientists BC, your conduct must meet the higher ethical standards outlined in the Code of Ethics over and above what is required by law.
Why am I expected to uphold ethical standards in the profession beyond my own work responsibility?
As a registrant with Engineers and Geoscientists BC, you are governed by the Code of Ethics that requires you to act at all times with fairness, courtesy, and good faith to your associates, employers, employees, and clients and with fidelity to the public needs.
The Code also places on you the duty to uphold the values of truth, honesty and trustworthiness and to safeguard human life and welfare and protect the environment. As a consequence, you have professional responsibilities under the Code that extend beyond the immediate scope of your own conduct and work, particularly and especially with respect to matters that affect or potentially affect public health and safety and protection of the environment.
