(Selected highlights from April 1, 2023 - March 31, 2024)
With the 2023-2024 fiscal year behind us, it’s worth taking time to reflect on the progress we’ve made together. ACEC knows that making our members’ voices heard in Ottawa strengthens our industry, and we continue to take every opportunity to advance your priorities.
From engaging with government leaders and deepening strategic partnerships, to promoting more equitable workplaces and helping to shape public policy decisions—the following is a snapshot of what we accomplished this past fiscal year.
As a trusted and influential partner to the federal government, ACEC continued outreach with parliamentarians and officials over the past fiscal year, with an emphasis on renewed infrastructure funding and the development of a long-term vision for infrastructure in Canada.
In August 2023, ACEC was pleased to once again participate in the House of Commons Finance Committee’s Pre-Budget consultation. ACEC made three recommendations that championed our industry, enabled strategic infrastructure investments, and aligned with the government’s focus on economic growth. When the Fall Economic Statement was released in November, ACEC put out a statement calling for renewed funding for the Investing in Infrastructure Program (ICIP) or a successor program, as well as the swift implementation of the National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA) which we know would help address the country’s current housing crisis.
This advocacy work was in preparation for Budget 2024, for which ACEC submitted official recommendations in early February. Our submission focused on the NIA, ICIP funding, and allowing multi-project applications and more flexibility for infrastructure investment plans—all of which would have positive outcomes for the consulting engineering industry and communities across the country.
The Budget, released in mid-April, was very focussed on the housing crisis. Finance Minister Freeland acknowledged concerns expressed by ACEC and other stakeholders that addressing the housing crisis will require large-scale and long-term infrastructure investments. The announcement of their new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund partially addressed this need. However, ACEC continues to advocate for a more strategic approach to infrastructure investment. While the government has not yet delivered the NIA, the momentum on infrastructure from Budget 2024 is a strong opportunity for a continued push towards its implementation. We also continue to insist that the ICIP or its successor program must be announced prior to Budget 2025 to support Canada’s infrastructure needs. ACEC was pleased to see that the Budget also committed to amending the Impact Assessment Act, which will increase flexibility and efficiency when it comes to project reviews.
When it comes to the ongoing policy requiring all federal procurement documents to be provided in both official languages, ACEC has continued to raise concerns about its unintended consequences. It precludes many consulting engineering firms from participating in federal procurement, while also increasing risk of cost overruns, delays, and commercial and professional liability. It also diminishes the federal government's capacity to deliver on its capital programs.
ACEC has met multiple times with the Minister’s office on this issue and continues to engage with relevant departments. Last summer, as we had yet to see the government’s often-promised public consultation on this new policy, ACEC commissioned its own third-party, independent research from Nanos Research to study the policy’s impacts on engineering firms. The research was completed in the fall of 2023, and was presented to PSPC officials in December—they found the information helpful and again reiterated their commitment to hold formal consultations with industry. ACEC also met with political staff to the PSPC Minister in January to discuss the study’s results and further stress the magnitude of the problems created by the new requirements.
Following our months of advocacy, PSPC advised ACEC that a public consultation would be launched during the summer – the consultation was in fact launched in late July - and would include engineering regulators across the country. ACEC plans to stay closely engaged with government officials on this issue.
Finding alignment with other stakeholders strengthens ACEC’s ability to shape federal public policy. In June 2023, ACEC met with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)—Canada’s foremost municipal advocacy organization—to leverage our strong alignment on the delivery of the NIA, which will lay important groundwork for the next national infrastructure funding program. ACEC President and CEO John Gamble then attended an FCM consultation in September focused on the development of a Municipal Growth Framework. This Framework is aligned with ACEC’s ongoing advocacy and could provide a roadmap for long-term, predictable investments in municipal infrastructure.
ACEC has also been advocating for a national infrastructure corridor, calling it “Canada’s Infrastructure Network.” A concept that has been around for over 50 years, this Network has the transformative potential to create jobs, encourage investment, empower Indigenous communities, and promote sustainability. Last summer, ACEC was pleased to host a multi-stakeholder luncheon to discuss potential collaboration on this, with participation of many organizations across infrastructure-related industries, such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Electricity Canada, and the Mining Association of Canada.
Promoting Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Consulting Engineering
ACEC recognizes that equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) helps facilitate healthy workplaces and creative problem-solving, while also being key to attracting and retaining the next generation of consulting engineers.
In June 2023, ACEC released a report – Advancing Women & Diversity in Consulting Engineering - to summarize the findings of our national EDI research project. Our Board accepted all the recommendations, including building an EDI framework for firms, providing more training, and advocating for better parental leave and pathways to leadership. ACEC’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee then laid the groundwork to implement the recommendations and support our member firms as they advance EDI across our industry.
By August, we had developed a proposed workplan to identify next steps and practical tools that will prove helpful to ACEC member firms. A few months later in February, our Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee convened to make key decisions for implementing the report’s recommendations, which include aligning with Engineers Canada for employer best practices, supporting safe and harassment-free workplaces, creating an online resource library, and more.
ACEC quickly connected with the new federal Cabinet after the major shuffle in July 2023, including the new Ministers for public services and procurement, and infrastructure and housing. One of the big changes was that the ministry responsible for infrastructure was merged with housing, and was separated from intergovernmental affairs—ACEC is hopeful that this will allow we hope more focus on the implementation of the NIA. ACEC continues to engage directly with the office of Minister Fraser and government officials on the value of implementing the NIA as soon as possible.
In October 2023, ACEC hosted our annual Parliament Hill Day—our cornerstone government relations event since its inception over a decade ago. ACEC members from across the country had the opportunity to share industry priorities and reinforce policy recommendations with legislators in person for the first time since the pandemic. The event was a great success: it resulted in a total of 35 meetings with MPs, Senators, and political staff from across party lines, with close to 95% of participants expressing their support for ACEC’s goals and advocacy messages. Since then, ACEC has connected member firms with multiple politicians and officials who were unavailable for Parliament Hill Day to ensure they had a chance to engage directly and share their perspectives.
October also provided an opportunity for ACEC to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of our member firms at the Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards Gala. This annual event recognized incredible firms and projects that connect and strengthen communities, improve safety and sustainability, and enhance quality of life for Canadians and people around the world.
In September, ACEC was excited to relaunch and expand a professional development program aimed at future leaders. Originally created pre-pandemic, this learning opportunity developed specifically for the consulting engineering industry saw 40 individuals participate in a series of pre-recorded and live virtual sessions. The group then came together for a two-day in-person forum hosted in Toronto to coincide with the ACEC Board of Directors meeting. The positive feedback from the program graduates led ACEC to not only consider offer the program again in the fall of 2024 but to also launching a level 200 series for the inaugural program participants.
ACEC also hosted its acclaimed CEO Forum, a yearly gathering of leaders from ACEC member firms to discuss the opportunities and challenges they face as heads of their firms and/or their Canadian operations. The event has become so popular, a similar event specifically for small firms and their issues is now under development for fall of 2024.
A message from Allyson Desgroseilliers, P. Eng., Chair of ACEC-Canada Board 2023-2024.
A message from John D. Gamble, CET, P.Eng., President and CEO of ACEC-Canada.
Overview and summaries of the association's financial statements and reports.
