History Notes Canadian Civil Engineer
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special 2001 edition of the History Notes Canadian Civil Engineer he history of the profession himself “Civil Engineer”. Having major emphasis in the training of an of Civil Engineering can be been elected a Fellow of the Royal engineer was the gaining of practical T traced back for many Society (FRS) at the age of 29, he skills, usually through apprentice- centuries, in much further had founded a Society of Engineers, ship to a fully qualified engineer as than the recorded history of self- in 1771. After his death, in 1792, his “pupil”, later called his Casimir Gzowski Thomas C. Keefer A Background History of the CSCE By Peter R. Hart, FCSCE Canadian Pacific Archive, image no. A649. serving groups that developed, in the the Society of Engineers was re- “engineer-in-training”. This tenth century, into the guilds and, established and held its first method allowed the acquisition of subsequently, the learned societies meeting, as the Society of Civil the necessary academic skills for the and trade unions. Engineers, on April 15th, 1793. design arts to be obtained at the There is a certain amount of This Society eventually became the same time and, not surprisingly, controversy over the origin of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) North American engineering word “engineer” and it seems most which received a Royal Charter in training closely followed this pattern. likely to have come from the Latin 1825. In the United States, the Franklin word for an invention or engine, Engineers in non-English Institute (established in 1824) “tingenium”, which not only appears speaking European countries also attracted many engineers and, in to be the root of the English word formed special interest groups which 1852, a group of engineers met in “engineer” but also the French word were rather more academic in New York which resulted in the “ingénieur”. However, the asset that nature, due mainly to the different establishment of the American most engineers have, ingenuity, education received by engineers in Society of Engineers and Architects appears to come from the Latin word Europe, where the engineer was which was renamed the American “ingenuita”. Both “ingenuita” and trained very thoroughly academically Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) “ingenium” have a common Latin with little or no practical working in 1869. root – “gen” (to bear, to give birth to, experience. This practical side of In British North America, the to produce). engineering was provided by the political advantages of a unified John Smeaton, in 1 782, was the artisan who had trained as a pupil on country “from sea to sea” in part to first engineer to call and sign the job. However, in Great Britain a provide a stop to the territorial ambitions of the United States of recently established late-19th C. Keefer was named Founding America, were realized and, in 1867, century programs were looking for President (throughout this mid- to The British North America Act recognition so that, after late-19th century period Keefer had (BNA) was passed by the British Confederation, the spirit of been actively promoting some type of Parliament in Westminster. Canadian nationalism rose in the professional society, so that his In 1931, as the result of the Statute engineering profession. installation as the Founding of Westminster, the British In 1881, a bill to regulate civil President was highly appropriate). Parliament gave up all sovereign engineers in Ontario failed to gain Casimir Gzowski, John Kennedy and legislative authority over Canada but, the necessary support to become law. Walter Shanly were the vice- at the request of the provinces, they F.W. Plunkett probably influenced presidents, and Henry T. Bovey the retained the right to approve any this bill. He was an Irish-Canadian Secretary and Treasurer. MacDougall amendments to the BNA. In 1981 who, in 1880, had started to interest was elected to the Society’s Council. the Canada Act was passed which his colleagues in a national group of The Society, which had members transferred the British North engineers, unfortunately unsuccess- from the several different America Act into the Constitution of fully. In 1886 Alan MacDougall, a engineering disciplines extant at that Canada, together with a Charter of Scots-Canadian, tried to do the same time, made its headquarters in Rights and an amending procedure. and meetings were held in Toronto, Montréal. This became law on April 17th, 1982. Montréal and Ottawa to explore the The BNA had assigned certain possibilities of such a group. The legislative powers, including the Montréal meeting, chaired by regulation of the professions for the MacDougall, passed a resolution he First World War marked the protection of the public, to the to form a society of engineers. A T emergence of civil engineering provinces in order to govern the vast, preliminary meeting was held later as a specific discipline in Canada largely unpopulated, country it had in that year to arrange for the along with mechanical and electrical created. establishment of the society, its engineering. Following a report Prior to Confederation, engineers name and its constitution. This tabled by H.E.T. Haultain, in 1917, working in the Provinces and meeting was attended by represen- the Society decided to change its Territories of Canada had tried to set tatives from Montréal, Ottawa name to the Engineering Institute up learned societies with little and Toronto. of Canada (EIC) in order to continue success. Sir Sandford Fleming was In January 1887, a group of to represent all engineering closely associated with the Canadian engineers met, again in Montréal, disciplines, although the civil Institute, founded in 1849, which, to elect members to the newly- engineering membership was in the having broadened its areas of established Canadian Society of Civil majority. The 1887 Act was amended interest, became incorporated in Engineers (CSCE). Members (162) in April 1918 to enable this change to 1851 as the Royal Canadian Institute, were duly elected and 126 more were the Charter. “more particularly for promoting added when the First General There was a great deal of debate in surveying engineering and architecture” Meeting of the Society was held, in the early days of the Canadian Society as Thomas Keefer states in the first Montréal, on February 24th, 1887. of Civil Engineers concerning the presidential address to the newly Officers were elected and an qualifications and expertise that a formed Canadian Society of Civil application to Parliament for a member of the public should seek Engineers in 1888. Charter was approved. As the result from an engineer and, at that time, The formation of Canadian of the efforts of the Irish-Canadian the Society decided that the engineering educational establish- civil engineer Walter Shanly (the regulation of engineers and the ments started in the mid-19th subject, with his brother Frank, of a practice of engineering, by means of century with the first program in recent book by Richard White) who, provincial legislation under the BNA, civil engineering being given at as a Member of Parliament, was not in the best interest of its King’s College. in Fredericton, in sponsored the Private Member’s Bill members. 1854: this college later became part to which Royal Assent was given on In spite of this the young Province of the University of New Brunswick. June 23rd, 1887, the Society obtained of Manitoba appears to have been the 2 The graduates of this and the other its Charter. Two days later, Thomas first to regulate engineering, as it passed “An Act respecting the Attempts to consolidate the Mechanical Engineering (CSME) and Profession of Civil Engineer”, engineering profession into a single the formation of the CSME in in 1896: national organization have always January 1970 were approved. In this failed to gain the required support. way the EIC responded to the major “…for the better protection of the The first, in the 1930s, did not act as Canadian engineering disciplines in public’s interests and more divisively as the second, in 1957, the early 1970s by becoming a particularly for promoting the when, in spite of the EIC and the federation of constituent societies; acquisition of that species of Canadian Council of Professional the CSMF in 1970; the Canadian knowledge which has reference to Engineers (CCPE) forming Geotechnical Society (CGS) (having the profession of a Civil Engineer… committees to study the proposal in already been loosely established and and in order to enable persons depth, the voting (the CCPE functioning since the 1950s as a requiring professional aid in any membership being in favour and the group interested in Soil Mechanics, work, to which such knowledge of EIC opposed) was against the primarily as the result of the efforts Civil Engineering is applicable or concept. of Robert Legget) in January 1972; necessary, to distinguish between As a result of the Second World the Canadian Society for Civil qualified and unqualified Civil War and subsequent Cold War, many Engineering in June 1972 and, later, Engineers.” small specialized learned societies the Canadian Society for Electrical had been formed, causing splintering Engineering. This act, known as “The Manitoba within some of the more traditional The slight change in the names, Civil Engineers Act”, provided that: engineering disciplines. Canada was from Canadian Society of “Xxxx” no exception to this trend, which Engineers to Canadian Society for “…no person shall be entitled was, in some cases, pushed by a “Xxxx” Engineering, was necessitated within this Province to take or use nationalistic reaction to the plethora by the recognition that a constituent the name and title of ‘Civil of groups, based in the United States society’s membership could include Engineer’ implying that he is a of America, who regarded Canada as engineers, and possibly others, member of the said [Canadian] part of their territory.