President’s Message
By: President Tara Zrymiak, P.Eng., FEC
Engineers and geoscientists are notoriously reluctant to brag about their accomplishments.
I myself was caught like a deer in the headlights while sitting on the panel at the recent Women’s History Month event in Regina when a member of the audience (none other than our own Past President Dwayne Gelowitz) asked us to describe something that we had done in our professional or volunteer lives that made us proud, and why. As I’m sure would happen to many of you, I drew a blank at first. I didn’t think anything I had done was worthy of making me feel proud. I am grateful that my fellow panellists answered first to give me some time to think.
I’m happy to say that I did eventually come up with an answer. Afterwards, I thanked Dwayne for posing the question. As much as we don’t always want to admit it, some of the things we do are worth bragging about and it’s good to have someone force us to do so every now and then.
This edition of The Professional Edge is all about recognizing and celebrating great achievements made by some of the humble people who practise engineering and geoscience in our province and elsewhere. I was excited to have the opportunity to see two such remarkable achievements when I was in Charlottetown this past November attending the Engineers PEI Annual Meeting.
Prince Edward Island gets most its power from New Brunswick through underwater cables. One of the professional development tracks was a field trip hosted by Maritime Electric to see where two new upgraded cables are in the process of being pulled across the Northumberland Strait to satisfy the increasing power needs of the island. It is 17.5 kilometres from the New Brunswick coast to a huge substation in Borden-Carleton, PEI. The Isaac Newton, a specialized ship from Sweden, can lay the cable over that distance in a single day followed by specially modified boats that take two weeks to dump gravel on top of the cable to bury it. Of course, the whole operation takes much longer than that because they need to wait for a long enough window of fairly ideal weather to complete each of the tasks precisely and safely.
I was also excited to finally get a chance to see the Confederation Bridge, especially with a personal tour by outgoing Engineers PEI president Dave Taylor. This remarkable engineering achievement is the longest bridge over waters that freeze, which adds extra challenge due to the awesome power of moving ice. The piers of this bridge are therefore specially designed to be ice breakers to minimize damage when the strait is frozen. It was disconcerting to be looking at a bridge without being able to see the far end, because of its length and the slight curve that was apparently included in the design to help keep drivers awake on the 10-minute trip across. Wind also affects travel on the bridge, which can be subject to restrictions or closed altogether when wind speeds are too high.
We have equally amazing engineering and geoscience achievements to celebrate here in Saskatchewan. I encourage you also to check into the achievements highlighted in the following pages – everything from new and upgraded testing facilities to innovations in industrial and municipal works. Despite the economic downturn, our members are still finding ways to make a difference.
The previous edition of The Edge included the list of the ACEC-SK Awards of Distinction winners for 2016 – an impressive group of individuals and teams. A new award this year is the Mentor Award. I was thrilled to attend the event to see it awarded to Dave Kent, P.Eng., FEC who is the chief engineer at Clifton & Associates. Not only is Dave a technical specialist in many disciplines (and currently mentoring over 150 people), he also finds time to volunteer as an APEGS Councillor. All of these are truly remarkable accomplishments but Dave’s main response to winning the mentorship award was to thank ACEC-SK for creating an award for something that he feels is so important. Congratulations Dave, and thank you for all you do!
One other event that I was pleased to attend recently was the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Economic Leadership Forum in Boise, Idaho in November. It was very interesting to participate in various types of sessions with delegates from the western provinces and the northwestern states, especially just one week after the American federal election. It is amazing how different the priorities and challenges are in Washington State, Idaho and Montana, even beyond the somewhat polarizing positions regarding federal politics. Despite these differences, the working group sessions were informative and productive and the engineering regulators reception was once again a social highlight.
The work featured in this magazine is only a small subset of all the great work being done in this province. I applaud all our members for their achievements over the last year. Your work is worthy of praise and accolades. Don’t be afraid to tell people about it!
TOP: Engineering Regulators dinner at PNWER Economic Leadership Forum in Boise, Idaho (l to r): Doreen Wilson, Tara Zrymiak, P.Eng., FEC, Leah McDonald, Keith Simila, P.E., Executive Director Idaho Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors, Shawna Argue, P.Eng., MBA, FEC, FCSSE, FGC(Hon), Colin Smith, P.Eng., FEC, CSSE, Past President APEGBC, Bob McDonald, P.Eng., MBA, LL.B., FEC, FGC (Hon.), FCSSE