Derek van Nes, P.Eng.

Please tell us about your personal background.

I am originally from Hepburn, SK where one side of the family farms and the other owned the general store, but I currently live in the Regina area with my wife of 28 years and 3 kids. That said, I’ve moved around a lot and spent significant time in various places across Ontario and the western provinces, including Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Prince Albert, Gillam, Waterloo, Weyburn, Strathmore, Calgary, and the Crowsnest Pass.

Why did you choose engineering, and what is your area of specialty?

Originally, I planned to follow the footsteps of my grandfather and become a Pastor, but part way through that bible school degree I realized I’d rather fix concrete than people. I finished that degree but started at the U of S College of Engineering immediately thereafter. I chose civil engineering because it seems the most broad and varied in scope. I’ve always preferred to be more of a generalist than a specialist. Civil engineering also shared similarities to my dad’s career. He was an architectural technologist with a drafting table in the basement family room. I was also fortunate to be able to take hand-drafting classes in high school in Prince Albert. I love the smell of ammonia prints early in the morning.

My first post-graduate job was with Manitoba Hydro. Engineers in Training hired at that time rotated departments every six months. I soon fell into what became a permanent role doing maintenance engineering and small capital projects for the lower Nelson River hydroelectric and HVDC infrastructure. I loved the pace, action, and tangible results of construction projects as well as the autonomy of working in northern and remote areas.

For most of my career I have been an owner’s-side project manager and manager/director of project engineering and construction teams. Currently I am using that expertise to as Owner’s Engineer managing various capital projects related to dams, spillways, and irrigation all around the province from Val Marie to Moosomin to Cowan Lake and everything in between.

Where and when did you study, and how would you describe that experience?   

I really enjoyed my internships and summer jobs when I was at the U of S. It’s always rewarding to be doing practical hands-on things in the field and travelling around rural Canada. I was a student operator in the Weyburn oilfield as CO2 flood was being rolled out, in shallow gas around Strathmore, and SAGD out of the Calgary corporate office. For my internship I was a pit surveyor at the Coal Mountain mine south of Sparwood, BC. In addition to the Civil Engineering degree from the U of S I also have a M.Sc. in International Construction Management from the University of Bath in England. I did that mostly for the sense of accomplishment. I wrote my dissertation locked in an unfinished basement while toddlers sort of slept upstairs.

What are some of the most interesting, rewarding, and/or challenging experiences you have had?   

Finding out that, despite drilling, you missed finding some discontinuous permafrost under your 4-plex apartment building foundation is always a bit exciting! I think the most rewarding has been leading high performing teams who can also have a lot of fun at work. This was true at Manitoba Hydro and with Mosaic Potash where our young and green Belle Plaine engineering team churned out a lot of high-quality capital projects while also setting some year-over-year contractor safety records. I highly recommend northern and remote work for any Engineer-in-Training that wants to gain experience quickly – both technical and general life experience. I once had to devise a way to expedite getting a carton of cigarettes to a fly-in hydroelectric station otherwise the tilesetter refused to start work.

What have you appreciated most about your engineering journey?   

I’ve had some great engineering mentors and supervisors (Mike Crawford, Glen Schick, Gerry Couture) and have also worked with some fabulous technologists, technicians, and tradespeople (Heather Globush, Randy Romas, Barry Dickinson, George Wicek, Ken Hiebert, Terry Bender) who have kept me grounded, humble, and exposed to very practical, actionable ways to do design, project management, and construction. I firmly believe that as engineers we ignore the input of technologists and trades at our peril! Also keep the admin reps on your side as they are often the glue that keeps it all together and they also have all the good intel.

Please share a few words about your time on the APEGS Council.

I volunteered for council as a way to re-engage with volunteering after the busy years of young kids were over and as an opportunity to give back to the profession. My brain is wired as a short-term, task-oriented driver / do-er. Shifting to a long-term governance perspective is a useful skillset I am developing while on council.

Would you recommend council service to other APEGS members?

Yes. Having now had a peek behind the curtain I can say that the council and executive try really hard to do everything right and always consider the needs of the membership while also being the engineering and geoscience regulator that the provincial government requires us to be.

What activities or interests do you enjoy outside of work?

I like international adventure travel, but it has been a few years. I’ve hiked to Everest Base Camp and around the Annapurnas in Nepal. Always odd to be flying back to Kathmandu at “our cruising altitude of 10,000 feet” when just days prior you were standing without supplementary oxygen at 18,500 feet.

Anything else you’d like to add?

A reminder for our membership to visit the APEGS website and fill in the e-form to nominate folks for awards. We engineers often do a poor job of recognizing our peers.