Frequently Asked Questions

You must apply online unless you are not able to pay by credit card, or you are not paying the standard application fee.

If, for any reason, you are not able to pay online, then you must submit a paper application. For more information, please visit our fees section.

To get a waiver of your licence fee you must qualify and make a request in writing using the Licence Waiver application form. Please visit the Annual Fees, Licence Waiver page to find details.

APEGS does not waive membership fees. When you have a waiver of your license you must maintain your membership. If you have not paid your membership fee by the deadline provided in your approval letter or annual renewal notice, your membership will automatically end.

If you have a license waiver and you want to start working in Saskatchewan again, you must reactivate your license before you start working. If you have a license waiver you do not need to reinstate. You must send an email through the Contact Us page to tell us that you want to start working again. A prorated fee for the remainder of the year will be posted to your online profile. Once you have paid the fee in full, your license will be reactivated.

All applicants, if they have not previously been registered as a professional engineer or professional geoscientist in any province or territory of Canada, regardless of their number of years of experience, must apply as an engineer-in-training or geoscientist-in-training before they can become a professional engineer or professional geoscientist. At this stage in the process, APEGS is only assessing if you meet the academic requirement for licensure as a professional member.

You may only start using these titles after you have received notice stating that your application for member-in-training has been approved, and you have paid the amount specified in the fees notice.

Once you have become registered as a member-in-training with APEGS, you have the right to use the title “Engineer-in-Training” or “Geoscientist-in-Training” in Saskatchewan. The title must be written out in full because the acronyms “EIT” and “GIT” are not designated titles under The Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act or Bylaws, nor are they publicly recognized acronyms. You may use any other title containing the word “Engineer” or “Geoscientist” as long as you also identify yourself as an Engineer-in-Training or Geoscientist-in-Training, as applicable. It must be clear to the public that you are not a professional engineer or professional geoscientist.

For example, the following is acceptable:

Jane Smith, Engineer-in-Training
Project Engineer

John Smith, Geoscientist-in-Training
Exploration Geoscientist

In most cases you must provide your academic documents by obtaining an ICAP Credential Assessment from World Education Services (WES). The assessment must be provided directly to APEGS, by WES.

If there is a legitimate reason why you are not able to get an assessment by WES, then APEGS will work with you to find an acceptable alternative. Please note: you will be required to provide independently verifiable supporting evidence to demonstrate why you are not able to obtain a WES assessment.

If you have a valid reason for not being able to obtain a credential assessment by World Education Services (WES), then you must provide confirmation of graduation and degree by an alternative process. APEGS cannot approve your application as a member-in-training unless your institution has confirmed directly with APEGS which degree you obtained, and when you obtained it. This process is called “direct confirmation of graduation and degree”. Direct confirmation from the university provides us with confidence that an applicant’s documents are authentic.

Notarizing documents: You may submit a copy of original documents notarized as being a true copy of the original by a Notary Public. The Notary Public must do the following: apply their seal, sign, date, and include the text “Certified true copy of the original document” on EACH page of the documents.

Certifying documents: You may submit a copy of original documents verified as being a true copy of the original by a professional engineer or professional geoscientist registered in Canada. The engineer or geoscientist must do the following: apply their professional seal, sign, date, and include the text “Certified true copy of the original document” on EACH page of the documents.

“Official” program syllabus or course descriptions means that the description is published by the institution. They may be published online or as a paper booklet. Contact Us for more information.

At least 3 professional references are required.

References must be provided by a licensed Canadian professional engineer/geoscientist or equivalent. At least one professional reference needs to be provided by a licensed Canadian professional engineer/geoscientist or a Saskatchewan engineering licensee or geoscience licensee, or equivalent licensure category elsewhere in Canada. At least one professional reference needs to be provided by someone who has direct knowledge of your work.

Equivalent refers to:

Saskatchewan Engineering Licensees or Geoscience Licensees, or equivalent categories of licensure elsewhere in Canada, and internationally licensed professionals under any of the professional level mutual recognition agreements to which APEGS is a signatory.

No, applicants who have had their experience assessed in the competency assessment system are not required to provide any additional references.

A table in the Licensee eligibility policy provides the combination of academic and experience requirements for engineering licensee or geoscience licensee.

Scope of practice refers to the specified discipline in which engineering licensee or geoscience licensee holders are licensed to work.

An applicant must provide a minimum of four references with firsthand knowledge of their work. At least three of the references must be a professional engineer or professional geoscientist registered in Canada or the US, or an engineering licensee or geoscience licensee (or equivalent) registered in Canada.

A validator is the person who is verifying your work experience.

A competency validator will confirm that your competency examples are true and accurate. They must have firsthand knowledge of the work described.

A professional reference validator will not validate any specific competencies but will provide their professional assessment of the applicant’s character and readiness for licensure. They must have worked with the applicant during at least one period of employment.

An employment history validator will not validate any competencies but will be required to verify work experience that has not been validated either by using a competency example during that period, or by a professional reference validator from that period.

Competency validators must be engineers or geoscientists or other persons with technical expertise in the area of practice relevant to the example. Competency validators must have firsthand knowledge of the work that they are validating.

Those who are not licensed professional engineers or geoscientists in Canada (or equivalent) are required to provide a brief resume of their professional engineering/geoscience experience and academic qualifications. Staff will review this information to determine if they are an acceptable validator. Validators may be requested to verify their identity by video conference if deemed necessary.

Canadian Experience: If your work experience took place in Canada, your competency validator should be the professional engineer or geoscientist taking professional responsibility for your work. In some cases, the professional engineer or geoscientist taking responsibility for you work may not be your direct supervisor. In this case, you may be allowed to use your supervisor as a competency validator and the professional engineer or geoscientist taking responsibility for your work as a professional reference validator.

International Experience: If your work experience did not take place in Canada, your competency validator should have a 4-year bachelor’s degree in engineering or geoscience and at least 4 years of professional level engineering or geoscience work experience. They may be a colleague, client, or supervisor.

Professional reference validators must be licensed professional engineers or geoscientists or equivalent. Professional reference validators must have worked with the applicant during at least one period of their employment history.

Employment history validators could be a colleague, supervisor, or other person with appropriate authority with the same organization or another organization who they worked with, to confirm the position and employment period (ie. Owner, President or HR Manager, etc.).

Those who are not licensed professional engineers or geoscientists in Canada (or equivalent) are required to provide a brief resume of their qualifications. Staff will review this information to determine if they are an acceptable validator. Validators may be requested to verify their identity by video conference if deemed necessary.

APEGS recognizes that the availability of professional supervisors is industry, project, and company-dependent, and is sympathetic when applicants for professional registration have difficulty finding appropriate professional supervisors for their engineering or geoscience work. To comply with the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act and to obtain acceptable experience for registration, you should:

• Ask your employer to engage the services of a SK registered professional engineer or professional geoscientist in your discipline to provide regular oversight and to take professional responsibility for your work. This will be a definite asset when counting your experience towards registration. It also allows your employer to comply with the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act;
• Consider asking for supervision from SK registered professional engineers or professional geoscientists who are affiliated with your employer and who either have detailed knowledge of your work or can review your work on a regular basis. This can include branches of your company in other provinces, research associates in academia, subsidiaries, etc.;
• Seek out the support of professional engineer or professional geoscientist clients or colleagues who have a detailed knowledge of your work and ask them to act as validators;
• Consider asking for a secondment (i.e., a temporary transfer to another job) with an affiliated company, or a client that has registered professional engineers or professional geoscientists who can supervise your work; and/or
• Seek new professionally supervised employment as soon as the opportunity arises.

Equivalent refers to:

Saskatchewan Engineering Licensees or Geoscience Licensees, or equivalent categories of licensure elsewhere in Canada, and internationally licensed professionals under any of the professional level mutual recognition agreements to which APEGS is a signatory.

In this scenario, please indicate in your example that some details are confidential. Provide as much detail as you are permitted to. The goal is to provide sufficient evidence that you are able to practice competently as a professional engineer. Describe the nature of your work and its complexities without disclosing confidential details about solutions, business processes, client names or locations. You may use surrogate names such as “Project X” in “City/Town Q” then inform the validator separately which project you are referring to by “Project X” and “City/Town Q”. Note that although all APEGS Assessors are bound by confidentiality, it is wise not to disclose proprietary or confidential information because Assessors may work in the same industry or sector as you.

There is no requirement to cover the entire four years of experience through competency examples. Applicants are encouraged to select their strongest examples for each Competency, therefore focusing on recent experience is acceptable. However, the validators who submit feedback must cover at least four years* of experience. If a validator was not given a specific competency to rate, they will see only some general feedback questions.

(*five years for Academic Review Cases)

There is no minimum number of characters required. Examples must be sufficiently detailed to provide the Assessor with an understanding of the nature and level of the work and how it demonstrates to the Competency. The “Situation” and “Outcome” sections are intended to be brief; both have 300-character limits in the online system. The “Action” section should be the most detailed, as it explains what you did to demonstrate the Competency. This section has a 1200-character limit in the online system.

To find the current annual membership and licence fees, please visit our Annual Fees and Licence Waiver page.

Annual fees for members are split into two portions: membership fee and licence fee. Members are eligible to apply for a licence waiver if they are retired or not working in Saskatchewan in one of the following three scenarios:

1. not currently residing in Saskatchewan and not practicing engineering or geoscience on projects or properties located in Saskatchewan; or
2. residing in Saskatchewan, but not practicing engineering or geoscience in Saskatchewan and unemployed (not working at any job whatsoever); or
3. regardless of place of residence:
   • pursuing full-time studies at an educational institution;
   • on maternity, paternity or parental leave;
   • away from the workforce to raise a family or provide elder care;
   • retired and not eligible for Life Membership;
   • on disability leave.

For more information on licence waivers, please visit our Licence Waiver page.

Regulatory Bylaw 13(2) states that “a member who is retired or not working in Saskatchewan may apply to Council to waive the requirements to obtain a licence while the member is retired or not working in Saskatchewan”.  The interpretation of “not working” includes any job, including non-engineering and geoscience jobs.

The opportunity for a waiver is directed specifically to members who are not employed in Saskatchewan.

There are several reasons to apply for a licence waiver while maintaining a membership:

1. All it takes is a phone call to reinstate your licence if you maintain your membership. You would not have to pay the application fee. Application fees are either $200 or $300 plus GST depending on the application type. The membership fee is only $85 plus GST for the year.
2. If you are not registered in any other equivalent Association in Canada, any coverage you have under the National Secondary Professional Liability Insurance Program or the Manulife life-insurance program sponsored by Engineers Canada will NOT be in force after you resign. Keeping your membership active would maintain your coverage.
3. It is a low-cost option for those who are retired but not yet eligible for life membership to maintain their connection to the Association and continue to receive the benefits of membership, including email notices and The Professional Edge.
4. Maintaining your membership ensures you will receive a fees notice for the subsequent year. This would serve as a reminder to renew for potential upcoming projects.

(from section 26 of The Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act, the protected titles are as follows: Professional Engineer, Engineer, Consulting Engineer, P.Eng., Professional Geoscientist, Geoscientist, Consulting Geoscientist, P.Geo.)

If you have a licence waiver, you are permitted to use one of the protected titles but only within Saskatchewan’s borders. You are not licenced to practice professional engineering or professional geoscience in Saskatchewan, nor for projects or properties located elsewhere in Canada unless you are appropriately licenced in the jurisdiction(s) where the projects or properties are located. Note that protected titles may differ in other jurisdictions, and you should inform yourself.

Also note that there should be no need to use a protected title in Saskatchewan if you do not reside in Saskatchewan and you have no engineering or geoscience work on projects or properties located here (which is the reason you qualified for a licence waiver in the first place). If you are not sure if you qualify for a licence waiver, please Contact Us.

If you are granted a licence waiver and sometime later during the year you return to work or obtain engineering or geoscience work on projects or properties located in Saskatchewan, then you shall advise APEGS and pay the appropriate, prorated licence fee.

Call the APEGS office or reach out through our Contact Us page, and we will create the appropriate annual fees notice. You can pay it in one of three ways: by credit card in APEGS Central – the self-serve portal, by credit card number provided over the phone, or you can mail a cheque. Your licence is not reinstated until payment is received.

Let’s say Jane is a professional member and starts her maternity leave on May 15. Jane had already paid full fees for the year (membership and licence fee) by December 31 of the previous year. In November, Jane will receive her annual renewal notice to pay her fees for the next year. Jane will apply for a licence waiver for the next year and request retroactive remission of her licence fee for June to December in the current year, as a result of her maternity leave. Retroactive remission of the licence fee can only be granted based on what has already occurred (not based on future or planned events). Jane therefore applies for the retroactive remission of the licence fee for the current year at the time she receives her renewal notice for the upcoming year.

Upon her return to work, assuming that is one year later on May 15, Jane will call the APEGS office to inform us that she has returned to work and she will be sent a fees notice for May to December (prorated) for the fees due the year she has returned to work. Fees are to be paid within six weeks.

In summary, below are the actions that Jane needs to take. Jane has already paid fees for the entire year in which she starts maternity leave. While on maternity leave, she will receive her renewal notice. She does three things at that time (before December 31), the first two things can be submitted together:

• Prior to December 31, Jane submits the licence waiver application / declaration for the upcoming year by mail or through our Contact Us page, and
• Jane sends a request by mail or through our Contact Us page that states “I am requesting retroactive remission of my licence fee for the previous June to December because I was on maternity leave”.
• Jane pays the $89.25 membership fee (includes GST) for the upcoming year. Payment options are shown on the Info Sheet and the licence waiver application / declaration that came with her fees notice. The licence waiver will not be approved or processed until payment is received. She will receive a credit on her account for the prorated licence fee for June to December ($212.92 plus GST = $223.57).

When Jane returns to work (assuming that is May 15), she calls the APEGS office and informs us that she has returned to work. APEGS will send her a fees notice for the prorated licence fee for May to December ($243.33 plus GST = $255.50). A “Consolidated Dues Statement” will be attached which shows the credit on her account from the previous year’s licence fee ($223.57), so she owes only $31.93. This amount needs to be paid within six weeks.

No. You can self-identify and apply. Application information and forms are posted on the APEGS website annually in September.

No. All applicants will be treated equally and are required to submit the same application. All applicants are evaluated against the desired competencies and a short list of interviewees is selected based upon that evaluation. The final slate of nominees will include those applicants who successfully pass the interview stage.

The Nominating Committee’s role has not changed. They are responsible for putting forward a qualified slate of nominees for the members to vote on in order to elect Councillors. The Nominating Committee will attempt to ensure that there are at least two nominees on the ballot for each vacancy on Council.

The Administrative Bylaws, section 13(1), require that the current Past-President be appointed as the Chair of the Nominating Committee. The Terms of Reference approved by Council indicate that the President-Elect and at least three other APEGS members be appointed to the Nominating Committee. The three other members are appointed for a three-year term. The President-Elect is appointed for a one-year term.

Subsection 9(3) of The Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act, 1997 requires that there always be at least two professional geoscientists and four professional engineers on Council. When an engineer or geoscientist is required to be elected to maintain compliance with the Act, the engineer or geoscientist with the highest number of votes will be elected to Council. For example, if there are four open positions on Council and there are 10 nominees on the ballot, all members can vote for up to four nominees. If it is a year when a geoscientist is required to be elected, the geoscientist with the most votes, even if not in the top four, would be elected, essentially bumping the fourth engineer.

As part of the gap analysis conducted at the beginning of each election cycle, consideration will continue to be given to ensuring a diverse make-up of Council, including representation of members-in-training, geographic locations, industry, gender, ethnicity, etc.