Quebec and French engineers sign agreement

The Quebec order of professional engineers, Ordre des ingenieurs de Quebec (OIQ) has signed an agreement with France to allow mutual recognition of engineers in each country.

The agreement was signed at the Francophonie Summit in Quebec City in September. The agreement is with two French organizations, the Commission des titers d’ingenieur (CTI) of France, and the Conseil national des ingenieurs et des scientifiques de France (CNISF).

In an article in the November 2008 issue of OIQ’s magazine PLAN, OIQ President Zaki Ghavitian, ing. explained that although the French system of licensing is much different to that of Quebec, effectively the “the engineer’s title of a Quebec graduate will have the same value as the title of an engineer who has graduated in France.”

For French engineers to be able successfully to apply to practice in Quebec, they will have to be graduates from certain engineering schools in France.

France already provides more engineering graduates than any other country to OIQ — apparently 1,000 members out of 45,000.  As well, there are more than 300 French companies located in Quebec.

Ghavitian said the next step will involve mobility within Canada as part of the Agreement of Internal Trade (AIT).

The engineering association was proud to be the first professional organization in Quebec to sign a mutual recognition agreement with its sister organizations in France.