Letters to the editor In defence of engineers

It is disheartening to learn that some people have such a poor impression of the abilities and attitudes of professional engineers. Canadian mining engineers have developed innovative mining techniques that are recognized and used internationally but appear to have gone unnoticed by the reader who stereotypes them as “boorish, beer swilling louts” (T.N.M., Jan.28/91). Your reader advocates that abolishing professional engineering Acts would permit more “creative” people a chance to solve “serious technical problems.” Try as I might, I find nothing in the Professional Engineers Act of Ontario that prohibits creative individuals from problem solving (so long as they have the technical qualifications). I would certainly think twice about standing under a pit wall designed by a “creative individual” who knew nothing about rock mechanics. John Paterson, P.Eng. Carlisle, Ont.