2006-07

We express our satisfaction and gratification in belonging to a dynamic and diverse society, envied around the world. This year, while we are highlighting the 10^th anniversary of National Aboriginal Day, we paid tribute to the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis citizens, their rich heritage, and their remarkable contribution to Canadian society.

Canada Day

On June 20, 1868, a proclamation signed by the Governor General, Lord Monck, called upon all Her Majesty's loving subjects throughout Canada to join in the celebration of the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada on July 1^st.

The July 1^st holiday was established by statute in 1879, under the name Dominion Day.

There is no record of organized ceremonies after this first anniversary, except for the 50^th anniversary of Confederation in 1917, at which time the new Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, under construction, was dedicated as a memorial to the Fathers of Confederation and to the valour of Canadians fighting in the First World War in Europe.

The next celebration was held in 1927 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation. It was highlighted by the laying of the cornerstone by the Governor General of the Confederation Building on Wellington Street and the inauguration of the Carillon in the Peace Tower.



	Major Language Families
		Ojibway
		Cree
		Other Algonquian Families
		Inuktitut
		Athapaskan
		(Siouan) Dakota
		Salish
		Tsimshian
		Wakashan
		Iroquoian
		Haida
		Tlingit
		Kutenai

The current 50 languages of Canada's indigenous peoples belong to 11 major language families - ten First Nations and Inukti. Canada's Aboriginal languages are many and diverse, and their importance to indigenous people immense. This map shows the major aboriginal language families by community in Canada for the year 1996, and it is a part of a series of three maps that comprise Aboriginal Languages.

Some language families are large and strong in terms of viability, others small and vulnerable. The three largest families, which together represent 93% of persons with an Aboriginal mother tongue, are Algonquian (with 147 000 people whose mother tongue is Algonquian), Inuktitut (with 28 000) and Athapaskan (with 20 000). The other eight account for the remaining 7%. Tlingit, one of the smallest families, has a mere 145 people in Canada whose mother tongue is that language. Similar variations apply to individual languages - Cree, with a mother tongue population of 88 000, appears immense when compared with Malecite at 660. Geography is an important contributor to the diversity, size and distribution of Aboriginal languages across Canada's regions. Open plains and hilly woodlands, for example, are ideal for accommodating large groups of people. Because of the terrain, groups in these locations can travel and communicate with each other relatively easily, and often tend to spread over larger areas.

On the other hand, soaring mountains and deep gorges tend to restrict settlements to small pockets of isolated groups. British Columbia's mountainous landscape with its numerous physical barriers was likely an important factor in the evolution of the province's many separate, now mostly small, languages. Divided by terrain, languages such as Salish, Tsimshian, Wakashan, Haida, Tlingit and Kutenai could not develop as large a population base as the widely spread Algonquinian (particularly Cree and Ojibway) and the Athapaskan languages, whose homes are the more open central plains and eastern woodlands.

Geography can also influence the likelihood of a language's survival. Groups located in relatively isolated regions, away from the dominant culture, face fewer pressures to abandon their language. They tend to use their own language in schooling, broadcasting and other communication services and, as a result, are likely to stay more self-sufficient. Communities living in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, the northern regions of Quebec and Labrador - the Inuit, Attikamek and Montagnais-Naskapi - are examples of such groups.

Because of their large, widely dispersed populations, the Algonquian languages account for the highest share of Aboriginal languages in all provinces except British Columbia and in the territories, ranging from 72% in Newfoundland to nearly 100% in the other Atlantic Provinces. In both British Columbia and the Yukon, the Athapascan languages make up the largest share (26% and 80%, respectively), while Inuktitut is the most prominent Aboriginal language in the Northwest Territories and practically the only one in Nunavut. British Columbia, home to about half of all individual Aboriginal languages, is the most diverse in Aboriginal language composition. However, because of the small size of these language groups, the province accounts for only 7% of people with an Aboriginal mother tongue.

Association of Bulgarian Engineers in Canada – ABEC

The Council of the Association of Bulgarian Engineers in Canada is bringing to the attention of all Bulgarian Engineers in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, the signed Agreement between TD Meloche Monnex and the Coalition “European Engineers”. The Coalition is formed from the Associations of Bulgarian, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian Engineers in Canada.

The Group Insurance Affinity Agreement provided to “European Engineers” by Meloche Monnex allows the Members to participate at preferred group rates to obtain home, automobile, travel and small business (micro enterprise) insurance coverage for the members, their spouses and children living at home.

The program conditions, administration, marketing, confidentiality, indemnifications are similar for all professional and alumni association programs (CIM, PEO).

The TD Meloche Monnex home and auto program offered to groups is underwritten by Security National Insurance Company and distributed by Meloche Monnex Financial Services Inc. Due to provincial legislation, the automobile insurance program is not offered in British Columbia, Saskatchewan or Manitoba. The group auto insurance rates are not applicable in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island

Please note that we are in the process of preparing an “Eligibility List” for Meloche Monnex. Only Members of ABEC in good standing will have their name activated into the group of the “European Engineer”. To be a Member of ABEC you must possess a Degree from Technical Engineering Universities and paid-up membership fees of 50 dollars CDN.

Please communicate this announcement to your friends, colleagues and compatriots, so more Bulgarian Engineers could use this Insurance Program.

The Bulgarian Engineers are highly knowledgeable professionals working with honesty, competence and integrity all over the world.

Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) expressed support for the proposed legislation announced today by the provincial government to assist internationally trained professionals gain access to their chosen professions.

“PEO has always fully supported fair and inclusive registration practices that permit the association to regulate the practice of professional engineering and govern licence and certificate holders to protect and serve the public interest,” said Patrick J. Quinn, P.Eng., President, PEO. “This legislation provides the public an open and transparent means to validate these practices and demonstrates a commitment by the government to self-governance of professions.”

As the licensing and regulating body for engineering in the province, PEO relies on the contributions of international engineering graduates. In its 84-year history, more than half of PEO’s elected presidents were educated and trained outside Canada. A similar percentage of professional engineers educated elsewhere volunteer on PEO committees, including those that assess the academic and experience qualifications of licence applicants.

“We’re proud that qualified international graduates play a vital and growing role in the profession,” said Kim Allen, P.Eng., Chief Executive Officer and Registrar, PEO.

“Approximately one-third of Ontario’s 68,000 licensed engineers were educated outside Canada, a testament to PEO’s continuous efforts to facilitate the licensing of internationally trained professionals, while maintaining high standards to protect the public.”

Since 2000, applicants from over 1000 institutions world-wide have been granted licences by PEO. In 2005, for the first time, PEO licensed more international engineering graduates than graduates of Canadian accredited engineering programs, although only 25 per cent of international graduates typically apply for licensure.

Professional Engineers Ontario administers the Professional Engineers Act by licensing profession engineers, and setting standards for and regulating engineering in Ontario so that the public interest is served and protected. Rigorously educated, experienced, and committed to a Code of Ethics that puts the public first, licensed professional engineers can be identified by the P.Eng. after their names.

Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006
By Jane Cullingworth, Executive Director, Skills for Change

On June 8, Bill 124 – An Act to Provide for Fair Registration Practices in Ontario's Regulated Professions<http://www.skillsforchange.org/sfcenews/pdf/b124.pdf> - passed first reading in the Ontario legislature. The intent, as stated in the Act, is to "help ensure that regulated professions and individuals applying for registration by regulated professions are governed by registration

Immigration Minister Mike Colle

The legislation requires that regulatory bodies review their regulatory processes to ensure transparency, objectivity, impartiality and fairness; requires annual reports on compliance with the fair registration practices as outlined in the Act; and requires independent audits be conducted every three years. These reports will be publicly available. The Act creates a Fair Registration Practices Commissioner, reporting directly to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, to oversee the implementation of and compliance with the legislation. Included in the Act are penalties for non-compliance ($50,000 for individuals; $100,000 for corporations).

The Act also creates an Access Centre for Internationally Trained Individuals to provide information and assistance to the internationally trained. The Centre will also conduct research and will provide information and assistance to government, regulators, the community andother stakeholders. Also included in this initiative, though outside of the legislation, is the creation of a Minister's Roundtable on Fair Access to Regulated Professions, comprised of diverse stakeholders to provide advice and support to the government.

The legislation is a bold and welcome step. The question of "regulating the regulators" is a controversial and intensely political issue – one that has attracted much debate and contention but very little action.

This Act is the first piece of legislation of its kind and is very progressive in its measures to increase transparency through legislation. The Act has received much public support, including from many in the regulatory community. It is the duty of occupational regulatory bodies to regulate in the public interest; it is also in the public interest to ensure that there is transparency, objectivity, impartiality and fairness in those regulatory processes. This Act creates the foundation for transparency that will ensure greater accountability for us all.

If you an Engineer, Technician or Technologist trained outside Canada, get information NOW on how to obtain a certificate in your profession in Ontario.

Skills for Change is inviting you to attend an information session on the following topics:

Guest Speaker: Ontario Association of Engineering Technicians and Technologists (OACETT)

GROUND BREAKING NEWS!

Skills for Change Employment Resource Centre will be moving soon to our new permanent location at 1139 College Street West (west of Dufferin Street).

We will be providing more details and keeping you posted via e-mail and online at www.derc.ca.

The Skills for Change Employment Resource Centre (previously known as the DUFFERIN MALL EMPLOYMENT RESOURCE CENTRE) is operating temporarily out of Skills for Change.

Please sign up for our newsletter at www.derc.ca <http://www.derc.ca>, so that we can let you know when we have found a new permanent location.

We hope to see you at 791 St. Clair West, where we will continue to offer our amazing services including:

TechSkills

TechSkills specializes in hands-on, instructor-led training in the latest software applications. We offer instructors with years of real-world expertise in a fun informal setting, teaching everything from basic web site development to more advanced accounting and database design.

Our courses are structured to encourage beginners and professionals to start at the level that matches their skills and to lead them progressively to more advanced topics. Because our classes are limited in size, students have more hands-on interaction with the instructor.

Tuition tax credit forms will be issued. Some classes are held at another location. Additional materials or textbook fees may be charged for some courses. EI recipients welcomed.

Ontario Network for Internationally-training Professionals Online
<http://www.onip.ca/> (ONIP)

Engineering Jobs

Compact Tidal Generator Could Reduce The Cost Of Producing Electricity From Flowing Water

What happens if you run an electric motor backwards? That is exactly what researchers Dr Steve Turnock and Dr Suleiman Abu-Sharkh from the University of Southampton asked themselves after they had successfully built an electric motor for tethered underwater vehicles, using funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The well-known answer to this question is that it stops being a motor and becomes a generator. Instead of using electricity to turn a propeller and drive the vehicle along, the flow of water turns the propeller, generating electricity. What’s new about the Southampton design is its simplicity. “This is a compact design that does away with many of the moving parts found in current marine turbines. It’s a new take on tidal energy generation,” says Turnock.

Computer generated image of the integrated electric generator. (Image courtesy of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)

Most current tidal stream generators are essentially wind turbines turned upside down and made to work underwater. They often include complex gearboxes and move the entire assembly to face the flow of the water. For example, they turn a half a circle as the tidal current reverses direction. Gears and moving parts require expensive maintenance, especially when they are used underwater. This pushes up the cost of running the turbines, a cost that is passed on to the consumers of the generated electricity. The Southampton design does not need to turn around because the design of its turbine blades means that they turn equally well, regardless of which way the water flows past them. The blades are also placed in a specially shaped housing that helps channel the water smoothly through the turbine.

Another beauty of the Southampton design is that everything is wrapped in a single package that can be prefabricated so there will be few on-site construction costs. “Just drop it into flowing water and it will start generating electricity. It will work best in fast flowing, shallow water,” says Turnock, who foresees rows of these devices secured to sea floors and riverbeds.

The present prototype is just twenty-five centimetres across and the research team now plan to design a larger model with improved propeller blades that will further increase the efficiency of generating electricity. All being well, the team envisage the generator becoming commercially available within five years.

Using funding from EPSRC and industry in the early 2000s, Abu-Sharkh, Turnock and their team created a novel tethered underwater vehicle thruster that used electricity to turn a ducted propeller, providing thrust to control the vehicle’s position and speed. Tethered underwater vehicles are extensively used in the offshore industry for conducting underwater inspections and robotic manipulation. An overall propulsion system based on electrical thrusters is much smaller and lighter than the traditional hydraulic thrusters used in tethered underwater vehicles. So using the new ones reduces the weight of the vehicles, meaning that they require less power to move them and so are cheaper to run. The concept of an electricity generator sprang out of the fundamental research involved in the hydrodynamic and electrical design of the integrated electric thruster. These thrusters, manufactured under licence by the local Hampshire company TSL, are already in use around the world for a variety of underwater vehicle applications.

Funding for these tests (which build on the original EPSRC-funded work) was provided as part of the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences’ MSc programme in Maritime Engineering Science.

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NASA's airborne infrared observatory, SOFIA- Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, will rise like a phoenix into the skies after a near brush with death. After being threatened with cancellation, the mission will be funded after all, NASA administrator Michael Griffin says.

SOFIA will scan the heavens from the side of a Boeing 747 aircraft flying at an altitude of 13 kilometres (Artist's impression: NASA)

FIA is the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a 2.5-metre infrared telescope mounted on a Boeing 747 jet. Flying above 99% of the atmosphere's infrared-blocking water vapour, it will provide detailed views of phenomena such as planet formation and matter spiralling into supermassive black holes.

The observatory was developed for NASA by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). It was almost ready for flight tests in February 2006, when NASA decided to eliminate its funding from 2007 and put the project under review because it was behind schedule and over budget (see NASA leaves jumbo-jet telescope on the runway).

The possible cancellation of the observatory sparked criticism from some astronomers who questioned the logic of abandoning the project at such a late stage. In the wake of unrest over this and other cuts to science projects, NASA has held a series of meetings with its newly reorganised scientific advisory committees (see Criticism over NASA science budget grows).

The science subcommittees of NASA's Advisory Council met on Thursday and Friday in Washington, DC, US, to prioritise which scientific missions NASA should fund. On Thursday morning, Griffin announced at the meeting that NASA would restore funding to SOFIA.

"The administrator did confirm that the agency would continue with SOFIA," NASA spokesperson Dwayne Brown told New Scientist.

But the boost for SOFIA comes at the cost of another project - NASA's Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), which would hunt for planets only slightly larger than the Earth around other stars. Brown said it would not be cancelled but would have to be "refocused".

This might mean the mission will be delayed beyond 2015 or 2016, which itself represented a three-year delay from NASA's original goal and was described in NASA's 2007 budget request to Congress.

The budget request has now passed through the House of Representatives but must also be studied by the Senate. Both the House and the Senate will then have to hammer out a budget on which they can both agree.

On June 25^th 2006 our Regular meeting took place in the beautiful building of the Central Library of Richmond Hill - the City above Toronto.

The lecture was very interesting and well received by the participants. Mr. George-Cosh gave some inside tips and advice for members who attend interviews in front of the Experience Committee. Everybody had a chance to purchase an Admission Guide to PEO.

Dear Colleagues, if you have any interesting technical news or articles in digital form, Please send them to us for the next monthly news.

July 2006

Dear Colleagues,