OSPE - The Voice - Fall 2020 - 5

CEO'S MESSAGE

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
was fraught with unpredictability, confusion
and fear.
As layoffs spread across sectors and the
economy threatened to collapse, many
industries moved purely into damage
control mode, focusing solely on efforts
to minimize the effects of the virus. At
OSPE, we were no different. As we swiftly
changed our habits to work from home,
so too did our advocacy priorities shift to
counteract the instability brought on by
the global pandemic-the first of its kind
in the modern, digital age. It became vital
to devote our resources to the pandemic as
it forever altered our habits, procedures,
and processes, and to try to gain an
understanding of how we could help in the
immediate short-term.
As we've communicated to our
members, this resulted in many short-term
measures aimed at "stopping the bleeding."
We created our resource page, shifted the
focus of our social media channels, and
quickly brought together our COVID-19
Economic Recovery Group, whose purpose
was to put together recommendations by
engineers aimed at carrying the profession
through the recovery stages. The
Economic Recovery Group's efforts were
a response to newly enacted government
policies, which, in turn, were a response
to the fluctuating pandemic. Keeping pace
with the rapidly changing virus was our
number one priority. As there was a lack
of COVID-19 data available, we utilized
historical sources, anecdotal evidence, and
forecasting to try and understand how best
to work alongside this virus.
We thank our members for the vital
work of sharing their stories while
undergoing their own unique hardships.
As we've heard from many industry
partners who pivoted to produce PPE for
our healthcare professionals, so too did we

hear from parents who had to make shifts
in child care, new graduates with altered
summer plans, and established employees
learning new technology to work from
home. Our OSPE pillars of Lead, Care,
and Unite, have been exemplified by the
engineering community who used their
technical knowledge to produce
apps to discover communities,
and discovered new, innovative
ways to localize supply chains and
produce testing facilities.
Our next steps are simple.
As the industry creates its "new
normal" and things slowly begin to
re-open, we believe this is the time
to rely on engineering principals
of discovering solid, evidencebased solutions to our problems. We will
be increasing our efforts to research the
true impact of the pandemic and discover,
not just through anecdote, but through
research, which groups were most
impacted by the pandemic and the best way
we can devise recommendations to help
them going forward. Our newly launched
OEA is providing a robust, ramped up
virtual learning platform that will allow
engineers to continue on their path of lifelong education with safety, flexibility, and
cost in mind.
No engineer will be left behind. The
statistics prove that a single engineering
job produces a number of corollary jobs.
The social impact of engineers is
undeniable, and the status of the province
relies on the health of the engineering
industry. We continue our ongoing
conversations with government, industry,
and academia to push for the economic
recovery of engineers, knowing full well
that it will affect the entire province.

As we stand on the cusp of a digital
transformation, sped up by the spread of
COVID-19, we will position engineers as
thought leaders and innovators, tasked
specifically with guiding our society into
this new era.

Our next steps are simple. As the
industry creates its "new normal"
and things slowly begin to re-open,
we believe this is the time to
rely on engineering principals of
discovering solid, evidence-based
solutions to our problems.

Sandro Perruzza
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,

Ontario Society of Professional Engineers

Fall 2020 THE VOICE

5
OSPE - The Voice - Fall 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of OSPE - The Voice - Fall 2020
