The Voice - Summer 2021 - 14

ADVOCACY IN ACTION
QBS protects the public interest over the life cycle of
the project, including design, construction, operations,
maintenance and eventual upgrading or de-commissioning.
Benefit to Ontarians:
1. Better value to taxpayers
* Encourages innovation, driving value on infrastructure
investments
* Provides accountability by ensuring fees will directly
correspond to the level of service and the value of
deliverables provided
* More realistic and predictable budgets and schedules
for project expenditures
2. Significant life-cycle savings
* Maximizes value while reducing life cycle costs
(engineering typically accounts for only about 2% of
the life cycle cost of a project, but dramatically impacts
the cost and quality of the remaining 98%)
» A recent American Public Works Association
study shows that using QBS for professional
services reduces construction cost overruns from
an average of 10% to less than 3% - equivalent to a
savings of up to $700K on a $10M capital project
3. Benefits for small firms
* Enables small firms to compete, providing a process to
demonstrate competitive advantages over larger firms,
including a greater degree of niche market expertise,
knowledge of the local market and involvement of
senior level management in the execution
4. Promotes communication and technical
innovation
* Provides owners the opportunity to fully define the
scope of work during selection process, resulting in
a project that is thoroughly thought out and fosters
innovative, creative, cost and time-saving approaches
to problems
* Fosters
better
communication
and
business
relationships between owners and proponents as the
process makes them partners in the job
* OSPE has called on its membership to email their
local MPP and the Minister of Finance to inform them of
the benefits of QBS for engineers, infrastructure projects
and the entire province. QBS is good for Ontarians' safety,
it's good for your company's ability to hire and retain the
best talent, and that means it's good for all salaries in our
engineering community.
With the ongoing pandemic and the move towards virtual events,
we have made it a priority to inform our own membership, as
well as potential new members of the advocacy activities OSPE
is engaged in.
Check out OSPE's podcast Engineering the Future for an
episode on Qualifications-Based Selection, featuring OSPE
member and Executive Director of ACEC-Ontario, Bruce
Matthews, P.Eng., and Kristi Doyle, Executive Director and
Adam Tracey, Manager of Policy and Government Relations
at the Ontario Association of
Architects (OAA).
OSPE is working in partnership
with ACEC-Ontario and OAA
to deliver a joint message to the
province: that QBS protects the
public interest and delivers better
quality professional services,
to the benefit of engineers and
architects alike.
Bruce Matthews, P.Eng.
On May 26, 2021, OSPE hosted a webinar on QBS featuring
engineers from across Canada and in the US. Visit OSPE's
YouTube Channel to watch.
14
THE VOICE June 2021
The Voice - Summer 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Voice - Summer 2021
