People's Party candidate must stop using 'engineer,' B.C. Supreme Court rules

David Hilderman is seen in this photo from his candidate page on the People's Party of Canada website. (peoplespartyofcanada.ca)

Victoria -

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ruled that a Vancouver Island People's Party of Canada candidate who ran against Elizabeth May in the last federal election must stop describing himself as an engineer.

The decision from Justice Jan Brongers says David Hilderman publicly described himself as an engineer in campaign materials and on social media, while not being a member of the province's association of professional engineers and geoscientists.

Brongers found that to be a breach of the province's Professional Governance Act and ordered Hilderman to stop using the title.

The judge didn't accept Hilderman's claim that the association was “attempting to restrain him from accurately describing his educational background in the context of a political campaign which impacts freedom of expression.”

“There is no suggestion that Mr. Hilderman was wrong to indicate that he obtained a Bachelor of Applied Sciences degree,” Bronger's ruling says. “Rather, it is his self-description as an 'engineer' working in the electronics industry in conjunction with the mention of his engineering degree that contravenes … the Act.”

The association filed a lawsuit in 2022 to stop Hilderman from using the word “engineer” as a non-member, claiming it created the “erroneous impression” that he was authorized to practise as a professional engineer.

Hilderman said in an interview with The Canadian Press that it was “unfortunate” he lost the case, but people like him in the tech industry have been targeted by professional regulators for their use of the word “engineer” for years

“I don't understand how the association thinks that this is protecting the public,” he said. “What am I supposed to call myself?”

Hilderman said his work designing and developing electronics for the music industry doesn't infringe upon the association's mandate to designate and regulate “professional engineers.”

He said the strict protections of the use of “engineer” in job titles makes working in other countries difficult because they often ask about “engineering resources,” which he can't commit due to regulatory restrictions.

“When I'm working with a company in Denmark or working with a company in China and they want to know, 'Hey, how much engineering resources can you put on this? How many engineers can you have working on this project?' I've got to tell them none because it's against the law for me to tell them I've got engineers. Like, it's ridiculous.”

He said he understands why a professional engineer designation is important for people who design things used by the public, such as bridges or electric vehicle charging infrastructure, but not for engineers in the tech industry designing hardware or software.

He said the government of Alberta's recent move to exempt software engineers from that province's professional governance legislation is a step in the right direction.

The Alberta government announced last month that it was proposing changes to the provincial Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act to “enable companies to use the software engineer title to attract and retain in-demand skilled talent.”

“Across Canada, job postings from companies have shown widespread use of the software engineer title in the technology industry, in most cases not seeking the qualifications of a registered professional engineer,” the Alberta government said in a statement announcing the changes.

Engineering regulators oppose the move.

“The government's decision to remove title protection for 'software engineer' stems from lobbying by the technology industry, which believes it must use 'software engineer' to recruit top talent to Alberta,” Jay Nagendran, CEO of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, stated at the time. “We believe title protection is vital to preserving public safety and maintaining high standards of practice and ethics.”

But Hilderman said professional engineering regulators are “pretty much completely irrelevant to what we do” in the tech industry.

“The world knows what an engineer does. They understand that in high-tech, you look at all the amazing things we have in our world, all these incredible gadgets, they're engineers that designed it. Like, what else designed these things?” Hilderman said.

The court ruling says the association sent Hilderman a letter in December 2021 demanding that he revise his social media accounts and stop publicly referring to himself as an engineer.

But the judge found Hilderman disagreed with the association's position, claiming he was merely mentioning his educational background as part of his political campaign rather than holding himself as a professional engineer, as defined in the legislation.

The court disagreed and granted the association's bid to prohibit Hilderman from using the title “engineer.”

He said he doesn't think it's worth it to appeal the ruling, but said restraining him from describing his work as “engineering” doesn't make sense.

“They are redefining that word and it is weird,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2023