THE DISCIPLINE FILE
Case No.: 17-009-FH continued
environment. 2. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall undertake only work that they are competent to perform by virtue of their training and experience. 3. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall conduct themselves with integrity, honesty, fairness and objectivity in their professional activities. 4. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall comply with applicable statutes, regulations and bylaws in their professional practices. 5. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall uphold and enhance the honour, dignity and reputation of their professions and thus the ability of the professions to serve the public interest. The parties also made a joint submission on penalty at the hearing. Following questions from the Hearing Panel at the hearing, the parties agreed that they would make further written submissions on penalty. The Hearing Panel accepted the modified joint submission on penalty and made the following orders: 1. "Structural engineering" is defined as a sub- discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to understand, predict, and calculate the stability, strength, and rigidity of built structures. Structural engineers determine the natural and human-imposed forces that all elements of the structure must resist and select the materials and geometry of those elements and their connections so that the structure will safely withstand those forces. 2. Mr. Jhinjar shall be restricted from practising structural engineering, including but not limited to the design of tall walls, for a period of at least one (1) year from the date this sanction is imposed by the Discipline Committee by its written decision. 3. Mr. Jhinjar shall be restricted from the practice of structural engineering, including but not limited to the design of tall walls, until he has both completed his (1) year of restricted practice and has successfully undertaken and completed the following, to the satisfaction of the Discipline Committee: a. A university-level engineering course in structural analysis and design, such as Steel and Wood Design (NAIT, CIVL 2310);
used [Professional Engineer A’s] stamp on those two occasions. The Hearing Panel accepted the agreed statement of facts. The Hearing Panel found there was sufficient evidence to support the Admissions of Unprofessional Conduct made by Mr.Jhinjar and S&M Project Services Inc. in relation to all three amended charges and that the conduct constitutes unprofessional conduct. The Hearing Panel noted that Mr. Jhinjar cooperated throughout the hearing and hearing process. For charge 1, the tall wall designs were deficient and included a consistent pattern of errors, signifying a lack of sufficient understanding of structural engineering to be able to practise in a skilled manner. For charge 2, professional engineers are expected to conduct themselves with integrity and honesty. A breach of an undertaking signed with the regulator is clearly serious and inappropriate conduct that falls below the standard expected of a member of the profession. APEGA must be able to rely upon the honesty and integrity of its members, and members must be fully honest in the promises they make to APEGA. Such conduct also calls into question Mr. Jhinjar’s governability as a member and demonstrates poor professional judgment by Mr. Jhinjar. For charge 3, Mr. Jhinjar acknowledged that he improperly used another member’s stamp on those two occasions. It is serious unprofessional conduct to misuse the stamp of another professional member and is, further, a serious lapse in professional judgment. The Hearing Panel found that Mr. Jhinjar’s conduct was detrimental to the best interests of the public. His conduct in issuing deficient tall wall designs displayed a lack of knowledge or lack of skill or judgment in the practice of the profession, specifically structural engineering; his conduct harmed the standing of the profession generally when he breached the undertaking of APEGA; and his conduct in improperly applying the stamp of another professional member is detrimental to the best interests of the public and contravened the Code of Ethics . Mr. Jhinjar’s conduct clearly breached the Code of Ethics Rules of Conduct #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5. Code of Ethics 1. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall, in their areas of practice, hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public and have regard for the
57 | PEG SUMMER 2019
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