Innovation Fall 2026

Professional practice inquiries

When multiple parties contribute to a project, who takes professional responsibility?

documents prepared by the sub-consultant’s professionals must be authenticated under its Permit to Practice. When a firm engages an individual professional directly as a sub-consultant, professional documents prepared under that engagement must be authenticated under the firm’s Permit to Practice. In either case, professional responsibility for the work remains with the professional registrant who performed the work. Overall, regardless of the arrangement, professional registrants must only authenticate documents they prepared in their professional capacity or that were prepared under their direct supervision. Registrants should not authenticate a document unless they are able to take professional responsibility for it. Contractual or commercial disputes are not valid grounds for withholding authentication, nor should they be used to pressure a registrant to authenticate a document when the requirements for doing so have not been met. Finally, it is important to recognize that a professional registrant’s legal liability is not determined solely by whether a document has been authenticated. Liability may still arise where a registrant prepared, or directly supervised the preparation of, documents that were delivered to and relied upon by others, regardless of whether those documents were authenticated. Ryan Dai, MSc, EIT Practice Advisor

Engineering and geoscience projects are often interdisciplinary and complex, requiring input from multiple professionals. Effective coordination and collaboration are essential to achieving outcomes that protect the public interest and the environment. When more than one individual contributes to professional work, it is important to clearly define the allocation of professional responsibility. In practice, professional responsibility is typically assumed in one of a few ways: • multiple professionals contributing within their respective areas of expertise; • a supervising professional assuming responsibility for work completed under their direct supervision; and • consultant and sub-consultant arrangements. When multiple professional registrants take professional responsibility for portions of a single work product, each registrant must authenticate the document and clearly identify the portion of the work for which they are taking professional responsibility. Under the principle of direct supervision, a supervising professional must be aware of and actively involved in the work throughout its development. This involvement must be documented. Because the supervising professional assumes full professional responsibility for the work, they must authenticate documents prepared under their direct supervision. If one registrant firm, Firm A, engages another registrant firm, Firm B, as a sub-consultant, professional

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Innovation Fall 2026

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