ENGINEERING & GEOSCIENCE WEEK
ACEC-SK Engineering our Economy
The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Saskatchewan (ACEC-SK) represents engineering firms working in the private sector. ACEC-SK has had a very successful year of advocacy and increasing our relevance to government.
The legacy of our risk committee, which contains our most senior members, produced a discussion paper named “Engineering our Future/economy”. This guideline for the association will be used for years to come. The paper has very important messaging, speaking to how engineering directly contributes to the GDP of Saskatchewan and supports and improves the productivity and competitiveness of major provincial export and revenue generators.
The talent of ACEC-SK member firms is in demand globally. Member firms provide technology-based consulting services to government and private sector clients in Saskatchewan, across Canada and in numerous countries world-wide.
Engineering has been firmly established in Saskatchewan since the early days of western settlement in the 19th century and has contributed in many ways to the modern society we live in today.
Canada’s biggest road-building project is a significant engineering achievement and an important conduit for Canadians across the country. Between 1949 and 1970 Canada spent nearly $1.5 billion to create the TRANS-CANADA Highway. Also, the rapid growth of western Canada was another of the major early 20th century changes transforming Canadian life and economy. Some settled areas required elaborately engineered water storage and irrigation networks. Grain that could not get to market had little or no value and feeder roads leading to rail lines were not enough. Nationwide transfer and storage networks had to be built and this made the modern grain elevator one of the cultural icons of western Canada. In western Canada urban growth also required dealing with special problems such as development of alkali-resistant concrete that would withstand western soils without premature decay and failure. Also, in Western Canada petroleum engineering became a mature professional field both with conventional deposits and with heavy crude deposits long known to exist but difficult to process.
Through time the profession has used science and technology to advance civilization through sound planning, innovative designs, advanced construction techniques and analysis and reduction of life-cycle costs. Today with the use of advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, Intelligent Transportation systems and rapid technologies in renewable energies, engineering will continue to play a crucial role to the growth of the economy.