Judge orders former PPC candidate to stop calling himself an engineer

A judge has ordered a Vancouver Island candidate for the People's Party of Canada in the last federal election to stop calling himself an engineer.

David Hilderman, who ran for the PPC in the Saanich—Gulf Islands riding in 2021, has a university degree in engineering but is not licensed as a professional engineer, according to a recent B.C. Supreme Court judgment. Engineer is a protected title in certain contexts in B.C.

Nonetheless, Hilderman introduced himself as an engineer on his campaign website, the PPC website, his Facebook page and his LinkedIn, the judgment says.

The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. was alerted to those claims during the election campaign, launched an investigation and then made multiple demands that Hilderman stop calling himself an engineer, according to the judgment. He refused.

Justice Jan Brongers found because Hilderman called himself an engineer while also mentioning his degree in applied science and saying he "has worked in the electronics industry," uses his "engineering experience," and is doing "contract engineering work," he has breached the Professional Governance Act.

On Dec. 1, Brongers granted a permanent injunction preventing Hilderman from calling himself an engineer or any other title in a way that "expresses or implies" he is a registered professional engineer.

'I was hoping that sanity would prevail'

Hilderman told CBC that he has now scrubbed his online profiles to be in compliance with the court judgment, but described the regulations surrounding the word "engineer" as absurd.

"I was hoping that sanity would prevail and the judge would go, 'Yeah, this is ridiculous,'" he said.

Hilderman argues that he has an engineering degree, wears an engineer's iron ring and has designed motherboards for personal computers.

"They want to take control of the word engineer, but I don't know what else I can call myself," he said.

"I use applied science. I use applied math and physics to develop products. I don't know what other word I'm supposed to use, but they say that by using the word engineer I'm putting the public at risk. I don't get it."

On its own, the word "engineer" isn't an expressly reserved title under B.C. law. But according to the professional association, it can be misused if the context suggests that someone is a registered professional engineer.

According to Brongers' judgment, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists first reached out to Hilderman in December 2021 and demanded he stop using the title of engineer

"You guys are hilarious! No worries! I'll stop," Hilderman wrote in an email, quoted in the judgment.

But he apparently changed his mind, and two weeks later he told the association that he didn't believe he was describing himself in a way that suggested he was a professional engineer.

"The mere mention of my educational background in the context of a political campaign is not contrary to the Professional Governance Act," he said in the second email.

After a few more exchanges, the association followed up with a letter on April 13, 2022, that gave Hilderman two weeks to comply or face legal action.

In his decision, Brongers writes that Hilderman has clearly broken the rules and, along with issuing the injunction, ordered him to pay costs.

In response, Hilderman told CBC, "I could appeal it, but whatever."

He added that he'd like to see changes to B.C. law when it comes to protections for engineering titles, pointing to legislation tabled in Alberta last month that exempts the title "software engineer" from licensing requirements.