Recent efforts by the Manitoba government to settle a dispute between architects and engineers in the province have left one of the parties unsatisfied.

The two groups have been battling over a Court of Queen's Bench ruling in September that declared engineers' services inadequate for the construction of buildings more than 400 sq. m (4,305 sq. ft.), and for such structures, architects must approve plans and drawings.

On Nov. 7, Nancy Allan, Manitoba's labour and immigration minister, stepped into the dispute between the professions, proposing changes to the Manitoba Building Code (MBC) and the architects and engineers acts in an effort to clarify the professions' roles.

"We do not want the recent court ruling to bog down Manitoba's impressive construction boom," Allan says in a statement. "We have consulted with the two professions as well as construction industries and municipal governments, and have introduced a workable solution that is in the best interest of the public."

Representatives of the engineering profession are content with the results. "As Nancy Allan has said, it's not a 'winner-take-all' outcome," says Carmine Militano, president of Consulting Engineers of Manitoba. "It solves the problem and provides clarity."

Proposed changes to the MBC include clarifying which buildings must be planned by architects and which by engineers.

For example, industrial or farm buildings, arenas with seating capacities under 1,000, and residential, office or retail buildings under 600 sq. m (about 6,458 sq. ft.) would not require an architect.

All hospitals, prisons and places where people gather, such as churches, libraries, community centres, restaurants and retail outlets, would require an architect. So would residential, office or retail buildings over 600 sq. m.

However, Allan's proposed changes to the architects and engineers acts have left the architecture profession unsatisfied.

"We're still attempting to address the issues we feel haven't been addressed," says Dean Syverson, president of the Manitoba Association of Architects.

"We're in the process of making a final draft of those issues."

Allen's proposals include a change to the Architects Act, allowing non-architects to plan certain buildings as determined by the MBC; firms employing practitioners of both professions will be permitted to offer both architectural and engineering services.

The architects and engineers acts are to also be amended to require the Joint Architect-Engineer Board to deal with disputes and make recommendations that would be binding on both professions.

One of the contentious issues for Syverson is that the province wants to move certain regulations out of the Architects Act and into the MBC. In that case, the regulations will be governed by a Building Standards Board of 12, containing 10 lay people, an architect and an engineer.

Another issue is that there is currently an Architects Act schedule determining whether the services of an architect or engineer are called for. The proposed changes would render that decision to be at the discretion of the people who grant building permits - City of Winnipeg officials and, in rural areas, the municipality staff.

Syverson also points out that there may be a difference between the terms "building area" and "gross building area.”

The government is reluctant to include the word "gross," but without it, the area referred to may be manipulated by having a firewall every few hundred metres. The building area would then merely be the area between two consecutive firewalls.

Militano, on the other hand, accepts Allen's changes. "The MBC is subordinate to the Architects Act, but shouldn't be. That will be rectified."

(Ashoke Dasgupta can be reached at dasgupta@businessedge.ca)