ARCHITECTURE: Registration. Quebec/Ontario, Canada.

Is registration *really* necessary? Howard

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From: Todd Sandrock <@bnr.ca>
Subject: registration requirements
Message-ID: <1992Oct09.203813.9589@xxxxxx>
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Maybe we gould get some kind of comparison of exactly what it takes to
become a registered architect in various places...

1) education requirements
2) certification? $$$?
3) experience? amount of time &/or tasks? any experience allowed before
graduation?
4) exams? NCARBs or variants?
5) any other totally gratuitous and strange fees
6) costs to be registered/year? stamping vs. non stamping $$$?

My wife's experience becoming a member of the Ordre des Architectes du
Quebec was a lot different (read cheaper and easier) than mine is with
the Ontario Association of Architects.

Ontario

1) min B.Arch from approved school (see certification) or special case
2) $200. Cash. even if your program is RAIC/ASCA/RIBA accredited
3) nominally 3 calendar years under an architect (preferably in a private
practise and not in a company) a list of time and tasks. Allowed to
back-date experience 1 year from receipt of Black Book. (But you don't
get you book until you are certified.)
4) nine exams including the core of the NCARBs plus some regional code &
professional practise modifications. about a week to write.
5) $80 /year while you are articling.
6) about $600/year non stamping. about $500 more stamping

From Ontario, and because of the FTA, you have reciprocity with 9 other
provinces and all of the USA.

Ontario will not accept experience from other provinces unless it
occurred within the year's backdate period. It is important to note that
not all provinces require certification before they will issue a black
book. If you work your three years in one of these provinces, and then
move to Ontario, expecting to get certified and write your exams,
surprise! You've lost at least two of those years' experience.

Yes, I can speak from experience.

Quebec

1) min B.Arch from approved school (see certification) or special case]
2) $20. They probably even take a cheque.
3) nominally two years. experience is filled out on an 8.5"x11" paper
called a Stage Report, and can be obtained under architects, engineers,
or even in construction firms.
4) depending on you fluency in french, you may have to write an
equivalency exam to obtain your Attestation de competance sur la langue
francaise from the Office de la Langue Franciase

Architectural exams are locally written, open book, and can be written in
english (although some of the study materials are only in french) 4,
3-hour exams over 2 days

5) nope
6) about $600, stamping. in your first three years, the OAQ gives you a
"discount rate" with full stamping privilages (about $280)

You must be living or working in Quebec to article there unless you
graduated from a Quebec architectural school. Right across the river, so
close. But not close enough...

I'm not sure if Quebec has direct reciprocity with the USA. At any rate,
one could get in through the "back door" by registering in another
province (there is reciprocity within Canada) and leapfrogging to the USA

ideas? gripes? horror stories?


Todd Sandrock M.Arch
Northern Telecom Limited
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
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