Ontario · Engineer seal requirements

Ontario P.Eng. seal requirements: size, wording, and the rule that sets them

As of August 10, 2026

Ontario's engineer seal is prescribed by R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 52(1) under the Professional Engineers Act: the impression must carry the licensee's surname and initials or given names, the words "Licensed Professional Engineer" (or "ingénieur agréé" or "ingénieure agréée") together with "Ontario", and the license number. No provision sets a diameter or a shape — Professional Engineers Ontario issues the stamp itself, and the only dimensional standard, in s. 53(3)(b), is that an electronic image of the seal be of a size that is reasonably visible within the engineering document relative to the document's other content and that it include the license number. Section 53(2) requires a practitioner to sign, date and affix the seal to an engineering document whose engineering content they prepared or for which they assume responsibility, with the signature and date applied at the same time or immediately after the seal and not obscuring the name or the number. Architects and land surveyors answer to different regulators — the Ontario Association of Architects under R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 27 and the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors under R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 1026 — and neither of those regulations prescribes any wording or size.

Ontario runs three separate regulators: Professional Engineers Ontario under the Professional Engineers Act, the Ontario Association of Architects under the Architects Act, and the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors under the Surveyors Act. In all three the seal is issued by the regulator rather than made by the licensee, so there is no dimension for a licensee to choose. Section 53 of Reg. 941 was replaced in its entirety by O. Reg. 837/21 effective July 1, 2022, and the regulation is consolidated to July 1, 2026 with O. Reg. 126/26 as the last amendment. Three pieces of PEO's own material lag behind that: the "P.Eng. Seal" page on peo.on.ca attributes the sealing rule to "section 53 of the act", but the Act ends at s. 49 and the sealing provision is s. 53 of the regulation; the "Act, Regulations, By-laws" page still describes Reg. 941 as "amended to O.Reg. 332/23"; and the 2005/2008 guideline still hosted on peo.on.ca required an electronic facsimile to be "identical in size, shape, and content to the seal created by the rubber stamp", a sentence the current March 2022 guideline and the amended s. 53(3)(b) both dropped.

Ontario Engineer seal

Board: Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (Professional Engineers Ontario)
Seal rule: R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, ss. 52 and 53, under the Professional Engineers Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.28
Legend (any one): “Licensed Professional Engineer” · “ingénieur agréé” · “ingénieure agréée”
Diameter: No diameter and no shape are prescribed. The only dimensional standard in the regulation applies to an electronic image of the seal, which must be of a size that is reasonably visible within the engineering document relative to the document's other content.
Expiration date: The P.Eng. impression carries the surname and initials or given names, the words "Licensed Professional Engineer" (or the French forms) and "Ontario", and the licence number. A date of expiry belongs on the temporary, provisional and limited-licence seals, not on the P.Eng. seal.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 52(1); cf. ss. 52(3)(d), 52(3.1)(d))
Signature date: A practitioner shall sign, date and affix their seal to an engineering document. The signature and the date go on at the same time as or immediately after the seal, legibly, within or immediately adjacent to it, without obscuring the name or licence number.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, ss. 53(2) and 53(4))
City on seal: Section 52(1) is an exhaustive list of what the impression must include; no city or place of business appears in it.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 52(1))

Every Member shall have a seal of a design approved by the Council, the impression of which shall include the surname and initials or given names of the Member, the words "Licensed Professional Engineer", "ingénieur agréé" or "ingénieure agréée", and "Ontario", and the license number.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 52(1))
The license number is not required on a seal issued before February 28, 2003, and a seal issued before September 1, 1984 may carry the word "Registered" in place of "Licensed".(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, ss. 52(1.1), 52(2))
The seal is issued by Professional Engineers Ontario rather than made by the licensee, and an electronic seal is an electronic representation of that Council-approved design; it has the same significance and status as the physical stamp.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 1; PEO, Use of the Professional Engineer's Seal (March 2022) § 7.1.2)
A temporary, provisional or limited license carries its own seal with different wording — "Temporary Licensee", "Provisional Licensee", "Limited Engineering Licensee" or "Licensed Engineering Technologist", each with "Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario" — and PEO describes those seals as rectangular and as carrying additional information such as the expiry date or the permitted scope of practice. No provision states a shape for any of them.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, ss. 52(3), 52(3.1), 52(4), 52(5); PEO, "P.Eng. Seal")
A practitioner shall sign, date and affix their seal to an engineering document if the document's engineering content is prepared by the practitioner, or if the practitioner otherwise assumes responsibility for any part of that content.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 53(2))
The signature and the date are applied at the same time as or immediately after the seal, in a legible manner either within the seal, immediately adjacent to it or in its immediate vicinity, and must not obscure or otherwise alter the practitioner's name or license number.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 53(4))
An electronic image of the seal may be affixed if it is reasonably visible relative to the document's other content and includes the license number, and the signature may be an electronic signature as defined in the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 53(3))
The intended purpose of the engineering content must be clearly stated on or in the document, and where the practitioner is assuming responsibility for only part of the content, suitable text in the immediate vicinity of the seal must identify which part.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, ss. 53(5), 53(6))
A practitioner shall not affix their seal to a document that is incomplete or in draft form, and shall not affix it to anything other than an engineering document.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, ss. 53(8), 53(9))
Advertising may not refer to or use the seal, which PEO reads as ruling out company logos, letterhead, business cards and other promotional material.(R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 75(d); PEO, Use of the Professional Engineer's Seal (March 2022) § 7.1.4)

Ontario engineer seal questions

Does an Ontario P.Eng. seal read "P.Eng."?▾

The seal does not read "P.Eng." Section 52(1)(b) requires the words "Licensed Professional Engineer", "ingénieur agréé" or "ingénieure agréée"; "P.Eng." is one of the titles and abbreviations a license holder may use in practice under s. 55.1(1), which is a different thing from the wording on the impression. (R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, ss. 52(1)(b), 55.1(1))

Should an Ontario P.Eng. seal say "Province of Ontario"?▾

The word on the seal is "Ontario". The rule does not call for "Province of Ontario", and "Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario" belongs on the temporary, provisional and limited-license seals described in ss. 52(3), (3.1), (4) and (5) — not on the P.Eng. seal. (R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 52(1)(b))

Does an electronic Ontario P.Eng. seal have to show the licence number?▾

An electronic image of the seal must include the license number even when the physical stamp does not. PEO issued stamps without the number before February 28, 2003 and s. 52(1.1) exempts those stamps from the requirement, but s. 53(3)(b)(ii) attaches no such exemption to the electronic image. (R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, ss. 52(1.1), 53(3)(b)(ii))

Does a sealed Ontario engineering document have to state its intended purpose?▾

A sealed engineering document must also state the intended purpose of its engineering content, on or in the document. This came in with O. Reg. 837/21 and is easy to miss because it is a document requirement rather than a seal requirement. (R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 941, s. 53(5))

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