Fee Guides · Last reviewed 2026-07-31
Ontario Engineering Fee Guidelines Explained (PEO and OSPE)
Ontario has no mandatory engineering fee schedule. Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) licenses engineers under the Professional Engineers Act but does not set consulting fees today; the hourly fee schedules PEO posted in the early 2000s are historical. Current fee reference material comes from two industry bodies: the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE), whose fee guideline publishes targeted hourly rates by responsibility level and a percent-of-construction table, most recently updated in May 2025, and Consulting Engineers of Ontario (CEO), whose 2020 fee guideline publishes the infrastructure percentage tables, roughly 8 to 9 percent of construction at 1 to 2 million dollars, declining to about 7 percent above 10 million. Every figure in all of them is reference material for negotiation, not a regulated rate.
Who Publishes What in Ontario
Three names come up around Ontario engineering fees, and they play different roles. PEO is the regulator: it licenses professional engineers and enforces the Professional Engineers Act and its Code of Ethics, and its current publications on fees deal with its own licensing charges, not consulting rates. PEO did publish consulting fee schedules historically; trade press reporting records a PEO schedule of hourly fees posted in 2001, running from 95 dollars for the least experienced engineers to 205 dollars for the most experienced. That practice ended, and fee guidance shifted to the profession's advocacy bodies.
OSPE, the profession's advocacy body, publishes the Fee Guideline for Professional Engineering Services, a general-purpose reference covering remuneration methods, hourly rates, and a percent-of-construction table; OSPE released updated fee guidelines on May 12, 2025. CEO, the association of consulting engineering firms, publishes the fee guideline used for infrastructure benchmarking, with tables by construction value bracket; its 2020 edition is the basis of the Ontario numbers in this site's fee calculator.
The OSPE Fee Guideline
The OSPE guideline is written for both engineers and clients, and it frames its purpose as establishing adequate fee budgets that reflect the standard of care required under PEO's practice guidelines and the Professional Engineers Act. It describes three methods of remuneration: fixed fee or lump sum where scope and schedule are clearly defined, a time basis where they are not, and percentage of construction cost where the scope of services is well established across many similar projects.
For the time basis, the 2015 edition published targeted hourly rates by responsibility level, from 130 dollars at Level A (junior, working under supervision) to 300 dollars at Level F (senior authority or practice leader), with the levels defined by duties rather than titles. The guideline is explicit that these are targets derived with the sustainability of the profession in mind: a given project may warrant higher rates (complex or specialized work, expert testimony, remote postings) or lower ones (large long-term contracts), and regional economics move them too. OSPE's 2025 update continues the same reference-not-rulebook framing; pull the current edition from OSPE before quoting specific figures.
The OSPE Percent of Construction Table
The OSPE guideline's Table 3 prices well-defined assignments as a percentage of construction cost, in two columns. Engineering design services only runs from 6.2 percent at 500,000 to 1 million dollars of construction down to 4.6 percent above 10 million. Design plus contract administration and project management runs from 23 percent down to 14 percent across the same brackets. Below 500,000 dollars the guideline says a method other than percentage of construction should be used.
Two provenance notes matter. First, OSPE states the percentages were developed from historical data reported by Professional Engineers Ontario and from surveys of engineers and clients, so the old regulator data lives on inside the modern guideline. Second, the guideline suggests alterations and additions to existing structures be calculated at 150 percent of the table fee, and prices disbursements and sub-consultant invoices at cost plus 10 to 20 percent.
The CEO Infrastructure Tables
For municipal and civil infrastructure work, the benchmark Ontario practitioners cite is the Consulting Engineers of Ontario fee guideline (2020 edition). Its infrastructure table runs about 8 to 9 percent of construction cost at 1 to 2 million dollars, 7.5 to 8.5 percent at 2 to 5 million, 7 to 8 percent at 5 to 10 million, and roughly 6.75 to 7.25 percent above 10 million, with 1 million dollars as the floor below which the percentage method is not used. A separate buildings table covers vertical work at higher percentages for small projects.
The CEO guideline also carries the working commercial conventions: disbursements typically 6 to 8 percent of fees, sub-consultants at cost plus 10 to 15 percent, and premium multipliers for expert testimony. These CEO tables are the Ontario curve inside this site's fee calculator, so a benchmark you run there traces to the same source.
How the Guidance Maps to Complexity Classes
Ontario's published taxonomy differs from the Basic, Complex I, and Complex II model used elsewhere in these guides. Ontario splits by sector instead: an infrastructure table and a buildings table, each keyed to construction value, with no published complex-tier curves. In this site's model the CEO infrastructure table maps to the Basic class, and elevated complexity is handled the way Ontario documents actually handle it, through rate selection within the band, scope adjustments, and the OSPE caveat that complex or specialized projects warrant higher rates.
The practical workflow follows the documents. Price small or loosely scoped work on a time basis using the OSPE responsibility levels. Benchmark defined infrastructure work against the CEO percentage band for its value bracket, keeping geotechnical, environmental, and other sub-consultant studies outside the percentage as separate line items. And date every benchmark, because OSPE revised its guideline in 2025 and CEO revises periodically.
Common Questions
Does PEO publish an engineering fee schedule?
Not anymore. PEO posted hourly fee schedules in the early 2000s (95 to 205 dollars per hour in 2001), but as the regulator its role today is licensing and professional standards. Current fee reference material comes from OSPE and CEO.
Are the OSPE fee guideline rates mandatory?
No. OSPE publishes targeted hourly rates and percentage tables as a reference for engineers and clients. The guideline itself says projects may warrant rates above or below the targets, and Ontario engineering fees remain market-negotiated.
What percentage of construction cost is engineering design in Ontario?
For infrastructure, the CEO 2020 tables run about 8 to 9 percent at 1 to 2 million dollars of construction, declining to roughly 7 percent above 10 million. OSPE's table shows 6.2 down to 4.6 percent for design services only, or 23 down to 14 percent including contract administration and project management. The spread reflects different included services, so match the scope before comparing.
Should I benchmark against OSPE or CEO?
Match the document to the work. CEO's tables are the standard reference for municipal and civil infrastructure; OSPE's guideline is broader and stronger on hourly rates and general remuneration methods. For civil site work, benchmark the percentage against CEO and the hours against OSPE.
Sources
- OSPE Fee Guideline for Professional Engineering Services (2015): Remuneration methods, Level A to F hourly targets, Table 3 percentages, 150 percent alteration factor. Published at https://ospe.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2015-fee-guideline-2015.pdf
- OSPE, Updated Fee Guidelines for Ontario's Engineers (May 12, 2025): Announcement of the current update. https://ospe.on.ca/advocacy/strengthening-our-profession-together-updated-fee-guidelines-for-ontarios-engineers/
- Consulting Engineers of Ontario (CEO) 2020 Fee Guideline: Infrastructure and buildings percentage tables; disbursement and sub-consultant conventions. Via https://www.ceo.on.ca/
- Canadian Consulting Engineer, A Rising Tide: Fees and the Booming Economy: Records PEO's 2001 posted schedule of hourly fees (95 to 205 dollars). https://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/features/a-rising-tide-fees-the-booming-economy/
Related Guides
Fee guidance is planning-level reference material. Fees in Canada are market-negotiated; confirm with your association's current guideline and price each project on its own scope.