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Welcome to the Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba Heritage Wiki Site

This site is a collection of significant engineering and geoscience related projects planned, designed and/or completed within Manitoba, and around the world, by our members over the past 100 years. The site also provides background information on a selection of notable Manitoba engineers and geoscientists who have made significant contributions to the profession over its history. In addition, there is an archive of material containing association historical records such as past publications and lists of members.

Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba, main purpose is to regulate the Engineering and Geoscience professions in the Province of Manitoba but also promotes the advancement of engineering/geoscience knowledge and professional development. There are also many international, national, and provincial technical societies and associations with complementary professional development objectives. It is not unexpected that these many technical societies also have documented their heritage within their scope of interest. The additional background reference material and documentation available from these organizations are particularly useful sources of information that complement the information compiled by the Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba Heritage Committee. In many cases some projects with connections to our membership have received national recognition and have been described to some degree. This wiki site endeavours to provide links to these other undertakings, to increase the breadth and depth of the information available.

The objectives of this wiki site are:

Publish comprehensive project descriptions,
Encourage further contribution of the knowledge base through a Wikipedia concept,
Consolidate and leverage related information,
Promote awareness of international and national recognition. For example, the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (the oldest technical society in Canada) has recognized four Manitoba Projects as National Historic Sites. The project descriptions of those projects have been expanded on this wiki site to recognize this.

As the wiki site is a work in progress, we encourage your comments, corrections and additions. Please feel free to add to this body of knowledge by contributing to this site with your own past projects. If you have any comments or questions please contact us at APEGM.heritageeng@gmail.com.

Links

The Heritage Committee has been collaborating with members of the Manitoba Historical Society (MHS) over the last number of years in areas of mutual interest. Much Engineering and Geoscience history has been compiled and published by the MHS and this wiki site tries to leverage as much information as possible and expand the knowledge base where practical. The same could be said for several of societies described below. Researchers are encouraged to review other possible sources to obtain as broad a history as of interest.

Click on the links below to visit the constituent societies:

The Canadian Nuclear Society https://cna.ca/

The Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering https://www.cheminst.ca/about/about-csche/

The Canadian Society for Engineering Management http://csem-scgi.org/index2.html

The Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering http://www.csme-scgm.ca/

The Canadian Dam Association https://www.cda.ca/

The Canadian Geotechnical Society https://cgs.ca/

The Canadian Society for Bioengineering https://csbe-scgab.ca/

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Canada https://www.ieee.ca/en/ See also IEEE Communications Society History https://ethw.org/IEEE_Communications_Society_History Origins - The "roots" of the IEEE Communications Society extend back to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) which was founded in 1884, and the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) which was formed in 1912. These formed the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) on January 1, 1963.

AIEE (American Institute of Electrical Engineers) - The original fields of interest of AIEE were electrical communications and power engineering. Electronics engineering evolved from the radio field and expanded greatly during World War II, overlapping into the communications and (to a lesser extent) the power fields. Methods were developed to foster cooperation and interchange of information among members of each of the original Institutes with their narrow common interests. The AIEE formed "Divisions" with "Communications" as one major entity. No special organization was chartered, although separate Technical Committees (TCs) reviewed papers for, and conducted sessions at broad-based AIEE Conferences. Most of these papers were later published in the AIEE Transactions.

The Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society CMBES

The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering CSCE

The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers IISE

The Tunnelling Association of Canada TAC

The Canadian National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science URSI Canada Other organizations of interest include:

The Canadian Academy of Engineering CAE

Bowman Centre Western Research Parks

Featured Articles

APEGM History

Would you be surprised to learn that there were few rules governing the practice of engineering in the early beginnings of the province of Manitoba? It is not like Winnipeg was still the wild-wild west; but, the fact is Winnipeg experienced a fantastic boom during the 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century, as the city's population grew from 25,000 in 1891 to more than 179,000 in 1921. What comes with such population growth? All kinds of changes and development! This fast paced growth was fueled by many private and public undertakings that would set the economic foundation for the province for many years to come. The river transportation system was making way for the railway transportation system. (Full Article...)

Port Nelson

Port Nelson was a seaport along the coast of Hudson Bay, which was started but never completed a century ago. Situated in the mouth of the Nelson River it was constructed as part of a scheme by the Federal Government to help increase competition in the movement of grain out of the prairies. Construction of the port began in 1913 but was halted in 1917 due to the economic effects of World War I. The works completed to that point included a significant portion of a 2 km long man-made island, a 17 span 730 m long truss bridge to access the island, and a large custom-built dredge. (Full Article...)

In the News

Officials Propose to Entomb Pinawa's Old Nuclear Reactor, The Winnipeg Free Press 2016 12 12

The company charged with decommissioning the nuclear reactor at Whiteshell Laboratories near Pinawa wants to leave it in the ground and backfill it with concrete.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is proposing to entomb Whiteshell Reactor #1 (WR-1), rather than have it disassembled and removed from the 11,000-acre site near Pinawa in the Canadian Shield.

It would become the first nuclear reactor in Canada to be disposed of by burial. The plan is to demolish surface buildings but leave the reactor in its five-storey-deep basement and seal it with concrete grout. (Read the full article...)

Also see Whiteshell Laboratories for additional information.

Life by the Rails, The Winnipeg Free Press 2016 09 08

A quick history lesson: Macdonald was the prime minister in the early 1880s when the city’s founding fathers were loading up the war chest to convince both the federal government and Canadian Pacific Railway officials to run the main line of what would become the transcontinental railway through Winnipeg.

That main line was supposed to be built through Selkirk, at the strict insistence of the railway’s engineers, because the Winnipeg area was under water about every generation or so from flooding of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. (Read the full article...)

A Page in History

Forty Percent Increase in Membership

The Association of Professional Engineers of the Province of Manitoba is fast becoming one of quantity as well as quality, At the meeting of Council held on August 9th, 141 new members were admitted. At the time of publication of the last issue of The Manitoba Professional Engineer, there were 677 members. At the present time membership stands at 809. (Read the full article in the September 1956 edition of The Manitoba Professional Engineer.)

Another Step Forward

With the publication of this issue, the Association of Professional Engineers of the Province of Manitoba takes another great step forward...Assisted by N. S. Bubbis, P. Eng., the Association's Vice-President, who is liaison officer between Council and the Public Relations Committee, this Committee laid the groundwork for the publication of The Manitoba Professional Engineer and named G. T. Christie, P. Eng., as editor. (Read the full article in the 1st Edition of the The Manitoba Professional Engineer from July 1956.)

The Case for a Fee Increase

In the past few years, since the Association has opened an office, it has attempted to provide a service to its membership which would rank it with the leading Associations, in Canada. This was a tremendous task to undertake and the men who undertook this job are to be commended, particularly Professor Hoogstraoten, for his efforts. The work of the Association began to expand when the office was opened, and the membership has continued to request more and more service from council... It is for these expanded services that Council unanimously endorses a fee increase of $3.00 per member, to be effective January 1st, 1960. (Read the full article in the November 1959 edition of The Manitoba Professional Engineer.)

More Historical Pages...

The full collection of past association publications

Random Articles

Henry Norlande Ruttan

Port Nelson

Long Spruce Generating Station

Catherine Stewart

Development of the Telephone System

Past Presidents

File:1999 Myron (Ron) George Britton.tif

1999 - Myron (Ron) George Britton

Engineering and Geosciences Wiki Articles

Hydroelectricity

Notable People

Association History

Transportation

Aeronautics

Waterworks

Other

Last 3 Articles Created

12:19, 5 May 2026 ‎Charles Attwood (hist | edit) ‎[5,065 bytes] ‎Gcook (talk | contribs) (Created page with "==Charles Hartley Attwood PEng, Past President of EGM 1929 and 1930== Charles worked for the Winnipeg Branch Office of the Dominion Government doing survey work on water resources projects from 1919 to 1930. In 1930 he transferred to the Province of Manitoba Water Resources Branch. He was President of The Association of Professional Engineers of Manitoba (now EGM) in 1929 and 1930. Charles was born in Hamilton Ontario on September 17, 1883. ==Education== Charles obtai...")
09:59, 5 May 2026 ‎Richard Johnson (hist | edit) ‎[7,476 bytes] ‎Gcook (talk | contribs) (Created page with "==RICHARD ALLAN (DICK) JOHNSON PEng (1932-2023), Past President of EGM== Dick Johnson dedicated his entire long and distinguished 54-year career at the University of Manitoba in the Faculty of Engineering and central administration. He retired as Vice-Provost in 1997 and was also a past president of APEM (now EGM). Dick was born in Winnipeg 1932. File:1979 R.O. Johnson.jpg ==Education== Dick grew up in Winnipeg and attended Laura Secord School and Gordon Bell H...")
09:04, 5 May 2026 ‎Richard Jones (hist | edit) ‎[2,796 bytes] ‎Gcook (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Richard Mervyn Jones PEng, (SM) FEC Richard joined the Heritage Committee on its formation in 2007. He has always been interested in how engineering has helped society develop and flourish in ways that are not immediately obvious to its citizens. He is a retired aeronautical engineer who was born in England at the end of World War Two. He was educated in Wales until in 1962 he was accepted as a cadet into the Royal Air Force College. For 4 and 2/3 years, he studied Aer...")

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