In the 2000-2001 Annual Report of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ), its President, Roger Nicolet, Eng., justified the creation of a service corporation as follows:  “The refocusing of the functions and activities of the OIQ on its primary mandate seeks greater efficiency. That was precisely one of the principles that guided the Bureau in its decision to create an autonomous services corporation, as we did last year for FÉRIQUE. The Corporation de services des ingénieurs du Québec  can maintain existing services and develop new ones, which was impossible for the OIQ as part of its mandate to protect the public.”

Wishing to refocus on its primary mandate to protect the public, the OIQ passed on its service offerings in exchange for royalties paid to the OIQ. Financially, legally and politically independent of each other, in a spirit of mutual aid, equilibrium and respect for commitments, the two bodies have coexisted ever, since under the aegis of Roger Nicolet, Gaëtan Lefebvre and Gaétan Samson at the presidency of the OIQ and of Zaki Ghavitian and Giuseppe Indelicato at SERVIQ.

In 2004, the idea of expanding the mission of SERVIQ grew around the nucleus of the desire to give a voice to engineers, resulting in the creation of the RéseauIQ we know today. Starting in 2006, the RéseauIQ emerged with the mission of “serving the common interests of all engineers,”  in order to give engineers a voice so that they could rally around important issues and participate and contribute positively to debates on matters of interest to Québec society.

In was in that vein that President Zaki Ghavitian, Eng. emphasized in the 2006-2007 Annual Report of the OIQ the importance of renewing the partnership agreement with the RéseauIQ, noting that “the OIQ and the Corporation have very different mandates: the OIQ protects the public and gives preference to the public interest; the Corporation defends its members and the interests of its members. This must not be lost sight of, even if a good agreement is required to ensure the complementary nature of our action.”

It was in this spirit of sound collaboration that the OIQ and the RéseauIQ renewed their three-year agreement and committed to a business relationship until March 31, 2010. The RéseauIQ continued to ensure the OIQ “a reasonable compensatory income,” and to implement the ambitious plans contained in its three-year strategy, for the benefit of all of its members and to enhance the expertise and social contribution of engineers.  For its part, the RéseauIQ collects no dues in exchange for its services.