Guide 03 · Review readiness
The APEGA CPD review: what the PRB can ask for, and how to be ready
Independent guide. PaceTracker is not affiliated with APEGA. Requirements can change — always confirm against APEGA’s official documents, linked at the end.
The sentence every professional remembers from the new CPD requirements is “unless requested, PACE plans do not need to be submitted to APEGA.” This guide is about the second half of that sentence. Under Section 19 of the General Regulation, you must maintain a written record of your CPD activities — and produce it when the Practice Review Board asks. APEGA is explicit that the PRB may request your PACE plans at any time. The official term is a practice review; most professionals call it the audit. Either way, the question it asks is the same: can you show, on a deadline, what you have been declaring every year? The annual obligations themselves are covered in our requirements guide — this one is about being ready to prove them.
— What the PRB can ask for
Three things, and the scope is wider than most expect. Your PACE plans — for the current year and multiple historic years, which is why keeping only the latest version is not enough. Supporting documents verifying all the CPD activities performed under those plans — the evidence, not just the list. And your learning module completion certificates, which the LMS issues and you are required to retain as part of the written record. Whatever is requested must be submitted by the provided deadline, in the method APEGA specifies. The standard does not put a number on retention — it points to provincial legislation — but the practical rule follows from the review scope: if historic years can be requested, historic years must be retrievable.
— What a review measures against
During a review, the PRB assesses your PACE plans against the recommended best practices in the PACE practice guideline — not just the bare requirements of the standard. That detail changes how you should read the word “recommended”: the competence evaluation, the peer review, the sign-off are optional to write, but they are part of the benchmark your plan is measured against when it matters. A plan that only does the three required sections is compliant on paper and thin under review. The outcome question is whether your activities reasonably demonstrate continuing competence, and you will be notified of it either way. One more thing worth knowing: the PRB can, at any point during a review, recommend that the Investigative Committee take it over under Part 5 of the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act. What goes into each section of a plan that holds up is covered in our section-by-section guide.
— The stakes, as the standard states them
Failing to comply with the CPD standard results in a loss of good standing, after which a PRB review may be initiated. And failing to provide adequate documentation during that review results in the cancellation of the professional’s registration — APEGA’s resource page ties the same consequence to not producing the complete written record within the specified time frame. Read those two sentences together and the shape of the risk is clear: it is not the professional who did too little CPD who is most exposed — it is the one who did the work and cannot show it.
The timeline is now fixed. Starting November 1, 2026, the revised standard becomes enforceable for each licensed professional at their next annual renewal. In its September 2026 notice to licensed professionals, APEGA describes the first consequence: a CPD period whose modules and declaration are not completed in myAPEGA by the renewal date is marked “non-compliant” in the registrant’s history with APEGA. That entry sits in the same history a review looks at — which makes the readiness question below a during-the-period question, not an after-the-fact one. When enforcement reaches you depends on your renewal month; the dates are laid out in our requirements guide.
01 Keep every plan version
A new plan is created every year, and revisions happen mid-year when your role changes — so “my PACE plan” is really a series. Keep them all, as they were when you signed them. A historic-year request is answered with the plan you followed then, not a reconstruction of it now.
02 Attach evidence when the activity happens
The guideline’s examples of supporting documentation are deliberately ordinary: registration confirmations, course certificates, presentation outlines, article abstracts, calendar entries, meeting agendas, emails. For informal activities without formal proof, a more detailed written description of the activity can serve. All of it is easy to capture in the week it happens and genuinely hard to recover two years later — the discipline is in the timing, not the difficulty.
03 Write explanations that point at the plan
Every activity must carry a written explanation of how it contributed to your continuing competence, connecting it to the skills and knowledge you identified. Under review, this is the connective tissue: it is what turns a stack of certificates into a demonstration of competence. An explanation written the week of the course names the skill it served; one written eighteen months later describes the course.
04 File the module certificates with everything else
The LMS certificates are part of the same written record and can be requested in the same review. They live in myAPEGA’s learning system when issued — make sure a copy lives wherever the rest of your CPD record lives, so one request does not mean two searches.
05 Test retrieval, not existence
A request comes with a deadline and a method. The real test of your record-keeping is not whether the documents exist somewhere — it is whether you can hand over a complete, organized record for a named year within the time given. Once a year, at declaration time, try it: pull together everything for the period as if it had been requested. If that takes an afternoon of searching, the system needs fixing while nothing is at stake.
— Quick answers
What can the Practice Review Board request in a CPD review?
Three things: your PACE plans for the current year and multiple historic years, supporting documents verifying all the CPD activities performed under those plans, and your learning-module completion certificates. Requests can come at any time and must be answered by the provided deadline, in the method APEGA specifies.
How far back can an APEGA CPD review go?
The PRB may request plans for multiple historic years. The standard sets no fixed retention number — it points to provincial legislation — so the practical rule follows from the scope: if historic years can be requested, historic years must be retrievable, as they were when you signed them.
When does the revised CPD standard become enforceable?
On November 1, 2026, for each licensed professional at their next annual renewal date. According to APEGA’s September 2026 notice, a period with the modules or the declaration still open at the renewal date is marked “non-compliant” in the registrant’s history.
What happens if CPD documentation is inadequate?
As the standard states it: failing to comply results in a loss of good standing, after which a PRB review may be initiated — and failing to provide adequate documentation during that review results in the cancellation of the professional’s registration.
Built to be asked
Being ready is your responsibility — keeping the record organized is what PaceTracker is for. One audit pack PDF per period: the signed plan, activities with their written explanations, the evidence index, and module completion dates. Version history is frozen at the database level, so historic years export as they were signed. A PRB deadline should be a download, not a reconstruction. Records stored in Canada (Montréal).
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