Small Firm Big Impact Award - (OEPA 2027)

Submissions for OEPA 2027 are being accepted from August 18 till 4PM on November 27, 2026.

 If you are looking to submit for All Awards except Small Firm Big Impact (OEPA 2027) apply here.

About OEPA

The OEPA recognizes outstanding projects from ACEC-Ontario member firms of all sizes. Whether your team has 5 or 500 employees, and whether your project budget was $10,000 or $100 million, if it’s innovative or impactful—it deserves recognition.

We invite our member firms to showcase their best work by entering the 2027 OEPA program. This is your chance to highlight the innovation, dedication, and impact behind your projects.

Winners will be announced at the OEPA Gala on May 6, 2027 at the historic The Liberty Grand, Toronto, ON. Winning projects will be professionally featured in videos for your firm’s use and promoted through press releases and social media—giving your work the spotlight it deserves. Tickets will be available in Winter 2027.

Award Categories

The OEPA aspires to celebrate the consulting engineering profession by honouring all projects submitted to the program by ACEC-Ontario member firms. The OEPA categories were designed to recognize consulting engineering excellence and award ACEC-Ontario member companies who put forth the strongest efforts over the year. The breakdown of the categories is described below:

• Small Firm, Big Impact Award: The Small Firm, Big Impact award, recognizes the significant impact and importance of the work our smaller companies do. Apply using the SUBMIT button at the top of the page.

• The Willis Chipman Award: The Willis Chipman award is the most prestigious award and given independently, with no extra submission required.

• Sustainable Development Impact Award: The Sustainable Award recognizes the project that best demonstrates the three pillars of sustainable development: society, environment, and economy. No extra submission required.

• Municipal Impact Award: This new award recognizes an engineering project that delivers exceptional value to an Ontario municipality by improving infrastructure, enhancing community well-being, and addressing municipal challenges through innovative and sustainable solutions. No additional submission is required.

• Internal Innovation Award: Includes all member company programs designed to attract and retain talent.

• People First Award: Includes all philanthropy / community engagement activities with impact at a local level.

• Awards of Distinction: The Awards of Distinction may be presented to up to 10 outstanding projects.  These can include, but are not limited to, initiatives in Industrial, commercial, institutional buildings/building science; Environment; Municipal infrastructure; Industry, energy and resources; Project management; Studies and research; Transit / transportation; Housing, community and sustainability, etc.

To learn more, read our award guidelines here.

Note: This submission page is only for Small Firm, Big Impact Award. If you are a member with total staff less than 100, then this is for you. If you would also like to submit for other categories, click here.

Small Firm, Big Impact Award

The Small Firm, Big Impact award, recognizes the significant impact and importance of the work our smaller companies do. There will be two categories presented for this award, firms with 1-49 total staff and firms with 50-99 total staff.

We understand that our member firms, which are smaller in size, may not have teams to support complex project submissions. With this in mind, we have created a simplified and condensed submission entry form covering the most important details: the project objective, how you addressed it, and the results. Please be sure to submit at least three project images. You may attach additional project information you would like the judges to review but it should be no longer than 2-3 pages.

Submissions for OEPA 2027 are being accepted from August 18, 2026, till 4 PM on November 27, 2026.

If you have any questions, email Priyanka Anand, Events & Marketing Specialist at panand@acecontario.ca.