Damage Prevention Legislation for Alberta

Damage Prevention Legislation for Alberta

Securing comprehensive damage prevention legislation for Alberta has been a long-desired objective of Alberta One-Call Corporation and the former Alberta Common Ground Alliance. Now, under the combined forces of Utility Safety Partners, the objective is closer than ever before.

Why is Legislation Necessary?

Alberta One-Call Corporation, now operating under its legal tradename, Utility Safety Partners (USP), has been providing services to Albertans for close to forty years. It is the flagship One-Call Centre in Canada and recognized as a global leader in Notification Centre operations, process, software and strategic direction. Legislation by the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Canada Energy Regulator (formerly, the National Energy Board) require governed transmission pipeline companies to register the location of those assets with USP. Despite the benefits of this partial legislation, and USP’s 850 members, the certainty of identifying the location of underground and aboveground energy and utilities in advance of ground disturbances is limited by the lack of comprehensive legislation that requires, but isn’t limited to:

1. All buried and aboveground energy and utility assets to register their location with USP;
2. Any person planning a ground disturbance to make a locate request before carrying out their work; and
3. Any of those asset owners to respond to the locate request in a timely manner.

Until this legislation is realized, the safety of all Albertans and the integrity of Alberta’s energy and utility assets continue to be at risk.

Damage Prevention Legislation History

The first significant effort to secure "One-Call Legislation” for Alberta began in the 1990s. The Task Force assembled to do so was formidable but at the end of the day, the government at the time wasn’t convinced that it was necessary. But, times change. Back then, reliance on telecommunications systems for business, financial transactions, health and safety wasn’t what it is today. A damaged telecom line in the ‘90s might have interrupted Hockey Night in Canada whereas today, it can interrupt the supply chain to an entire community, eliminate 911 services, and paralyze local economies.

With the above in mind, the former Alberta Common Ground Alliance (ABCGA) secured all-party support for the Alberta Underground Infrastructure Notification System Consultation Act – Bill 211 in the Alberta Legislature. And in late 2019, the ABCGA secured the assistance of MLA Shane Getson to sponsor the legislation objective. Unfortunately, the global pandemic interrupted legislation efforts and shortly thereafter, the ABCGA, Alberta One-Call Corporation and the Where’s the LINE program promoting overhead powerline safety would unite under Utility Safety Partners. As the newly formed organization emerged, it re-assembled the previous Damage Prevention Legislation Task Force as the new Government Relations Committee and revised its comprehensive damage prevention legislation to include overhead energy and utility assets. Now, as the province and the world return from the throes of the pandemic, Utility Safety Partners is preparing to complete the legislation journey that began decades ago.

Request for Comments

Over the next 30 calendar days, Utility Safety Partners is requesting your comments on its Draft Damage Prevention Legislation for Alberta (link to PDF required). Please download the Public Comments Matrix (link to PDF required), enter your comments and send them to info@utilitysafety.ca. All comments will be reviewed by the USP Government Relations Committee and a second version of the draft legislation will be posted to this website for a second round of comments. Once comments have been considered on the second version, the third and final version of the legislation will be presented to the UCP government.

Mike Sullivan, President, Utility Safety Partners