CCGA Best Practices 4.0 - A Look at What's Inside

CCGA Best Practices 4.0 - A Look at What’s Inside 

A best practice, by definition, is a commercial or professional procedure that is accepted or prescribed as being correct or most effective.

The Canadian Common Ground Alliance (CCGA) Best Practice Committee does the important work of reviewing suggested changes to the National Best Practices and taking part in the consensus-based process that determines what guiding best practices should be.

In a recent episode of Prairie Podcast, Utility Safety Partners President Mike Sullivan sat down with the CCGA Best Practices Committee Chair Gordon Campbell and Vice-Chair Sher Kirk to talk about the new version 4.0

Campbell first explained what a best practice means to the CCGA.

"A best practice overall is something the industry decides is the best or safest way to do something and they want to share that,” says Campbell. "In Canada we work from the ground up where best practices are created at the regional or partner level, go through a regional committee and are voted on then sent up to the national level where we distribute them to all the other national committees to look over.”

Once other national committees have looked at a proposed best practice, and decided indeed it is, it will be published in the national CCGA Best Practices manual. 

It’s a process that typically takes about two years for amendments or new ideas to go through the entire review cycle. That can be frustrating for some but its valuable review and refinement.

Best practices aren’t governance, or legislation, or regulation or even standards. Those higher-level structures do influence best practices however, "We mimic a lot of our best practices over what’s in legislation or the CSA Z247 so we have some consistency, but we can go further with best practices. We can do more things with a best practice that a standard or regulation can’t do.” 

They aren’t enforceable.

So that brings up a good question. If you can’t enforce them, why have them?

"If you’re new or looking for somewhere to begin these are an excellent starting point. You can take our material and develop it into your own. But we’re there for any stakeholder who wants to pick this book up and see where to begin. These are industry-accepted things that are critical to infrastructure and critical to safety.”

Best practices are used in business practices, they’re promoted on social media, and they’ve been used in court cases. 

The new book, 4.0, is a result of ongoing dialogue with inputs from various regional structures. Alberta has been looking at best practices related to One-Call, Ontario has been looking into education and marketing, and another committee has been reviewing excavation practices. It’s a fluid document.

"It’s one of the important things about best practices as opposed to standards, legislation and regulation,” adds Sher Kirk, "they are the closest to boots on the ground. They are created with input of those doing the work every day so if you’re new to the industry, the best practices are the best place to start.”

Link to the full interview on Prairie Podcast

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