USP Retires Ambassador Vehicle 001

Mike Sullivan – President – Utility Safety Partners

Utility Safety Partners (formerly, Alberta One-Call Corporation) has been providing the Call and ClickBeforeYouDig communication service between ground disturbers and our members for 40 years. During that time, USP has processed over 10 million locate requests and generated over 100 million notifications to our members, initiating a damage prevention process to identify, locate and mark buried energy and utility assets in the vicinity of the proposed ground disturbance. It’s a simple process that works extremely well — providing, of course, it gets initiated by a locate request.

If you don’t follow the process, you don’t know what’s below. It’s that simple. And yet, every day, buried utilities are damaged in Alberta because of uncontrolled excavation.

Roughly 25% of our annual budget is devoted to education and awareness. Our ClickBeforeYouDig message is promoted across the province on radio, social media, podcasts, tradeshows, trade magazines, tutorials, conferences, and presentations, and we do so in collaboration with many of our members. In addition, USP also has five “boots-on-the-ground” safety ambassadors working in and around various urban centres across the province. 

When we were presented with the opportunity to secure additional Education and Awareness funding through a creative sentence, the Safety Ambassador Program was at the top of our list. Creative sentencing refers to a range of penalty options that have been available to Alberta courts since the mid-'90s. Although these sentencing options encompass a wide variety of penalties, among them is the possibility of diverting penalty funds to projects that have a connection with the offence.

The ambassadors work within the communities they serve, and their experience provides them with the flexibility to address situations as they arise. “It isn’t always about digging,” says John Van Domselaar, USP’s longest serving ambassador. “Often, people just need to know the dangers of not knowing what’s below — and that’s a shared responsibility.”

USP retired its Calgary safety ambassador vehicle — a 2007 Chevy Silverado — before the 2024 digging season and secured a new-to-USP Toyota Tacoma using funds provided by the creative sentence. “That Silverado was our first AmbassadorMobile,” says Kassi Zaba, USP’s stakeholder relations manager. “I have to admit there was a feeling of a nostalgia when we said goodbye to it — but it was time.”

“This is the first time USP secured an ambassador vehicle through means other than donation from one of its members,” adds Zaba. “While our members who donated vehicles have been amazing, there was a sense of returning to the same well for support. This opportunity allowed us to right-size the vehicle for the purpose and expand the footprint of our Calgary-based safety ambassador.”

Kent Rowden, a retired Canada Energy Regulator inspector, and retired member of Canada’s military, is USP’s Calgary ambassador and operator of the new-to-USP Tacoma. “The awareness and safety work we provide as ambassadors takes us all over our respective territories,” says Kent, “and a reliable vehicle helps ensure we get to where we need to be. In that regard, I’m very comfortable with the expanded footprint to Brooks, Alberta.”

If you see the YYC AmbassadorMobile on the road, give Kent a wave and you might also notice “Sponsored by an Alberta Court of Justice Creative Sentence” on the tailgate!

One click costs you nothing. Not clicking could cost you everything.