After many months of planning, reviewing and executing, we finally unveil our new tradename today — Utility Safety Partners — under which we will now be operating.
Alberta One-Call will continue to be the legal name of the corporation; however, with the growing number of services now offered, and expansion of our mandate beyond previous operations, it was time to change.
“We began as Alberta First Call in 1984 and eventually, Alberta 1 Call, and then Alberta One-Call Corporation. With the unification earlier this year with the Alberta Common Ground Alliance and the successful 'Where’s the Line' campaign, the opportunity to really change was obvious,” says operations director Sher Kirk.
“It was important for the Corporation to emerge with a new name that provided equal billing for everyone,” continues president Mike Sullivan. “Unification was never a takeover — we’re a collection of non-profit organizations. Unifying and optimizing services, and eliminating unnecessary duplication, makes us all more efficient.”
Alberta One-Call isn’t the first notification centre to unify services with the provincial chapter of the Common Ground Alliance. Info-Excavation did it a few years back when it absorbed l’Association Pour les Infrastructures souterraines du Québec. The added challenge for Alberta One-Call was to equally absorb the operations of Alberta’s "Where’s the Line" campaign that had been successfully promoting overhead powerline awareness across the province since 2006.
“It’s a lot to take in,” says AOC’s member services assistant Chelsea Chiasson. “Anytime there’s a change, there is an effect and it’s our job to help our members be aware of and navigate the change.”
Life is the heart of Utility Safety Partners’ primary goal. It’s what everyone in the damage prevention and safety process works toward every single day and there isn’t a more important objective than that.
|
Mike Sullivan – President, Utility Safety Partners (operated by Alberta One-Call Corporation)