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.

May 2022 has been an interesting month so far. We had expected a significant rush in the early weeks due to the chilly and wet weather that had plagued the Western provinces in April, but while volume increased, it did so at a moderate and steady pace. This allows us some freedom in pivoting and directing our labour force in a more managed fashion, and has helped keep operations humming along smoothly!

This was the first Contractor Dig Safe Breakfast we've been able to have since 2019, and the turnout was very appreciative for this long-awaited face-to-face meeting. We were delighted to also have the honourable Mayor Gerald S. Aalbers in attendance, who was equally glad to acknowledge his constituents in person

USP and the Training Standards Committee have seen a significant uptick in the amount of fraudulent Ground Disturbance courses on the market, misleading learners to believe that they are receiving endorsed training, when in fact, they are not. There are actually only a handful of training providers in Western Canada who have put their ground disturbance training programs through the rigorous endorsement process and are endorsed to one or more of the Ground Disturbance 201 Standards, be it the Alberta, BC or Manitoba versions.

Any time you build something new, on or near the pipeline right-of-way, you have to talk to the pipeline company to get the information from them on how it can be done safely with respect to the pipeline. There may be times when the pipeline company may tell you that your plans can't be completed as submitted because it will jeopardize your safety and that of the pipeline. In that case, work with them to figure out what will be safe.

72% of locate requests in 2021 were submitted by members of the digging community. And amazingly, 97% of those requests were submitted over the web. Although digging activity among our member companies is considerably lower, their statistics are equally impressive with 98% of their locate requests originating on the web. And when we look at the origin of web locate requests, they dominate the system from all corners of the province.

The last few years have been extremely difficult for a lot of people for varying reasons, not the least of which being a global pandemic. Tempers are short, patience is thin, people are on edge all over the world. We are, however, very much in this together. People get up in the morning to go to work, do a good job, and take pride in the work they do. Contact centre work can certainly affect employees' mental health, and we all need to be working together to reach the same shared goal: safety. We are much more equipped to help when we are treated with respect.

Would it be a huge challenge to standardize one calls in Canada? Of course it would. The Business Rule Alignment Group managed to standardize the one call process for the four western-most provinces. It was a struggle and continues to be a challenge. I, for one, believe the rewards are worth it.

“Excavators had to wait for every locator to locate and mark their respective underground infrastructure before they could begin their digging project,” says Mark Bradley, a consultant working with Utility Safety Partners (USP) to help address locate delays. “That reality created Locate Consortiums – a group of shallow utility owners – that selected a locating contractor to locate and mark all consortium member utilities,” says Iain Stables, Supervisor – Damage Prevention with ATCO Gas. “It was a big improvement.”