The Canadian Common Ground Alliance (CCGA) proudly announces the Digging Deeper Digital Education and Networking Series.

The Canadian Common Ground Alliance (CCGA) proudly announces the Digging Deeper Digital Education and Networking Series. 

Given the challenges associated with COVID-19, the CCGA is providing an alternative to its annual damage prevention symposium: a national platform to virtually connect damage prevention stakeholders, beginning October 2020 until May 2021, which offers 10 training and awareness sessions based on industry hot topics. 

In addition to providing continuing professional education, the Digging Deeper Digital Education and Networking Series aims to reconnect peers, utilities, sponsors and suppliers to support the growth and development of the damage prevention industry now and into the future.

The CCGA’s education and marketing committee has done a tremendous job with this endeavour and their devotion to bringing this series to fruition deserves all the accolades. This first-ever CCGA virtual education and networking series breathes life into a long-considered option to the CCGA’s annual Damage Prevention Symposium (DPS).

Over the past seven years, the DPS has annually attracted over 200 delegates at various locations across Canada. Together, we celebrated how far Canada has come in terms of preventing damage to underground infrastructure — and in parallel, carved a path forward for the challenges ahead. “Beyond the training, awareness and education sessions, the DPS became the annual rally for damage prevention stakeholders” provides Todd Scott, chair of the CCGA board of directors. “The diverse team of professionals that assembled each year was invigorating and re-enforced the commitment to improve. We were afraid to lose the momentum we had achieved.”

“The idea of holding the DPS every two years instead of annually has been considered for a while” says Mike Sullivan, president of the CCGA. “There was always hesitation to do so but when COVID-19 happened, there was a paradigm shift. We began working from home, in-person meetings were replaced with an array of online options and business travel, unless absolutely imperative, was over. And yet, after everything we went through, life seemed to resume. In fact, for the damage prevention professional, business picked up.”

“After a very slow start to the digging season, and laying off 10 agents, 2020 locate request activity is among the highest we’ve experienced over the last ten years” says Sher Kirk, operations director for Alberta One-Call Corporation and chair of the Canadian One Call Centres Committee. After two weeks, AOC hired back laid off agents and added four more. “With vacations cancelled, homeowners had nowhere to go and they turned their attention to home improvement.”

 “What this tells us”, continues Sullivan, “is damage prevention awareness and education can’t take a break. It requires continual reinforcement.”