Utility Safety Partners proposing draft legislation

Utility Safety Partners (USP), formerly Alberta One-Call, is developing a draft bill to create a provincial energy and utility infrastructure notification system.

Some of the requirements USP is including in its proposed legislation is that all provincially regulated infrastructure on provincial land or within a public right of way be registered with USP. This would consist of infrastructure owned and operated by municipalities.

Further to registration, all persons planning to undertake a ground disturbance or work near an overhead powerline would be required by law to make a locate request to USP. Operators of registered infrastructure would be required to respond to the locate request. The responses would include marking the location of the infrastructure within five working days, providing an accurate written description within three working days or indicating that the ground disturbance is not likely to cause damage to the infrastructure within three working days.

The draft legislation intends to improve worker safety and reduce the frequency of damage to infrastructure. However, many municipalities have their own system for managing ground disturbances and may not want to register for USP’s notification system.

A first draft of this proposed legislation is available to review on USP’s website. A second draft will be posted this week, after which another 30-day comment period will start. Once the comment period ends, USP will submit the final draft legislation to the Government of Alberta for its review and consideration.

Alberta Municipalities encourages our members to review the second draft and share their thoughts on this proposed legislation with USP.