The operators of buried facilities have
an obligation to provide sufficient information to anyone
undertaking a ground disturbance to allow the ground disturber
to complete his or her work safely and in compliance with
the governing regulations.
The operators of buried facilities should:
• install facilities in accordance
with best practices and governing regulations,
• ensure their buried facilities
are locatable,
• maintain spatially accurate
and up-to-date as-built records of both live and abandoned
facilities,
• correct records when errors
are found,
• generate a respect for the integrity
of their facilities on the part of the digging community
by being active participants in the damage prevention
process,
• make the prevention of future
damage to their buried facilities a criterion in their:
- design process,
- installation process,
- records management process,
- claims process and
- purchases of construction and locating services,
• adopt best practices related
to damage prevention,
• develop an awareness of and
respect for the digging community’s concerns and
the constraints under which the digging community does
business,
• respond to locate requests in
a timely manner,
• ensure locators are competent,
• ensure locates are documented,
• audit the performance of contract
locators, if used, and employee locators,
• conduct root cause analyses
on all damage incidents,
• submit damage incident reports
to the province-wide database,
• be proactive in damage prevention
process educational activities,
• register with the one-call centre,
• cooperate with the other stakeholders
in the damage prevention process and support and participate
in damage prevention organizations.
