Author: Brandon Denton

Attention Users
Scheduled System Maintenance

Beginning 09:30 AM(EST) Friday, January, 28th, 2022 until 2:00 PM(EST) Saturday, January, 29th, 2022; Ontario One Call will be performing maintenance on its information technology systems.

During this time we will only accept emergency locate requests via telephone and dispatch via a manual process.

The following services will not be available during the maintenance window.

• Web Portal
• Contractor Bridge
• 360 feedback (TCP/IP and Webservice)
• Maps on the web
• Subscriptions on the web

Attention Stakeholders
Changes to Requests Submitted by Phone

Effective March 2022, Ontario One Call will be moving all standard requests submitted by Professional Contractors to the web.

What is changing?

Any Standard and Design and Planning Requests from professional contractors will only be available for submission through Ontario One Call’s web portal.

What can I submit through the Phone?

The following requests will be accepted through the phone:
1. Emergency/Deferred Emergency (P0) Requests
2. Sewer Lateral Requests

What if I need help submitting my request online?

We are here to help, Ontario One Call will have a support line to assist excavators, however, Agents will not process Standard Requests or Design and Planning requests on the phone.

Why is this changing?

Since the introduction of a new notification system in 2018, each request is accompanied by a ‘map selection’, whether the request is made online or by phone. When a request is created by phone, Ontario One Call Agents have a decreased opportunity to map the dig location appropriately. Meaning these map selections are often larger than necessary and notify more infrastructure owners than may be required.

In early 2022, Ontario One Call will also be launching its new web portal to make submitting a locate request easier!

The benefits of this change include

• Improved accuracy through drawing on a satellite image
• Greater opportunity to decrease the amount of locates excavators need to wait for based on the accuracy of the map selection created
• Better control for the excavator over the locate request process

         – Ease of creating requests quickly and efficiently
– Greater visibility into the status of the locate through web portal functions

• New User Friendly Web Portal coming January 2022

Ontario One Call is re-creating our Web Portal to improve the process of submitting Locate Requests!

The expected implementation is January 27th, 2022.

Some changes to Ontario One Call’s system will affect the Notifications and Confirmations sent to stakeholders, in particular, changes to field names, and the addition of brand new fields. This may require technical changes in your system.

Members or Locators who parse any information from the Notification Form please see the examples of the new forms by clicking here.  Note the email notifications will be sent as HTML only.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The new system is still in development and the listed modifications may change throughout the year.

Members must remain compatible with Ontario One Call’s systems to continue the timely receipt of locate requests.

Excavators or Locate Requestors  who parse any information from the Confirmation Form please contact us at newwebportal@ON1Call.com

Ontario One Call
Mandatory Damage Reporting

Background

In June 2020, the membership of Ontario One Call approved changes to its by-laws. One of the important changes was to allow for the legal requirement that members provide damage reporting information to Ontario One Call. Mandatory damage reporting is vital to understanding the root causes of damages and to inform strategies to help members, excavators and one call centres reduce risks.

Schedule 2 of By-Law 2, Part I, S. 16 now reads: “A Member of the Corporation shall provide, at the time or times specified by the Corporation, any such information as is deemed necessary for the Corporation to fulfil its objects. This includes information which advances the Corporation’s public awareness mandate, including damage reporting data.”

Upon approval of a new regulation by the Ontario Government, this by-law will be legally binding on all members.

Approach

Ontario One Call will require that the “Top 20” Members will supply damage information to the DIRT program, which is maintained by the ORCGA. Members are expected to submit data for the year 2021.

The “Top 20” is determined by the number of notifications that a Member received in the period between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The following Members comprise the Top 20 List:

• Enbridge Gas
• Bell Canada
• Rogers Communication
• Hydro One
• City of Toronto
• Cogeco Cable
• City of Ottawa
• Toronto Hydro
• Peel Region
• Alectra Utilities
• Durham Region
• City of Hamilton
• Hydro Ottawa
• City of Windsor
• Region of Halton
• City of Brampton
• Enbridge Pipelines
• City of Oakville
• Region of York
• City of Mississauga

This approach was chosen because the Top 20 members represent more than 70% of all notifications received. Focusing on this group of members allows us to collect a robust data set without putting an administrative burden on all 800+ members of Ontario One Call, many of whom receive less than 500 notifications per year.

Members not included in that list are still welcomed and encouraged to participate.

For New Participants

For new participants in the DIRT program, we understand that some of this data will be submitted later in this year once their data submission processes are established. The deadline for the submission is typically the second Friday of the following January, e.g., 2020 data was to be submitted by January 8, 2021. We strongly recommend that data be submitted on a monthly or quarterly basis through the DIRT website.

You can learn about the process by going to the DIRT website at https://www.cga-dirt.com/orcga. This website has not only the registration page but also links to a 101 introductory page, FAQ, Training course as well as the link to the Tools and Resources and a collection of the USA annual DIRT reports. Ontario’s annual DIRT reports can be found at the ORCGA website https://orcga.com/publications/dirt-report. Please note that the DIRT database does provide a number of built in reports that you can use to analyze your own companies damages to determine what educational programs will help to protect your own infrastructure and reduce damages and interruptions to your service.

You can find assistance by contacting Jennifer Parent at the ORCGA with jennifer@orcga.com or your Member Services contact at Ontario One Call. For those Members who are currently submitting into DIRT we thank you for your continued support of this program which is an essential tool in our continuing efforts to measure and therefore reduce damages, and increase the safety of the excavation community. To those that are new to program, we welcome you and look forward to assisting you.

Call for Nominations to the Ontario One Call (ON1Call)
Board of Directors

Ontario One Call (ON1Call) is charged with operating the regulatory regime established by the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act 2012. It relies on qualified individuals to serve on the Board of Directors to guide the organization and to ensure it meets its obligations to members, excavators and stakeholders.

ON1Call has the following categories of members: Municipal and Government, Electricity, Gas & Oil Pipeline, Telecommunications & Cable and Other. The Other category consists of members who are not covered by the four previous named sectors (for example, industrial & manufacturing facilities, educational facilities, etc.) There are also three excavator representatives on the Board.

Applications are invited for qualified individuals to stand for nomination for the following vacant positions on the ON1Call Board of Directors for terms starting in June 2021:

Gas & Oil Pipeline Sector Representative: Term through June 2024, with an opportunity to stand for two subsequent terms of three years each

Excavator Sector Representative: Term through June 2024, with an opportunity to stand for two subsequent terms of three years each

Other Sector Representative: Term through June 2024, with the opportunity to stand for two subsequent terms of three years each

Eligibility

To be eligible to stand for election, certain conditions must be met:

• The individual’s employer must be a member of ON1Call as of February 2021 (does not apply for excavator sector)
• The employer must be supportive of the investment of time and interest that all ON1Call directors make, including attending five board meetings annually and participating in board committees and/or task forces.
• The person must have a combination of skills and experience that equip them to serve on the board. The Board is particularly looking to add members with accounting and legal designations.

Process

Qualified individuals are advised to contact ON1Call by March 12, 2021 by email. The email should:
1. Indicate their intention to stand for election.
2. State their reasons for being considered to be a director, including past board experience.
3. Include a CV and a letter of support from their organization.
4. Be sent to the Chair of the Human Resources, Governance and Nominations Committee at hrcommittee@on1call.com.

The Governance and Nominations committee will evaluate all applications and subsequently contact all applicants. The committee will either arrange a telephone interview in March 2021 or advise that it will not be proceeding with a particular application.

Thank you,

Ben Hamilton Executive Director, Ontario One Call

If you can’t read this email, please view it online

New Web Portal

Ontario One Call is re-creating our Web Portal to improve the process of submitting Locate Requests! We want YOU to join us in testing this NEW and EXCITING development before it is released!

There are limited spaces available so register by February 5, 2021.

• Brand new EASY TO USE platform!
• Easy to understand questions and flow of information!
• Improved collection of address information and map!

BETA testing is a process in which external users visit a not-yet-released website or program, and perform tests on it by doing what they would normally do – in our case, submit locates! Then those users provide their feedback in a straightforward, pre-defined way to the program creators. This feedback allows the creators to make modifications and fix any ‘bugs’ that may appear.

It means that once this Web Portal is ready to be released it will be THAT much better for everyone!

• You have been waiting for an easier way to submit locates for years and would like to be part of the change!
• You enjoy being one of the first to get your hands on something new.
• You have a passion for the industry and you want to see change occur.
• You enjoy testing new products!

• Read the Terms and Expectations of Participation (Click HERE). To be eligible to participate you must meet the requirements set out in this document.

• Complete the Registration Form (Click HERE) after you have read the above Terms and Expectations.

January 18th, 2021 – Registration Opens

February 5th, 2021 – Registration Closes

February 12th, 2021 – All chosen participants notified

By February 22nd, 2021 – Training and testing packages sent to chosen participants

February 24th 2021 @2:00pm – Call to review training package/answer questions

March 1st, 2021 – TESTING BEGINS (Feedback forms due weekly until testing ends)

April 2nd,2021 – TESTING ENDS

* Dates are subject to change.

If you can’t read this email, please view it online

Ontario One Call is re-creating our Web Portal to improve the process of submitting Locate Requests!

The expected implementation timeframe is end of 2021/early 2022.

Some changes to Ontario One Call’s system will affect the Notifications and Confirmations sent to stakeholders, in particular, changes to field names, and the addition of brand new fields. This may require technical changes in your system.

Members or Locators who parse any information from the Notification Form please see the examples of the new forms by clicking here.  Note the email notifications with now be sent as HTML only.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The new system is still in development and the listed modifications may change throughout the year.

Members must remain compatible with Ontario One Call’s systems to continue the timely receipt of locate requests.

Excavators or Locate Requestors who parse any information from the Confirmation Form please contact us at newwebportal@ON1Call.com

Attention Users
Scheduled System Maintenance

Beginning 8:00 PM (EST) Thursday, August, 6th, 2020 until 4:00 AM Friday, August, 7th, 2020; Ontario One Call will be performing maintenance on its information technology systems.

During this time we will only accept emergency locate requests via telephone and dispatch via a manual process.

The following services will not be available during the maintenance window.

• Web Portal
• Contractor Bridge
• 360 feedback (TCP/IP and Webservice)
• Corporate Website
• Maps on the web
• Subscriptions on the web
• Ontario One Calls Mailing list