Ground Disturbance Awareness: A Canadian Compliance Course

Yes - contacting your regional One-Call centre before breaking ground is a legal requirement in every Canadian province and territory, not an optional best practice. Under legislation such as Alberta's OHS Code Section 450, failure to call before excavation is a direct regulatory offence and grounds for stop-work orders and fines. A single request notifies every member utility owner in your dig area simultaneously; you must then wait for all responses before starting work. The locate ticket must be on-site and available for inspection before any equipment moves.

The definition of ground disturbance is deliberately broad across Canadian jurisdictions and covers far more than machine excavation. It includes hand digging, augering, topsoil stripping, horizontal directional drilling, and even driving a fence post or installing a sign in some provinces. Alberta's OHS Code Section 451 and BC's OHS Regulation Section 20.75 both require workers to understand these definitions and their obligations before any of this work begins. There is no minimum depth or equipment threshold that exempts you from the One-Call and locate requirements.

Mechanical excavation is prohibited within the Hand Expose Zone (also called the Tolerance Zone) on either side of every locate mark. In Alberta and BC, that zone is 600 mm on each side; in Ontario it extends 1 metre on each side under O. Reg. 213/91. Inside that zone you must use only hand digging with a non-conductive shovel or hydrovac (vacuum excavation) until the buried facility is visually exposed - meaning you can see it, confirm its actual depth, and verify it matches the locate mark. Only after visual confirmation and with sufficient clearance may mechanical equipment cautiously resume.

Stop all equipment immediately and do not attempt to pull machinery away from the line - movement worsens the damage. Evacuate all personnel upwind of the strike zone (gas is heavier than air and settles in low areas), eliminate every ignition source including cell phones and vehicle engines, and establish a perimeter. From a safe distance, call 911 and report the utility type and your exact location, then call the facility owner's emergency line printed on your locate ticket. Alberta's OHS Code Section 455 and BC's OHS Regulation Section 20.84 require immediate reporting of any contact with a buried facility regardless of how minor it appears - a scrape on a pipe coating is a reportable event.

A utility strike triggers multiple mandatory reporting obligations. At the moment of the strike, call 911 and the facility owner's emergency line. Within 24 hours, most provinces require the employer to report to the provincial OHS regulator - WorkSafeBC, Alberta OHS, or Ontario's Ministry of Labour - if anyone was injured or there was imminent danger. If the struck infrastructure was a federally regulated pipeline, the Canadian Energy Regulator must also be notified directly through its 24-hour emergency line under the Canadian Energy Regulator Act. Failing to report to the required authority is a separate offence from the strike itself; in Alberta, penalties can arise under OHS Act Section 66.