Quebec Must Legislate to Protect Its Underground Infrastructures: APISQ

This summer, on June 19, the Ontario Legislature passed Bill 8, the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, which established a single point-of-contact call system for all underground infrastructure projects in Ontario.

Now, the Alliance pour la protection des infrastructures souterraines du Québec (APISQ), is urging the Quebec government to follow suit.

“In 2011, more than five damages per day were done to natural gas or electrical ducts, creating the disruption of essential services, which translated into millions of dollars of direct, and indirect costs. Now is the time for the Quebec government to legislate,” argues Nathalie Moreau, director general for the APISQ.

Ontario’s ‘one-call’ system is said to drastically decrease the number of underground infrastructure assaults that happen during excavation.

According to the APISQ, damages such as smashed gas or water ducts, severed electrical wires, service interruptions (Internet, 911, etc.), and traffic jams are costly, but could be avoided. “In most cases, the person in charge of the excavation did not make a locate request to Info-Excavation, a free service offered in Quebec for over 20 years,” states Moreau. “In the past few years, Ontario has had many deaths, and injuries related to excavation work. Fortunately, Quebec has been lucky in this regard as no serious injury has occurred, but we must act now before it is too late,” she added.