August 15, 2013
By Terry Murphy CLP

Terry MurphyThe Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance (ORCGA) has scheduled its first-ever Fall Expo Day for Sept. 12 at the Landscape Ontario home office site in Milton.

Damage protection training, education and demonstrations will be offered to improve your knowledge and understanding of underground issues.

Because the Ministry of Labour (MOL) and the Technical Standards and Safety Association (TSSA) have brought in more inspectors and dramatically increased fines, ORCGA is hoping to improve the performance of contractors who excavate. In announcing the event, Jim Douglas, ORCGA president, stated, “Our industry needs a fall education and training event that will inform people about the issues, give demonstrations on underground techniques and best practices and allow locators to show how good they are.” He went on to say, “We can all learn more about damage prevention. This day will do that in a very special and practical way.”
 

Information sessions

You can participate in the following information sessions: Getting Around Under Ground, Damage Prevention Certification Program Overview, Excavation Project: and Infrastructure Health and Safety Mobile Classroom.  By the way, all attendees of the Getting Around Underground session will receive a certificate for attendance from ORCGA.

A damage prevention circuit will include live demonstrations such as planning and design, One Call, locating and marking, excavation, mapping, compliance, public education, and reporting and evaluation.

For those brave, or competitive souls, there is a locate competition. Come out and try your hand at one of the locate rodeo wheels.

To complete your day, free coffee will be brewing and lunch is on the house. As a matter of fact, the entire expo is free of charge with funding by the ORCGA.

Make sure you put Sept. 12 on your calendar now. Just show up for the day, bring your key employees and learn more about damage prevention and the underground. There is no cost for this event that will improve your understanding and knowledge, which should help avoid some very serious fines in the future. If you can’t afford to take a full day away from your operation, then come out for a couple of hours and join us for lunch. It takes place rain or shine.
For more information, contact ORCGA at 1-866-446-4493. Your suggestions and comments are welcomed at tvmurphy@ca.inter.net.

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