The CCGA Story

What do circus tents, telehealth numbers, and federal legislation have in common? They all played a surprising role in shaping Canada’s damage prevention landscape!  

In this episode of the Safety Moment Podcast, host Mike Sullivan sits down with Todd Scott, the new Executive Director of the Canadian Common Ground Alliance (CCGA), for a lively and nostalgic journey through the CCGA’s origins, milestones, and future.  

From its humble, patchwork beginnings across provinces to national pushes like the 811 campaign and Senate testimonies, Mike and Todd reflect on the hard-won lessons, political bumps, and evolving strategies that built the CCGA into Canada’s national voice for damage prevention. With a new strategic plan in motion, Todd shares his vision for uniting regional partners, strengthening governance, improving data reporting, and ensuring the CCGA stays relevant.  

Listen For 

2:51 How the regional alliances formed across Canada 

12:12 Alberta One Call’s crucial support for CCGA growth 

20:46 When the circus almost struck a lateral line 

36:21 Railways push back: Political challenges emerge 

1:08:01 Symposium spotlight: Halifax 2025 preview  

Guest: Todd Scott, Executive Director CCGA

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Chapters

• 2:51 How the regional alliances formed across Canada
• 12:12 Alberta One Call’s crucial support for CCGA growth
• 20:46 When the circus almost struck a lateral line
• 36:21 Railways push back: Political challenges emerge
• 1:08:01 Symposium spotlight: Halifax 2025 preview

Transcript

Big Announcer (00:00:02):

You are listening to the Safety Moment Podcast by Utility Safety Partners. Safety is always a good conversation and it's a click away. Here's your host, Mike Sullivan.

Mike Sullivan (00:00:15):

Welcome to the Safety Moment Podcast. I think this is episode 75. Could be 76, but I actually lost count. My guest today is the freshly minted anointed executive director of the Canadian Common Ground Alliance and friend of mine, Mr. Todd Scott. We're going to talk about everything about the Canadian Common Ground Alliance, it's origins, it's humble beginnings, and some of the high watermarks along the way, and to present day where this is going to be going. The CCGA recently had a strategy discussion here in Calgary and there's a roadmap to the future and I'm really looking forward to getting into see Todd. Todd, welcome to the Safety Moment podcast.

Todd Scott (00:00:58):

Thanks, Mike. I really appreciate being here. I've been waiting. We talked about this a little while ago and I've was excited to get to be on, and I'm a newbie. This is my first, you're breaking me in here to the podcasting world. I might become a legend. You never know. I think

Mike Sullivan (00:01:13):

I, so you're probably going to end up having your own podcast after this. It wouldn't surprise me. We've been talking about this for a while. It was delayed and rightfully so. You wanted to get past the strategy session and all that. But anyway, thanks for doing this. You and I have a lot of history that began with the CCGA many years ago when we first met each other, and we've had some really interesting moments ever since.

Todd Scott (00:01:37):

Absolutely.

Mike Sullivan (00:01:38):

And it's kind of a testament too, right? I mean, here we are somewhat opposite ends of the country. I'm in Calgary, Alberta and you're in Atlantic Canada in Fredericton. No, I'm a Moncton. I'm a

Todd Scott (00:01:47):

Moncton today.

Mike Sullivan (00:01:48):

Moncton. Sorry. Moncton. And we've, it doesn't feel like we're that far apart. We used to see each other quite a bit, but I hope this is going to be, I don't think I've done any podcast episodes actually of the CCGA, broadly speaking. We've talked about legislation, things like that. But this is, I've been looking forward to this. So to jump right into it, the CCGA, as you and I both know, and I don't think people realize it really was a very simple beginning. The Common Ground Alliance began in Canada and Ontario, the Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance. They secured their status from the CGA in the US many years ago under Jim Douglas. And then, I'm not sure exactly of the order, but I think British Columbia got it next and then Quebec or vice versa, and then Alberta and then Saskatchewan and I think Manitoba Atlantic Canada after that. Manitoba

Todd Scott (00:02:51):

First. Yep,

Mike Sullivan (00:02:52):

Manitoba first and then Atlantic Canada. But I mean, it didn't happen all at once. It was after a couple of years, it took some time. And those regional partners of all the provinces and remain, they are members, they are regional partners of the Common Ground Alliance in Canada, of the United States, of the CG and United States. But then those regional partners here in Canada, they started talking because obviously we had members like TC Energy and Bridge, I mean Alliance Pipeline back in the day that crossed provincial boundaries and we had issues of common interest that we wanted to obviously represent. So those provinces said we should have a committee and where we actually get together from time to time to talk about how we can maintain symmetry and keep those conversations at a level where everybody's aware of what's going on. And that was really the beginnings of it. And that was well before, I mean that's over 15 years ago easily. I think I

Todd Scott (00:03:55):

Was, oh yeah, the actual CGA now, just because I was before my time, but I was talking with Doug a little bit about this, and actually I think it started in 2006 is when they first got their gym, got his first, they got recognized by the parent in the CGA in the us and then that really started, and then once we, all of us got together, then we started to say, well, we are different in a sense. We know you recognizes us, but we're the same gold but we're Canadian thing. So we all got together and it's been on fire since then, I

Mike Sullivan (00:04:33):

Guess. Yeah. And those committee meetings, I think there may have been maybe a year or two, I can't remember how many years that went on. If I remember correctly, I was with Alliance Pipeline at the time, so that goes back to 2007 as I left there in about 2007, 2008 or so, or 2009 I think. And then I went to HMA Land services where the CCGA was sort of maturing. I said, you know what? We need to meet more regularly. But then we had the catalyst, which really brought everybody together was this push for three digit dialing.

Todd Scott (00:05:09):

Absolutely.

Mike Sullivan (00:05:09):

And just because of proximity, implying accountability, if you wish, the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association was really, they really wanted to secure three digit dialing here, 8 1 1 in Canada because their members transmission pipelines, they brought product into the US and they were benefiting from this eight one common awareness program, which we didn't have here in Canada. So we got to work, and just by chance, there was a senator in Ottawa, Senator Rod Zimmer, a liberal senator that somebody tapped on the shoulder, I think it was Steve Loney from TC Energy at the time. And he knew Senator Zimmer and said, would you want to recognize Safe Digging Month in the Senate? And he said, sure. So he rose in the Senate and he recognized Safe Digging Month and invited me, I think because again, proximity, I wasn't leading the CCGA, it was just I was here and I was sent to Ottawa.

(00:06:15):

And I think that's how the 8 1 1 conversation started. And at that time, I remember we were asked, how can we secure three digit dialing 8 1 1 in Canada? And until we really got into it, we didn't know. And I've had an episode about this before, the 8 1 1 pathway in Canada. I won't get into it too much here, but the bottom line is we tried to get 8 1 1 in Canada, and it didn't go because 8 1 1 was already secured by telehealth but not being used. And that's when you and I really, we all of a sudden, yeah, that's where we really got to know each other. And what was that first meeting? Was it in Atlantic Canada? I think we started doing that road

Todd Scott (00:06:58):

Show. Yeah, that was in Newfoundland was the first one. It was in January of 2012, I believe. And I just been, I've been pushing dams prevention since when Enbridge came out here. I worked for Enbridge out here at the time, and we were starting to really push the call before you dig at the time what we all knew. And then, yeah, we had a few little, we were doing a lot of education, everything. And then I got a call one day from one of my colleagues in Ontario and said, Hey, we need to start an former Atlantic CGA, are we going to do that? And I said, okay. And that was fine. And then about two days later, he called me back, okay, go. It's been recognized, so it's all yours. You got this. Get back to me when it's done. Next thing I know, Mike Sullivan's calling me to say, Hey, we got to go to Newfoundland 8 1 1. And

Mike Sullivan (00:07:59):

I think that's where we first met. And I remember they were looking at us. We had three heads in Newfoundland. Nothing's buried here. We live in Iraq.

Todd Scott (00:08:06):

Absolutely.

Mike Sullivan (00:08:09):

But then we had further discussions. And then you said, full disclosure here I have somebody who's into the telehealth

Todd Scott (00:08:16):

In my family once I got the full scope of it. And the next meeting was later that spring in Nova Scotia. And I said to Mike, I have to declare something to the, because we were meeting because health owned it, we were meeting with the executive directors of health as we were meeting with to try to get permission to, the strategy was to try to do a health health. They

Mike Sullivan (00:08:38):

Owned 8 1 1, but nobody was really using it except for, I think it was New

Todd Scott (00:08:42):

Brunswick. Yeah, new Brunswick was the first one. Yeah, they started. Yeah. And my mother was instrumental and led the whole development of telehealth in Atlanta, Canada eventually all of Canada. And anyway, I had to declare to the executive director or assistant deputy minister for Health and Nova Scotia, because she was setting up Nova Scotia at the time. And I said, I just got to Lois Scott. Yeah, well, that's my mother. He sort of snickered. He goes, what do you guys fight about on the supper table? The phone numbers or what? I was like, anyway,

Mike Sullivan (00:09:21):

Like I talked about in a previous episode, we secured a hundred thousand dollars and in no time at all for this application to the CRTC, to secure three digit dialing. And obviously the long and the short it is we didn't get, and that was the end of that. We went to click before you dig, and the rest is history. But that moment solidified, all of that solidified the CCGA as being that National Voice of Damage prevention, combined national damage prevention interests. And it really solidified the CCGA. And all of a sudden, again, I don't even know how it happened, but I was nominated by this committee to lead it. I don't even know what my title was, be quite honest. And it was really to lead that three digit dialing thing. And then once the decision came out of the CRTC, more of a project manager, really, once the decision came out of the CRTC, we gained a lot of traction, a lot of stakeholder attention, and I think, I don't think I know that they were, okay, what's next?

(00:10:33):

I delivered that presentation to the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association standing committee and operations saying, okay, we didn't get three digit dialing, but here's plan B, click before you dig, blah, blah, blah, blah. Mock a mock website showed them. And I remember Dawn Wisher, who was the representative from TC Energy and senior VP with TC Energy, said, why didn't we do that first? Absolutely. Like, oh my God, you guys are the ones asking for, but here we are. I mean, this is 13 years ago, and I had just started with Alberta One call at the time, and I don't really remember Todd, and maybe you do, but I became the executive director of the CGA and I don't remember how that even

Todd Scott (00:11:17):

Happened. Yeah, well,

Mike Sullivan (00:11:19):

Honestly,

Todd Scott (00:11:19):

I think the idea was, and I was a committee member or a board member representing Atlantic. And then when I joined the executive, I think I might been, I joined the executive first as the secretary I think, and then I moved in the V, VP V and the chair role eventually. So I would think I was in the VP role at that time, and honestly, you were already doing all this stuff and it was a natural fit. It was like, okay, Mike, we need you to lead as we move forward, click before you dig. And federal legislation movement, that was the, and those are the two that really you were instrumental in keep it moving and we were glad to have you and you were in a position that you could do it on top of what you were doing.

Mike Sullivan (00:12:12):

Exactly. My employer Alberta One call, I was already doing it, I guess when I took the interview and they said, we want you to keep doing it. And they had no issues whatsoever of me having that dual role. And you're right, it allowed me, the position allowed me to continue, which was great. And we even used resources within Alberta One call for assistance. We had Gary Lay Craft who was the accountant, and he did that work for the CCGA and the CCC G had very little funding. So Alberta One Call Bank rolled it, and then it was reimbursed when the money came in. So it was hats off to Alberta, one calls board of directors to have that foresight and where we are now, and we will get to that shortly, but then we started having these opportunities, and I remember the Canadian Gas Association was Jim Tweedy who reached out to me and said, Mike, we have an opportunity to deliver witness testimony at a Senate hearing for energy, the environment and natural resources.

(00:13:17):

Can you be in Ottawa? It was like in two days to deliver witness testimony from the CCGA on damage prevention. And so I said, sure, I can do that. Which, okay, we went out, we did it, and whatever we said, whatever I said, whatever the Canadian Gas Association said, everybody else, it resonated with the chair of that committee who was Senator Grant Mitchell. And so much so that he initiated another study, which was One Call Systems and the Damage mentioned in Canada. And instead of being the last party to deliver that witness testimony, we were the first in that next witness testimony. And that really kicked things off. It was a very fortuitous time because we didn't get three digit dialing. We were pivoting to click before you dig. And now the Senate was interested in what we had to say, and we went through that whole process of the witness testimony. I think I delivered twice and met Senator Mitchell, who was amazing, and he really took an interest. It's like you and me and everybody else who was in damage prevention. Once you start, man, it's hard to let it go. I don't know what it is.

Todd Scott (00:14:35):

Absolutely, yeah,

Mike Sullivan (00:14:37):

Because this is what your says your third time around, right?

Todd Scott (00:14:40):

Yeah, exactly. Was very, Senator Mitchell was so dynamic and just engaging to all of us. It was like he believed and he did everything he had to or could do to get us along through that senate process, which involved a fair amount. I mean, any one of us, I think if we'd realized the amount of lobbying and the amount of stuff that we had to do would've probably would've scared us a little bit. I think naivety and brave and brevity are two different things.

Mike Sullivan (00:15:20):

Well, I remember those early days of even before, well, I guess maybe even with senators, Senator Mitchell, but earlier than that, when I had to be in Ottawa a moment's notice and before I came to Alberta one call, we had no funding. We had zero. And HMA wasn't going to give me the money to do it. They were giving me the latitude from my position. Yeah, go ahead, go and do this. But I was, and I don't know how many people know this, but I was funding my travel and expenses out of my pocket. And I remember my wife Julie was like, what are you doing? I said, I just believe in this. It's the right thing to do. But again, that's that devotion you feel like to the cause. Before we get into the rest of this, maybe tell me and whoever's listening here about your role. I mean, this was an add-on in the far corner of your desk, but you had to drop everything and your employer's like, yeah, we want you to do this. So what was your job at the time when we first started

Todd Scott (00:16:24):

Meeting? Well, we started going at that point, I was, well, early on when I started with Enbridge, I came out of a consulting background and I actually worked on the EIA for the actual distribution system at Enbridge, was building out in the East coast back. And then, anyways, they brought me on as an area supervisor during the first initial phase when I joined them permanently in 2000. But I was an area supervisor, but I was responsible for all the education and all the stuff with the emergency response services and everything, and then all the damage prevention and liaison with all the different stakeholders in southeastern New Brunswick. And then at that grew, I took up, at the time when we did a lot of this stuff, I was the construction maintenance manager for the province in New Brunswick for Enbridge Gas, new Brunswick. So it's a busy job.

(00:17:21):

And that time we wore many, many hats. We weren't a huge organization. And I had all any damages, all the construction stuff, a lot of the negotiations for contracts and everything. So we were busy, but there was always this sense that we had to think bigger than ourselves. And I have to say that the organization at the time, the various general managers and all of them leading up to Joe Volpe here, that's still here now with Liberty is he's still in there. And he has been tremendous supporters of the damage prevention and the CCGA and the Atlantic CGA. And it was a bit nuts. I was doing a lot of traveling and too, there was a couple of times where I was like, yeah, I've got to be there. And I couldn't get the right approvals right away. So being in a big company, so off we went and people would say, my wife was like, how come there's a flight to Calgary on my Visa? Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. Anyway, so those are days, and as I worked along and got the Atlantic system going, that was an interesting, and I have to shout out because things are changing, and we didn't have our own call center necessarily

(00:18:47):

At first. We were still doing some traditional, everybody's calling all their, we were all promoting Damage prevent, but we didn't have a one call system. And then we ended up, Ontario were using Acculink at the time, I believe before they went to their one, the one call, the Ontario One call and internalized it a little bit within the province. And they opened up, they had all agreed, and this is the types of things that happened to us along the way. So they had agreed, okay, we had signed a contract. They were going to come down into Brunswick. They wanted an offsite secondary backup site. Anyway, new Brunswick is the only bilingual province in the country, so you had to have both French and English available all the time, all that stuff. So we went through all this and got right down to it. I'm telling you, it was within a month of going live, and they announced that Ontario was going to internalize, and Acculink called me and the next day and said, we're out.

(00:19:49):

And we're like, I remember that. I do remember that. I probably called you and said, Mike, I'm not sure what to do right now. But anyway, but I will say I reached out to info X and on Quebec, it was a natural fit anyway, with the language where they were in the country, the language, they were already well-versed and they're, most of their crs are all bilingual to begin with and operating for Quebec. So they came right in and literally we set it up within, we still met our go live date, and it was a bit sketchy at first, but we got there. Denny was just fantastic at the time, who was the general manager there. And we came out and we went live. That was 2016, I think. Yeah,

Mike Sullivan (00:20:45):

I think so.

Todd Scott (00:20:46):

So then by that time, I think I was actually chairing the federal board at that point too. And then that's when we really got hip deep into the legislation and all the meetings and flying off to Ottawa, and I'm sure we'll get to it, but the one meeting where you and I walked in and I was like, oh my God. Oh God, what's this?

Mike Sullivan (00:21:14):

Without any, yeah, we'll get to that. That was, I don't know if you call that a high watermark or a low

Todd Scott (00:21:20):

Watermark. I got to tell you,

Mike Sullivan (00:21:21):

It was one of the most surreal moments. And I remember looking at you and thinking, what the hell's going on? But the way the CCG evolved we're kind of going forward backwards in time here, and I should probably say my first interactions, I guess with damage prevention in Atlantic Camp that where you were,

Todd Scott (00:21:45):

Oh, yeah, we should talk more.

Mike Sullivan (00:21:45):

Where you are is when the Maritimes Northeast Pipeline was under construction. I was out there as an inspection officer with the National Energy Board, A CER today, and I was out there a lot. And they built the main line and then they built the laterals. And one of those laterals went through the city of St. John and went right through the parking lot of the arena where what they used to affectionately call the baby flames, the Calgary Flames farm team played the circus, came to town quite literally. Yeah, exactly. And they were driving spikes into the parking lot for these massive tents, and they narrowly missed hitting the St. John lateral, which was all natural gas, high pressure, natural gas, and I was contacted and there's an investigation, et cetera, et cetera. And I went out and I remember talking with the officials in the city of St.

(00:22:37):

John and try and explain to them, these are the requirements. I mean, the game changed overnight when that pipeline came to town and the circus came to town and the lack of awareness, and it is a massive change in working process and everything. And I remember thinking it was a little bit of apathy here that people don't seem to realize just how volatile this can be if they don't work accordingly. And I was really getting nowhere. And with that ability to impose, this is the change now. And I went back to Calgary and I was dealing with working with one of the B'S lawyers, Andy Hudson, and we're trying to come up with a way to make things a little more stringent, I guess. And I asked Andy, I said, well, what if we exempted the city of St. John, I think it was from the pipeline crossing regulations.

(00:23:31):

And he said, what do you mean? Isn't that a good thing? I said, no, because now they can no longer apply to the pipeline company for any work within a hundred feet or 30 meters. They have to apply to the National Energy Board. And we don't have that 10 day timeline like the pipeline companies do, and Oh, okay, maybe. Yeah. So we did, and it caught their attention, but we had a caveat, we'll exempt you from the legislation or regulations unless you set up a one call system for the, and at the time, I think it was for the province, but they said, we can only have a jurisdiction in the city of St. John. And that was really the first

Todd Scott (00:24:05):

Absolutely.

Mike Sullivan (00:24:06):

That was a catalyst,

Todd Scott (00:24:07):

Right? Absolutely. That was the St. John dig line. And we were just, as they built the lateral, and we as Enbridge were just starting to build our distribution system based on that lateral and on those laterals and all around the province. And so we were out there and it was really, I hate to say it, I'm really pleased. I'm really glad that there was no release and they didn't damage the pipe. It was a near miss. And these are the things that we have, and this is one thing, kudos to the transmission folks, is they really do treat near misses just like incidents in terms of investigation and the lessons learned. And I think that's probably, there should be more of that around safety and other issues near hit as I like to

Mike Sullivan (00:24:53):

Call them, instead of a near miss

Todd Scott (00:24:54):

Hit. So that really started the St. John one call and got there, and it was before Enbridge. Enbridge didn't own Maritime Northeast Pipeline at that point, so we were using that, but we ended up getting them St. John Energy, they have a small energy company, MB Power, we're sitting there and then we had the city, and we started with that as our first, it was just in the city of St. John, but our first dig line info was using that info was supplying that for, no, sorry, Acculink was supplying it was doing that for them as well out of Ontario. And then we started, that's what really got it going. And it was a good way to point and say, Hey, when we were talking to the other municipalities, Hey, we're already doing it here. And we were down talking to various, the other underground infrastructure owners don't. That's one thing. The challenge that we had is in a lot of ways with this is we didn't have the density down here that you have in a lot of the country in terms of under Baird resources or infrastructure. But nonetheless, it doesn't matter. You need to do it. But it was a kind of hard sell at first, and it was the gas companies that really were, because people were, I hate to say it, but they were fearful of it.

Mike Sullivan (00:26:24):

Well, they didn't know it, so we automatically feared it,

Todd Scott (00:26:26):

Right? Oddly enough, there was old gas services in Monken where I live and I live in Riverview, but there's a field that they still, actually, it's part of the gas play that they have in New Brunswick now that they're not developing, but it is been in production it with production from the late 18 hundreds. And there was a pipeline that came into Moncton, and when I was a kid, there was an old, when you went back this road from behind Riverview back out towards Albert County, there was this old, it looked like a propane tank graveyard. They were just, and I didn't realize it, but when I was doing all this education with the local fire departments, they say that the old guys that have been around for a long time, the chief in Rearview particularly said, well, we've had Gasby here before. And I said, I know, but he said, no.

(00:27:23):

I said, I remember going out. He said, and actually when the well pressure went down on the field, they actually supplemented with propane. So that's what that field that they actually add a propane. And they had brought it into town and he said, I can go. He said, I can tell you where there's Farmer's Field in Riverview that have since been developed, but he said where the old pipeline was, and the farmer would call the fire department because there'd be a fire, they'd be burning grass or something. It'd be a fire that he couldn't put out. And it was the pipeline leaking a point.

Mike Sullivan (00:27:54):

So it was like a propane bullet

Todd Scott (00:27:56):

Farm. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, he told me that story and I said, Hey, let's never repeat that. And he was like, no kidding. Anyway, so we used to dig up some old structures, some old ving structures and stuff in the city streets and Monkton back when we were putting in our stuff. But anyway, all that to say that really drove that, that incident was what really got it going. And then that gave us the impetus to move forward again. And then I got the call to say, Hey, we need work the 8 1 1 system and are that meeting, and that's what started the clen CCGA. And then the rest is history.

Mike Sullivan (00:28:39):

Well, coming back to what we were talking about, like I said, we're going back

Todd Scott (00:28:42):

And forth. No, it's fixed.

Mike Sullivan (00:28:43):

Perfect.

(00:28:45):

But I think it was December, 2014 when that second committee looking at damage or One Call Systems in Canada, they came out with their report. They had those four recommendations that the government referenced, said 2 47 in legislation that buried facilities on federal land be registered with One Call services that the feds require all owners of federally regulated buried utilities to become members of One Call. And that the federal government introduced conditional grants dependent on adopting legislation, requiring mandatory participation with One Call, those four recommendations. I remember all of us being like, whoa, this is big Z 2 47 for the CSA Z 2 47 had just been completed. That recommendation came out actually before it was completed. And we had so many irons in the fire, the Canadian Common Ground Alliance, the Canadian Gas Association, the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, cipa, everybody was underwriting what we were doing at the CCGA stakes were high, and I think we were hitting all of the targets we wanted to, and I've talked about this in a previous podcast, and we had this report in hand.

(00:29:58):

It says, okay, this is great. We're waiving this around now what? I was invited to Ottawa to meet with Senator Mitchell, and we were having lunch, and I just asked the question. I said, how would we get legislation? He said, well, I'd have to appoint a lawyer to you, federal lawyer to you, and you'd have to work with a lawyer to draft legislation. And he kind of laid out the whole process in about a minute and a half. And I said, why don't we do that? And I've told this story before, and he just kind of looked at me and then he glanced over the staff member who was with him. He said, I want you to do what we just said, appoint a lawyer to work with Mike. And that was how we began with Bill S 2 33 initially. Then it became 2 29. And I remember thinking, well, who was that easy?

(00:30:48):

We do it before, but it was a long process to get there. And ultimately things didn't happen. The bill was, well, first of all, 2 33 died on the floor because Prime Minister Steven Harper, he had to prorogue and there's election called. And as a happy circumstance, we were able to provide the language of Bill S 2 33 to the public. We weren't allowed to do that during the process prior to that, but once it was no longer proposed legislation, we couldn't say, this is what we're proposing. Please comment on it. And we got a lot of feedback and we amended the language accordingly. And then we started again, once the election was over and fast forwarded to May, 2017, the bill to S 2 29 was adopted in the Senate, and then it moved to the House of Commons. And that's where things got interesting. And I think I remember the CCGA. You were the chair at the time,

Todd Scott (00:31:48):

Weren't you? It was

Mike Sullivan (00:31:49):

2017.

Todd Scott (00:31:50):

Yep.

Mike Sullivan (00:31:51):

Things started getting interesting, and the stakes were high. Everybody's anticipating, look, we just got this legislation adopted in the Senate. We've never gotten this far. And then I was having meetings. You and I were in Ottawa from time to time, the Canadian Gas Association, Jim Tweedy and others, they were opening doors for us to speak with ministries. And all of a sudden became apparent that railways don't seem to be supporting this, and the railways, the Ministry of Transportation, they carry a big stick. I started getting hints from Senator Mitchell that maybe this wasn't going to go as well as we thought. And Lloyd Longfield was the MP out of liberal MP out of Guelph that was going to tackle this, and he was going to sponsor Bill S 2 29 in the House of Commons. It went to second reading and then kind of evaporated. I remember the CCG board of directors, and you were the chair at the time, we'd be talking about said, where's it going to go? So we don't know. We had the, in 2017, September or October, 2017, we had the CCGA symposium in Ottawa, and it was part of the hundred 50th anniversary idea Hill Canada we're going to be in Ottawa. And also we were hoping for good news on the legislation, and we invited Lloyd Longfield to the event to speak and he didn't come. Yeah,

Todd Scott (00:33:21):

No,

Mike Sullivan (00:33:23):

Absolutely. And then things happened that just, just all of a sudden it's like, wow, we're not getting any traction. And it just died. And this is where we were talking about earlier, you and I were invited to GAO Quebec for a meeting with, was that public service and Policy

Todd Scott (00:33:44):

Compliance

Mike Sullivan (00:33:45):

PSPC?

Todd Scott (00:33:46):

Yeah, it was. Yeah,

Mike Sullivan (00:33:47):

It was. Yep. And it was the MP. Steve McKinnon was the Yep. It was his writing. And you and I had no idea what the hell was going on.

Todd Scott (00:33:57):

Yeah, we actually, we were there in my mind, and we were, okay, we're there to discuss what the next steps are. And they did. They brought, and we were meeting with Steven or Ms. McKinnon and doing our thing and saying, okay, well we're not

Mike Sullivan (00:34:13):

Senator Mitchell.

Todd Scott (00:34:14):

Yeah, Senator Mitchell. And we're not at the end of the road. We're just at a bump obviously. So we walk in and we sit down and then this parade of people come in and it was like there was two other ministers, and they're entourage, lots of staffers. Everybody's there. And then they present us with, wow, we're going to look at this memorandum understanding, or I forget what they called it, but

Mike Sullivan (00:34:49):

An MOU between the CCGA, the government of Canada.

Todd Scott (00:34:53):

And I was, where did this come from? Oh, really?

Mike Sullivan (00:34:58):

And I remember they put this folder down in front of us, and you and I are looking at it and they have the meeting agenda. And I was like, what the heck is this? And then we're kind of looking at each other, what are we doing here? And they had photographer there to capture a sign, which I felt, here I am signing this and is this the end? And it sure felt like it,

Todd Scott (00:35:24):

But

Mike Sullivan (00:35:24):

It felt like

Todd Scott (00:35:25):

It did. And as we learned as we went on, I mean, it did sort of set us on for the next phase of this, which we are still in today in some ways. We're still in. And

Mike Sullivan (00:35:38):

In fact, it was interesting. I continued in my role as the executive director for a little while after that. And that must've been late 2017 or early 2018, I can't remember. And public service and Policy compliance, PSPC reached out and said, we've been following this, the journey of Bill S 2 29 for a long time. And for those who aren't aware of PSPC, they manage buildings and federal infrastructure across the country. And those assets are fed by buried infrastructure. And they said, we'd like to have all of our buried infrastructure that feeds our assets to be registered to ensure they're registered. And they had been a party to One Call in Ontario because they have the National Capital Region and in Quebec as well, because of a lot of federal government buildings in Gatton across the river. And they said, we want to make sure these assets are registered, but we don't think we're missing that many since we get contacted directly by contractors working on our land.

(00:36:48):

And so we are able to address that. So I was in Ottawa a bunch tough times working with PSPC as they learned how to do this. And it was interesting because from Alberta One Call or any one call center bringing on a new member, it's nothing. Sure, give us your data in any form you want, and we'll put into our map base and then we will test it. And once everything works, then we go live. And PSPC, it felt like a cast of thousands, it, it was maybe half a dozen to a dozen people at times that we're working on this. I'm thinking, we do this every day. Why don't you just give us your data? But they had to understand it. And when we finally went live in the National Capital Region, they thought, well, we'll probably get a couple of dozen LOCATE requests, notifications.

(00:37:42):

And they had over 400 and that first month and they're like, oh my God, we've missed this many before. And it wasn't long after that that they said, okay, we're going to begin to work with the other provinces across Canada and get everything registered. And they have and tip of the hat to PSPC for doing so and PP people like Ravi Sandage and others that spearheaded that. But that's kind of where it sat. Then I had to resign from the CCGA as an executive director when we unified resources here with the Alberta Common Ground Alliance and the aboveground assets. I had way too much to do to ensure the success of that unification. And I resigned from the CCGA role, stayed on the board, and Doug Lap took it over as a working

Todd Scott (00:38:31):

Chair.

Mike Sullivan (00:38:32):

Then COVID happened.

Todd Scott (00:38:32):

Wow, what happened? We had switched because I was chair right up until that point. And then in October of 19, Enbridge sold Algonquin Power and Utility bought gas to Brunswick.

(00:38:49):

And during that transition, I ended up being shuffled into a corporate job in Toronto and reporting to Toronto. But I stayed living in the Maritimes, but I spent all my time in the us. I was responsible for all the technical training and a bunch of process harmonization throughout all three of all the gas, all their gas companies, electric companies and their water companies. And it was water wastewater companies. So all my Stafford in the us, I had one report in Canada and the rest were down there. So I was away a lot. I stayed as long as I could. And then I got, and Doug took over and became the chair, and I actually kind of disappeared from the CCJA little bit. It was still listed as a past chair, but I was so busy. I was picking up the phone for calls, but I wasn't really, it was hard to stay. You

Mike Sullivan (00:39:46):

Couldn't be engaged.

Todd Scott (00:39:48):

Anyway, so that's all turned and then we arrive, then COVID hit, and that was a game changer for everybody. And then all of us, and actually just as we move into the next segment here, we're wrapped the CGA today, it actually taught us a few things for the CCJ as well. When I look at it as you guys went down, we lost our revenue. One of our major revenue is our damage prevention symposium. And I remember being on the calls in late 19 early and in March of 20 when they really said travel's restricted and all that. And really

Mike Sullivan (00:40:31):

That's the

Todd Scott (00:40:32):

End of that. We started talking about having these sessions, some virtual stuff, and at the time I'm, okay, well we'll do, and the whole world kind of moved that way and it sort of fit nicely and it was fairly successful, to be honest with you. Looking at that point. I was really tied in my own world down in the liberty world, but they did a great job. The folks that were Doug and the team and putting those things on, and I know you were involved with that with Summit and Monthly, I think they were every twice a month or every two months through the year or something like that, if I remember correctly. Is that right?

Mike Sullivan (00:41:20):

Yeah, something like that. Quarterly or something like that. It was one of those methods where we had to keep the CCGA relevant. We had to keep it out there. And it worked. It worked,

Todd Scott (00:41:31):

Absolutely. And so it's been, as we've started to come out of COVID, and again, I wasn't all that involved at this point. And then as it turns out, we get to the spring of, I went through, they had a reorganization, Algonquin, and I was looking at early retirement, to be honest with you. I was trying to decide what to do. So I'd been downsized and severanced off and all that. And I was like, okay, so what shall I do with myself? So it took me a little while to recover from the five years of travel or four and a half years of just insane amount of time and work and away from home and all that good stuff. Well,

Mike Sullivan (00:42:23):

Yeah, living where you do, which is a beautiful part of the world, it's

Todd Scott (00:42:26):

Not easy to get anywhere. No. And it just isn't an extra flight wherever you go in North America, it's just an, and that doesn't seem like a lot, but let me tell you, when you're getting home at midnight on Friday night and you're leaving Monday morning on the early flight at 5:00 AM if your weekends are pretty short. So anyway, so that all worked out and then Doug reached out and said, would you consider last fall would you consider coming on as an executive director for the CCGA? And I said,

Mike Sullivan (00:43:01):

So was that about 30 seconds or one minute after you left Elon and that the

Todd Scott (00:43:07):

Phone ran? I think it took him a little while to get my number. I lost my number.

Mike Sullivan (00:43:15):

I'm surprised it took that

Todd Scott (00:43:16):

Long for him to reach out. So he said, well, yeah, it was in the summer or summertime, early fall I guess maybe. And he said, well, we will have to get the board obviously on board and all those types of things and budgets and everything else. I said, okay, fine. Yeah. But I'd certainly be interested in by the time we get it all worked out with, I started in late January this year, early February and late January, I guess was the last week of January. And yeah, it's been, here we are, we're back at, it was kind of a nice, I am really excited. It was perfect for me. It's something I'm very passionate about and I was pushing it, trying to understand. I got a sense of the US too, how variable it is down there as well. You look at Canada as a group and you move across the country where we don't have the same, we do have some of the same, I always say there's difference in culture, difference in regions and all that that you see across countries as big as US and Canada.

(00:44:26):

And I got to live that firsthand with Liberty, even internally within the company with process and procedure and trying to figure that out. So it was an interesting, and when the asked asset came back and I had the training I've got or the experience I had with the CCGA, it was very apropos to help me have some success down there. But also the list was learned down there helping me as I come back. And we really are, the C-C-G-A-S had came back and I started to reassess where we were at coming off of COVID and getting back in. And you guys had the Quebec, the first one back, was it Quebec was the first one after COVID, or was there one before that?

Mike Sullivan (00:45:14):

Honestly, I can't

Todd Scott (00:45:15):

Remember. I missed a couple. I think Quebec might've been the first one and then yeah.

Mike Sullivan (00:45:21):

Oh yeah. In Quebec City. Yes. Yes.

Todd Scott (00:45:23):

Quebec City. So

(00:45:25):

The first symposium, and then we had Saskatchewan last year and we're in Halifax this week, this fall. Anyway, I just sort of was looking at it going, okay, so where are we with the CGA? And what I noted was is that we lots of passion, a lot of new faces at the committee level. There's the same sort of people on the executive board. The way we set it up, maybe we should back up just a bit, Mike, because and say talk about the board a bit. So the board at the A, we had grown it from conception and when we started, we had grown it. We had all the regional partners. It was always the method. The premise was our governance was we to speak, the national board would be speaking on national issues, but we weren't to take away membership or anything from the regional partners. And

Mike Sullivan (00:46:31):

That was a strong point.

Todd Scott (00:46:33):

It remains and because of the grassroots are really what drives us, the difference between the US and Canada from the top down, it was Department of Transportation, federal Department of Transportation started that. And then they sort of filtered it down. Canada typically Canadian ground up, right?

Mike Sullivan (00:46:54):

Bottom up,

Todd Scott (00:46:54):

Bottom up. So our board had grown and grown and grown. And when we started the, IT really grew significantly with stakeholder growth when we started through 8 1 1 and through the legislation and we had representation, I mean our board meetings, that last one in Niagara before we had to make the switch was we had 23 or 24 people sitting around the table.

Mike Sullivan (00:47:24):

It was a big board. And that was all the stakeholders that supported the three digit dialing and everything on legislation.

Todd Scott (00:47:30):

Absolutely. But it was getting But then things changed. Changed, exactly. Things changed. So we ended up redoing our governance model, going back to this idea that we had the regional partners at the executive board level, and then we had a senate that was expository senate that came in, and that's what we have. And that exists today, the same thing. But what's happened is if you look at it from our Senate, numbers have dropped. We're down to basically five Senate members. Not that we don't have the other ones still listed in the governance funnel, but they're vacant, they're not being represented.

Mike Sullivan (00:48:09):

And a lot of that's because of what happened during COVID.

Todd Scott (00:48:10):

Absolutely.

Mike Sullivan (00:48:12):

And we've talked about this to the board too, is that rallying cry of legislation or three digit dying. Those things have evaporated. What's pulling us together, and this is again where we had that strategy session here in Calgary a couple of months ago, and I had talked and we had all talked to Doug about doing so for a while. We felt it. I mean we could feel things disintegrating and we didn't want to let that happen.

Todd Scott (00:48:41):

So that led us to that session. And so what we did is get that organized. And again, I wanted, there still is a passion there. I could feel it in everybody. Now there's a lot of people that around you get the same people around. We are starting to, I think we're going to see some new, the committees are starting to getting some new blood involved. And in particular, the MEC committee is certainly well populated with a bunch of different new faces. I went into the damage prevention one is, I mean, I kind of knew most people that were in the damage, not sorry, in the best practices,

Mike Sullivan (00:49:22):

Best practice

Todd Scott (00:49:22):

Committee when I came back. But certainly the MET committee and the committee, the dirt committee was a lot of the, I knew everybody that was really involved there. But anyway, but the MET committee was a lot of new faces anyway, so there's a lot of passion. I could feel that. I could see the board was still really engaged. The regional partners really, they want to have that contact. But I also saw a lot of people in swim lanes too, because the regional partners were doing what they needed to do to keep their going after coming out of COVID and all the innovations and stuff and all that. So that's fine. And quite frankly, that's what it needs to be. And the challenge for us, the challenge of the CCGA is that we have a different level of maturity at each one of the provinces or each one of the regional partners.

Mike Sullivan (00:50:21):

And different dynamic too. Some are separate, some are combined

Todd Scott (00:50:25):

And combined versus, yeah, exactly. So there's all those things come into play. So I'm sitting, I'm there, okay, Todd, how are you going to wrestle it? Put your arms around and see if we can't get sort of a common Exactly right. I was starting to say, okay, well what's in my mind? I would say, okay, so what's our value proposition for our stakeholders? How are we going to define that and what's that rallying pride that's going to bring us back together or at least get there. Now prior to, so leading up to the strategic planning session, I put a survey out for send it to a hundred people or a hundred email addresses and stuff that we had readily available to me.

(00:51:14):

And it was all either stakeholders, mostly a lot of them. The initial list was really gathered by obviously the regional partners and there and all the members, all the committee members who had multiple represented, multiple different companies within that are their stakeholders, even though, but we had their emails. So all the committee members got a chance to contribute. And then I went all the attendees for all the vendors and vendors and suppliers for the last three symposiums since we came back, events that I had. And that way I thought I got a pretty good cross section. I tried it. There was two or three that, and I always knew that you'd get the bigger people within those groups. You'd see the Enbridges and the Trans Canadas and all the big companies. So I tried to get as big, so I set that out, a hundred email, a hundred different requests to participate in the survey.

(00:52:18):

And we got about 40% replied. But that was just, I think 38%. It was like 38 replies. And you know what the data is all, there was some numerical type or rating ranking questions. And then there was some open-ended questions and people. And so we put all that information together. And what I learned in that is that there was the three core things that the CCGA does and we've done for a long time are still valuable and they still think we do a reasonably good job at it. I mean, not to say there's not improvements because in the open-ended questions, I got lots of stuff that we can work on. But what I took away, I like, yeah, there's still passion for this. They still want it. It makes sense. And so we have to continue to do those three. Part of the plan moving forward has to be continuing to do those three things, which includes the best practices manual. They seem to like that. We seem to, and they think it's a very good deliverable and we should do it. And quite frankly, I just look at it and go, there's nobody else doing it. We have it at the,

Mike Sullivan (00:53:35):

No, there

Todd Scott (00:53:35):

Isn't. At the national level, the dirt report is another thing that they really want us, they're saying that's valuable. The members for saying No, we need to continue to do that. And quite frankly, it's another who else is doing that nobody else is bringing. And yeah, there's people that report on energy or gas damage hits all through the CER or through the various provincial regulators. So you could get those numbers if you really had to. But where else are you going to try to get these numbers with electrical wither water and water and sewer.

Mike Sullivan (00:54:15):

Municipal. Exactly.

Todd Scott (00:54:16):

And so now, can there be improvements to that? Absolutely. Because I mean, it's a voluntary reporting system, so the numbers are only as good as we get. And we know we're missing a lot, but there's nobody else doing that. So that's something that we can focus on. And then thirdly, was that the symposium? The symposium is something that nobody brings. Yeah, you have the Canadian Gas Association that does with nobody's solely focused on damage prevention across the country. At a national level. At a national level too. And it's so good. And I do think, yeah, there's some virtual sessions would be good, all that. But to bring people together, face to face, develop those relationships at least once a year, rekindle those friendships. Relationships once a year is so valuable as we move forward and trying to get buy-in and you put a name to the face, I can talk all day long. We can all, we're on virtual meetings and whatever else, but it's not the same.

(00:55:21):

And the type of chance, the touch and feel and the equipment from our suppliers and all that, I think it's a valuable resource. So those are the three things. So those are two, three things that we talked about that I sort of knew going into this strategic planning session. And then at the end, during that discussion, those two and a half days or whatever it was, or two days I guess, and it was great to get together with everybody and we had, so the board there and a few, a couple of invited guests and a few, all that. But it was a really good, we had a facilitator who came in and helped us out with staying on track and trying to move it forward. And at the end of the day we came up and where I'm working from now, and I circulated here a couple of weeks ago to the board, to the first draft of just the strategic pillars and some of the goals that I'm going to start to try to finish off we're about halfway through developing the strategic plan or I feel I am about halfway through, but I just wanted to take that.

(00:56:23):

So I sent out, so the four strategic pillars that we came up with or I've come up with coming out of that session and sort of put some wordsmithing around, whereas really around, there's the whole first one is around strengthening of our governance stability and national coherence or cohesion.

(00:56:45):

We have to really look at our, I think we're going to have to take the time to look at, get our policies, our procedure, our internal workings for the size of where we are and where we need to go. So that's going to be an interesting endeavor I think because going to be, so we're talking about redoing the governance model. We have to look at our board structure a little bit. Is that senate still right? And if it is right, and that's fine. We need to make sure how are we going to engage those other folks? What's in it for the Canadian Construction Association to return to the table, reaching out to those I can think of, there's a dozen of them that we could, the railway transportation, why should they not be at the table? And so all those things that looking at starting to work through that, making sure our committees are on the right page with this, all that stuff we're going to. And then the other thing is find a more fundamental piece under that first bullet is our finance model, our funding model. So

Mike Sullivan (00:57:56):

We has been a longstanding challenge.

Todd Scott (00:57:58):

It is. It is. And we don't have, I'd be lying if I say I have an answer I don't just yet. But it is a problem. We need fundamental. We need to establish some fundamental, some base, some sort of base financing that we get to that we can depend on. And as we move forward and if we have to ramp up right now, we've got fairly good financial shape just because we've had a couple of good years really good coming out of, out of this pandemic, really good financial stewardship that you guys, as the board did, and we've got some money and this is why I can be sitting here and thinking about these things. But

Mike Sullivan (00:58:41):

Well, just the fact of having a dedicated executive director again is a huge step. We didn't have that for six years.

Todd Scott (00:58:48):

Yeah, exactly right. It is to try to keep somebody to focus on this stuff. And it's not off the corner of my desk, it's what I'm doing. It's not full time, but I can dedicate as much time as I need to actually get this thing done and start to move it forward. And the modeling, like I said, the financial modeling is going to be our financial resources. This organization has always hit well above our weight and I think we've done really well, but we need to stabilize the operational piece of it and then we can dream big, right? Again, so that strengthening, governance, stability, occurrence, that's, there's a bunch of action items, but those are the principle ones there. And then enhance engagement and collaborative impact. So now we have to start to say, define what is our current and our desired value proposition for our stakeholders?

(00:59:53):

What do they need? What's important to them? And we have a lot of input through that survey. There's a lot of stuff in there that I could read between the lines. But that's going to be, I think then seek opportunity for that national relevance, develop some national relevance. What is going on? So as we know, there's a lot of talk about an energy corridor, whether it be from Alberta West to salt water or it be from, or there's something coming east. I mean, we sit in here in Atlanta, Canada with a great big refinery here that doesn't have a pipeline to it, which, or actually Tim Houston and Nova Scotia just says, we're open for offshore gas. If somebody wants to put Nova Scotia, they're really pushing hard. So I think there's all kinds of in the energy space. And then I think about the telecom space and the telecoms and the data and the world is run, and with AI coming on and all these other things that are, with these data centers popping up in places here and there, whatever they can find, energy is what, so there's all that so

Mike Sullivan (01:01:05):

Well, and one of the things we talked about as well was not just provincially, I mean the Western provinces are talking about a national, an energy corridor, but even nationally, prime Minister Carney's been talking about, that's one of his selling points. The country needs to fire on all cylinders.

Todd Scott (01:01:20):

Yeah, absolutely.

Mike Sullivan (01:01:21):

There's no question about it. And I don't care if you're liberal, conservative, NDP, doesn't matter. The financial mess that we're in right now exacerbated by what's happening in the us. The country needs to fire in all cylinders and exploit its natural resources to get the economy, the debt under control. And the government seems to realize this finally. And they're talking about a national energy corridor. And I think as we talked about our strategy session, the CCG can latch onto that. We can play a part in that. There's a certain element of responsibility that we can bring to the table and say, Hey, don't forget about us. We represent damage prevention in Canada and public safety. We can play a pivotal role here. And in doing so, let's face it, the CCGA and all of the parties, the stakeholders supporting it become relevant.

Todd Scott (01:02:17):

Absolutely.

Mike Sullivan (01:02:18):

Damage prevention, and I have people laugh at this, who joke with me about this, but damage prevention safety can never be irrelevant. It has to always be top of mind. And this is an opportunity, I think, for us

Todd Scott (01:02:31):

To be there. Exactly. Yeah. And my last point was on that, under that heading was how do we partner with the other relevant industry associations, municipalities? How do we get that level involved at the federal level? And we do, one thing we do have to do at the CCGA is, and particularly at the symposiums to a degree, and maybe is figure out how we're going to bring the construction, the excavating, the drilling. How do we bring them into, for our symposiums, we need to be a little bit, A lot of it is white collar stuff and we need to bring the blue collar guys to the show too. Just I think there's some work to be done there. Then advancing course, when I say advancing innovation and best practice was the third bullet I'd sent out to you guys. Well, really it's around the dirt model.

(01:03:39):

So I think everything in this world today is driven by data. So we need to figure out how we're going to, and we got to get ahead of ourselves a little bit more, I think with the dirt reporting and understand what we want to get out of it. What do we need to get out of it? What point or what are we trying to show here and make sure we're collecting the right data to get it because we're not necessarily. And then secondly is how do we increase the data entry? And I don't know, I know it's voluntary, the

Mike Sullivan (01:04:11):

Data quality and

Todd Scott (01:04:13):

Increase that, increase the data quality through just a broader perspective. I think there's some work, there's some campaigning to be done there. All those things that we need to do to try to drive that forward. I do think the dirt, it is a unique, it is. It's a nice piece of software. It's a piece of software. But you know what, if you're a company that doesn't track these things, you could use the Dirtt model to actually track it. That could be your tracker. And quite honestly, some of the dashboarding that's available through the CCGA in the states, you can compare yourself against that same business sector. You can see where you're standing, you can look at what their issues are and you can get some. So I think there's some work to be done there. And again, our best practices too. We have best practice. I know you guys in Alberta have a best practice. I know Ontario, they don't have their best practice committee anymore, but there's certain things going on and making sure that if it's a good idea in Alberta or it's a good idea in Ontario or Atlantic Canada or wherever.

(01:05:24):

I used to say that at Liberty when I was traveling around, we'd be looking at procedurals trying to harmonize procedures and I'd say, listen, if it's safe in New Hampshire, it's got to be safe in Missouri. Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel here? So that's kind of the fix thing. And then lastly is a symposium. And I just really talked about that a little bit, maybe expanding that it really is the only one in the country that is focused on damage prevention. We have some, there's all kinds of regional ones, don't get me wrong. There's just people that, but can we do some way to get a better job of, again, bringing the blue collar into that discussion, the guys that are actually on the end of the shovels or on the gear and out there managing those, the site managers, all those. And is there a way to continue to increase or at least improve that impact that we're having through that session? So

Mike Sullivan (01:06:25):

On the next symposium is in Halifax, so kind of in your backyard. So maybe just why don't you push that a little bit while we got the

Todd Scott (01:06:31):

Time here? Yeah, exactly. So we are going to be down there. Yeah, no, we're really looking forward to hosting the country down in Halifax, the Atlantic CGA. And our members down here are really excited to see everybody and have them come out. We do have, we've got a full, we're pretty much sold out already on all our exhibitors. Yeah, it's pretty much sold out. We've already got just under over a hundred people registered to attend and sponsorship is really strong. So we are really set up to have a successful, and it's been a while since I've been involved in planning one of these things, but I know that number it seems like on all matrix we're just, it's really coming together nicely. So

Mike Sullivan (01:07:26):

Yeah, the CCJ hasn't been to Halifax for a symposium.

Todd Scott (01:07:29):

It was the first time, first time in the maritime,

Mike Sullivan (01:07:30):

And we had meetings there years ago. God, I can't remember how many years ago, but many years ago. But yeah, I'm looking forward to going back to Halifax. I had, going back 25 years ago when I was out in that neck of the woods on the Maritimes in Northeast Pipeline Construction. I met a lot of wonderful people at the time, fell in love with the area, and I'm anxious to go back.

Todd Scott (01:07:51):

Well, the east coasters, right? We love to socialize and certainly want to be able to,

Mike Sullivan (01:07:57):

I didn't know that. That's a new one. I didn't know.

Todd Scott (01:08:01):

No, we we're certainly looking forward to having Canada come, the damaged ranch graffiti in Canada, come and visit.

Mike Sullivan (01:08:08):

It's a beautiful city. It's a beautiful city and I can't say enough good things about

Todd Scott (01:08:12):

It. You're going to be, and the hotel we're at, at the Marriott, it's right on the waterfront. The meeting rooms we have, you're looking out, we're going to be looking out a window across the harbor. If anybody ever watches ever the chat or the sail, GPT or GP, whatever, the GPS or GPTI think it's called, they host it last year on the waterfront. I was down there. It was fantastic. It's something to see and it's just a beautiful place and we're really looking forward to, there's lots to do if people decide to come or they want to come. Maybe you want to tackle a weekend on either end or something to tour around.

Mike Sullivan (01:08:50):

Yep. You really should. If you haven't had the opportunity, definitely do it. I highly recommend. Yep. And is the Theodore still in the

Todd Scott (01:08:59):

Harbor area? No. Theodore, no. Oh no. But you can take the Harbor hopper, which it's one of these amphibious vehicles, so they have a tour thing. There's probably 20, 25 people on it, and you can go on and it drives right out into the harbor and sails around out in the harbor and then brings you back in and drives right up on land. That's fine.

Mike Sullivan (01:09:20):

Todd, just again, thanks for doing this. We've gone through the origins of the CCGA to present day, the strategy session, what you're looking at, and I'm really, really glad from, I know my perspective, Alberta's perspective, that the CCJ has a dedicated resource in the seat. Doug Lap did a tremendous job for over five years as a working chair and as a board member and knowing what it takes to manage the organization, it wasn't easy and he kept it going. So a lot of it landed on Doug's shoulders and we'd be remiss. We didn't acknowledge that. So if anybody wants to send Doug an email, please do. If you have his email address, say, Hey, man, just thanks. Or give him a call. He'd love to get lots of calls. Thanks. Yeah, absolutely. But no, seriously, Doug, and this comes from all the board members and all stakeholders. Doug did a great job, and I'm very much looking forward to what the CCJ has to offer that find that rally and cry again. Find that objective that pushes us all together again and unites us. And I think you're the right guy for it. So

Todd Scott (01:10:31):

Thanks

Mike Sullivan (01:10:32):

And glad to see you in

Todd Scott (01:10:32):

The role. Yeah. Well, thanks for having me, Mike, and I'm really enjoying this disposition and the challenges that lie ahead. And again, it's just such a rewarding thing when you know you're pushing towards something to put us a better, a safer place.

Mike Sullivan (01:10:53):

I agree. Well, again, thanks for doing this, and we'll be chatting again real soon.

Todd Scott (01:10:57):

And by all means, if people need to get ahold of me, certainly it's executive director@canadiancga.com. Yep, exactly. And by all means, I'd love to hear from you and if there's something I can do for you or if you have an idea or something you want to express to me, that's what I'm here for.

Mike Sullivan (01:11:25):

As you heard us talk about on the podcast today, the Canadian Common Ground Alliance is hosting its 2025 symposium at the Halifax Marriott Harbor Front Hotel from November 4th to 6 20 25. If you go to canadian cga.com and scroll down just a little bit, you'll find access to the event where you can register and create your travel plans and your accommodation plans to be at the event. The CCGA has not held a symposium in Halifax prior to this one. It's a fantastic city and has a lot to offer. So if you are going, I strongly suggest you tack on a weekend before or after, or maybe before and after and bring somebody you want to share the experience with.

(01:12:14):

Well, that was a fun episode with Todd Scott. Again, thanks to Todd for joining me and for taking on this role with the CCGA, as the executive director, and moving things in a direction that it's going to go with the strategic plan that's underway. I have high hopes, as do many others for the CCGA into the future. But that'll wrap things up on this episode of the Safety Moment Podcast, and I want to thank our producer stories and Strategies. I hope you choose to follow this podcast on any direct you're listening on, and please do leave a rating. You can follow us on X at utility safety. We're also Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. If you'd like to send us a note, you may have an episode idea and you can email us@infoutilitysafety.ca and podcast in big letters in the subject header. We'll know what it's all about. I'm Mike Sullivan, the president of Utility Safety Partners. To know what's above and below, one click costs you nothing, not clicking that.