7. ONE CALL TO DIG SYSTEM
Système one call to dig
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION
That Council approve, as part of the corporate
efficiencies initiative, that the City Manager review the cost-benefit of
participating in the One Call to Dig System and report back to the Corporate
Services and Economic Development Committee in Q3 of 2010.
RECOMMANDATION DU COMITÉ
Que le Conseil approuve, dans le cadre
de l’initiative d’efficience organisationnelle, que le directeur municipal se
pencher sur la rentabilité d’un système unique « Appeler avant de
creuser » et faire part de ses conclusions au Comité des services
organisationnels et du développement économique au troisième trimestre de 2010.
Documentation
1. Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee report dated 3 February 2010 (ACS2010-CMR-CSE-0008).
Report to / Rapport au :
Corporate
Services and Economic Development Committee
Comité des services organisationnels et du
développement économiques
and Council / et au Conseil
Coordonnateur de comité
(613) 580-2751, Steve.Desroches@ottawa.ca
|
Ref N°: ACS2010-CMR-CSE-0008 |
SUBJECT: ONE CALL TO DIG SYSTEM
OBJET: Système one call to dig
REPORT
RECOMMENDATION
That the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee recommend
Council approve, as part of the corporate efficiencies initiative, that the City
Manager review the cost-benefit of participating in the One Call to Dig System
and report back to the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee in
Q3 of 2010.
RECOMMANDATION
DU RAPPORT
Que le comité
organisationnels et du développement économique recommande
au Conseil d’approuver dans le cadre de l’initiative d’efficience
organisationnelle, le directeur municipal doit se pencher sur la rentabilité
d’un système unique « Appeler avant de creuser » et faire part de ses
conclusions au Comité des services organisationnels et du développement
économique au troisième trimestre de 2010.
BACKGROUND
At the 2 February 2010 meeting of the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee (CSEDC), Councillor S. Desroches submitted the following Notice of Motion for consideration by the CSEDC at its meeting of 2 March 2010:
WHEREAS the City of Ottawa 311 service is used as the
front end call centre for receiving all utility locate requests in the City of
Ottawa;
WHEREAS in 2009, the City of Ottawa provided 32,157
locates in response to 5,152 locate requests;
WHEREAS the one-call “call before you dig” concept is
important for improving workplace safety, reducing accidental infrastructure
damage, and provides improved client-service for the building and construction
industry;
WHEREAS as part of its Open for Business Initiative,
the Province of Ontario is committed to support the development of a voluntary
province-wide One Call to Dig System;
WHEREAS the Province of Ontario would like to promote
to One Call Dig System province-wide but only 13 percent of municipalities
participate in the program at this time;
WHEREAS the Municipal Health and Safety Association,
and the Electrical Safety Association are some of the organizations which
support the one-call concept;
WHEREAS the City of Hamilton has determined that the
costs of participating in the province-wide one-call program are much lower
than the cost of providing the same operation internally;
WHEREAS there may be advantages in the City of
Ottawa’s participation in the province-wide One Call to Dig System, including
improved client service, greater internal efficiencies and reductions to the
growing number of calls to the city’s 311 Call Centre.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that, as part of the
corporate efficiencies initiative, the City Manager review the cost-benefit of
participating in the One Call to Dig System and report back to the Corporate
Services Committee in Q3 of 2010.
Staff supports this motion.
The Ontario One Call System was reviewed in 2002 as part of the review of alternative service delivery models. At that time it was determined that it would end up costing the City more to use the One Call Model than to continue with the current system. Ontario One Call is a call centre that receives calls at no charge to the caller, the call centre than forwards the calls received to the member agencies for locating. A review of the actual calls received in base year 2000 indicated that the City’s water and sewer locate service would receive an almost 200% increase in locate requests through the Ontario One Call system. The increase in calls would mainly be due to requests for works that were shallow (mainly landscaping) that would not have an impact on the deep City services.
Currently, locate requests for city services are received either through the 311 system (approximately 1500 per year) or directly to the service provider. Customer Services in Environmental Services received approximately 5200 requests last year that required field locates. An additional 5280 requests were cleared over the phone without a locate.
In the 2002 report, the financial review indicated that the additional costs to move to the One Call System would amount to approximately $800K in annual operating costs and a one-time capital investment of approximately $500K to address the increase in staff needed to respond to the additional calls received. It was noted in the original report that annual damage to plant due to dig-ins amounted to approximately $30K.
Given the passage of time since the One Call System was reviewed and the potential for updates in technology that may provide an improvement in the level of service requests received from One Call including a reduction in the unnecessary locate calls, staff will undertake the review requested in the timeframe identified.
CONSULTATION
This item will be advertised in the local dailies as part of the Public Meeting Advertisement on Friday preceding the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee Meeting.
RURAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no rural implications.
LEGAL/RISK
MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
There are no legal/risk management impediments to
implementing the recommendation in this report.
FINANCIAL
IMPLICATIONS
Staff
will complete the review; there are no financial implications.
DISPOSITION
Staff to take appropriate action as directed by the Committee and Council.