Comments - Drainage Act…

Comments - Drainage Act Discussion Paper
1. Supporting Technical Protocols
Plympton-Wyoming is supportive of adopting protocols by reference in the reglulation. Working together to adopt protocols promotes efficiency and clarity for all agencies involved. Involving the numerous stakeholders during development ensures a fulsome and collaborative approach which helps ensure the protocol is workable for those involved.
Other protocols that could be established: Endangered Species, continue with the Department of Fisheries Drain Authorization program, within the DART protocol best management protocols could be set up for low risk projects (such as beaver dam removal), protocols for limited scale construction projects.
2. Streamlining Approvals
Plympton-Wyoming is supportive of creating a new process for minor improvements. This would help stream small projects and reduce the burden of cost and timing delays. Examples of suitable projects could include: creating or widening a crossing, changing end treatments on a culvert, relocating a drain on an individual property, changing pipe material, addition of environmental features (which do not reduce the functionality of the drain), addition of catch basins/junction boxes allowing for access points in the drain for flushing and monitoring.
3. Simplifying Administrative Processes
Plympton-Wyoming is supportive of amendments to enable a simplified process to update the engineer’s report to account for changes made during construction. This is an extremely positive change which will allow the drain to be maintained properly and future maintenance assessed properly. Allowing for deviations in the design plans due to unforeseen field conditions will help to keep costs lower while still maintaining the integrity of the final product (drain report).