Report DR 2008-03Page 1 of 2

DEPARTMENT: Drainage
DATE PREPARED: January 31, 2008
COUNCIL MEETING: February 4, 2008 / PAGE 1 of 2
REPORT NO. DR 2008-03
SUBJECT: Activity for January
[ ] Approved
[ ] Approved with Amendments
[ ] Other
Resolution #

ACTIVITY

  1. I have been working on a summary of drains in the various Conservation Authorities to list all of the materials and lengths of drains. This will be handy for the Classification of the open ditches.
  1. I attended the Annual Conference for the Drainage Superintendents of Ontario, January 23 and 24 in London The Conference allows our members from all over Ontario to get together and discuss topics such as Tracking and Comparing Expenditures for Drain Maintenance/Repair, West Nile and Lyme Disease and review of several Drainage Tribunal subjects from the past year. This Conference was special as it was our 25th year and 50th year for the Contractors.
  1. Our group was also brought up to date on the activities for the DAWG group (Drains Action Working Group). This group was set up to bring ideas together to try and solve the problems with the Federal Department of Fisheries and Drains. It would appear that some of the topics that they have been talking about could make the process easier. This group meets about every two months.
  1. A meeting has been set up with Conservation Ontario to discuss the problems that have come up regarding the procedure to get drains approved for construction or maintenance. Several Conservation Authorities in Ontario have different ideas on the requirements under their Act and the Drainage Act which need to be cleared up.
  1. A meeting has been scheduled in February to discuss the method of Classifying Municipal Drains that will allow work and maintenance to be completed without a lot of holdup as is the case today. We have had a problem with some of the Classifications as they were completed in a year that was dry and now there is water in the ditches and that makes them something different. We are hoping to resolve this problem and come up with a method to allow maintenance to be completed sooner.
  1. All Maintenance Grant forms and Drainage Superintendent’ Grant forms have been completed and submitted to OMAFRA for 2007.

RECOMMENDATION

That Report No. DR 2008-03, Activity for January, be received as information.

ATTACHMENTS

n/a

Prepared by:Approved by:

Wray RamsayBetteanne M. Cadman CMC, CMO

Drainage SuperintendentClerk-Administrator