Parks Canada Agency (PCA) is the federal corporation responsible for the management and operation of a network of national parks, historic sites, canals and marine conservation areas that includes the ownership and operation of 225 dams and water-retaining structures. These dams (located in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia) form an essential component of Canada’s infrastructure, creating historic waterways and protecting many important heritage structures.
However, since dams are a provincial responsibility, there was no cohesive national policy for dam-safety regulation. Although all provinces have Water Acts under which dams can be regulated, only British Columbia, Alberta and Québec had enacted regulations specific to dam safety—and there were differences in approach among those three.
Given the deteriorating state of Canada’s dams, Parks Canada recognized the need to develop and implement state-of-theart safety standards and an assessment program to minimize future risks to the public, the environment and Canada’s infrastructure.
Modern dam safety standards are evolving and many jurisdictions around the world have had significant difficulties with similar undertakings—for example, the province of Ontario has been working on its new system for more than a decade. Recognizing the difficulties, PCA turned to the internationally recognized dam-safety experts within Hatch supplemented by its sub consultant MOBEC Engineering. The mandate: to develop world-class dam-safety standards that could form the basis for a nation-wide directive.
Hatch developed the first nation-wide dam safety standards in Canada, and did so in less than a year. As a first step in the process Hatch reviewed and assessed dam safety practices across Canada and around the world. On the basis of this review, requirements were defined that would prevent unacceptable losses to the public and environment, with specific focus on protecting cultural and heritage structures. This was a first in the dam safety industry.
Extensive consultations were held with district engineers and Parks Canada staff to ensure that these new requirements could be implemented in a practical and cost-effective manner. Given the number of stakeholders and variables at play, the completion of this process itself represented a significant project milestone. The management system included various modern concepts of risk assessment that were analyzed to determine the overall costs for implementation and ongoing system maintenance.
Hatch’s scope of services included the development of a workable organizational framework that could oversee the newly established dam safety program. This too entailed discussions and workshops to ensure the sustainability of the programs by setting up an arm’s-length structure with the authority to direct repairs and remedial works within an organization primarily focused on the protection of Canada’s parkland and heritage structures.
Specific tasks included:
- A comprehensive dam safety literature review to determine the most modern concepts and workable methods that currently exist in countries such as Canada, the United States and Australia
- Definition and assessment of PCA’s current state of dam safety practice and identification of the deficiencies
- Definition of the number, type and condition of the dams that are owned and operated by PCA
- Formulation of a dam safety regulation drawing on international experience and stakeholder input
- Definition of the internal organizational structure and the costs associated with the implementation and administration of the new dam safety program.
- The assignment involved the synthesis and analysis of more than 20 years of dam safety evolution—all completed within a single year. The final product is one of the world’s most up-to-date regulations, with fully documented accounting for best practices and experiences. The resulting dam safety directive was fully understood and widely accepted by Parks Canada staff as a result of their involvement and input along the way.
- The new directive was initiated by Parks Canada in January 2009, and the project received an award of merit from the Consulting Engineers of Ontario.
- Award of Merit from Consulting Engineers of Ontario, 2009
