You’ve got your fence design locked in, your materials ready to go, and a weekend cleared on the calendar. Before a single post hole gets dug, there’s one step that isn’t optional. That step is submitting a locate request through BC 1 Call at bc1c.ca
This Is a Legal Requirement, Not a Suggestion
In British Columbia, anyone planning to disturb the ground, including digging fence post holes, is legally required to submit a locate request before breaking soil. That applies to homeowners just as much as it does to contractors.
BC 1 Call is the province-wide service that connects excavators (yes, that includes you and your post hole digger) with the owners of underground infrastructure. They’ve been doing this since 1994, and with over 236,000 locate requests processed each year, the need is very real even in residential backyards.
The process is free. The locate request itself costs you nothing. What it does is alert the relevant underground utility owners that someone is about to dig in a specific area, so they can identify what’s buried.
What Gets Located?
When you submit a ticket, BC 1 Call notifies its member organizations, which include major utilities and infrastructure owners across BC. Depending on your property and location, a locate can identify:
- TELUS – underground phone and fibre optic lines
- FortisBC – natural gas lines
- BC Hydro – underground electrical lines
- Other documented utilities – private lines, telecommunications, cable, and more
- Municipal infrastructure – in many cases, city records for water mains and sewer lines are also referenced
Those spray-painted marks and coloured flags you’ve seen on lawns around a work site? That’s what a completed locate looks like. Each colour represents a different type of utility, and together they give your crew a clear picture of what’s underground and where to dig carefully.
What Happens If You Skip It?
The cost of hitting a buried utility line is not something most homeowners are prepared for.
By some estimates, safe digging best practices, including contacting BC 1 Call before digging, could reduce damage incidents by more than 60%. The flip side of that stat is that a significant number of underground utility strikes still happen, and they’re almost always avoidable.
Hitting a natural gas line can trigger emergency response, evacuation, and repair costs that run into the tens of thousands of dollars before any fines or liability are factored in. Severing a BC Hydro underground cable can mean $5,000 to $20,000+ in repairs, plus potential outages for your neighbours. Damaging a fibre optic or telecom line can affect an entire neighbourhood and leave you on the hook for a bill you never saw coming.
BC 1 Call estimates that preventable underground damage represents up to $1 billion in potential losses across the province.
Compare that to the cost of hiring a professional fencing company that handles this process properly from day one. The math isn’t even close.
How Long Does It Take?
Once you submit your locate ticket at bc1c.ca or by calling 1-800-474-6886, the clock starts. Members have responded to locate requests within 3 business days of notification (or up to 5 business days for larger projects).
Plan for the full window. In practice, many locates come back faster, but your project timeline should allow for at least 5 business days before any digging begins.
Once your documents are received, you have a two-week window to start the project. If your dig gets delayed past that point, you’ll need to resubmit a new ticket. Underground conditions and utility work in your area can change, so the locate has an expiry, and it’s there for good reason.
We recommend submitting your ticket early, building the 5-day window into your project schedule, and being ready to move when your documents come back.
Frontline Fencing’s Commitment to Doing It Right
Frontline Fencing follows proper locate protocol, which is built into how we work on every project, without exception. Before any post hole is dug on your property, we ensure the BC 1 Call process has been completed, and the results are reviewed and understood by our crew. It protects you, your neighbours, our team, and the infrastructure that keeps your community running.
We’ve seen what happens when this step gets rushed or ignored. It’s never worth it. If you’re planning a fence project and want a team that handles every part of the process the right way, from the locate to the last post, get in touch with Frontline Fencing. We’d love to help you get it done right.