Policy Areas & Initiatives

Land Drainage Committee

The OSPE Land Drainage Committee (LDC) is made up of practicing Drainage Engineers, along with Liaison Members from various government agencies and affiliated organizations. The committee meets regularly to discuss key issues affecting the drainage industry. It also hosts an annual Practitioner’s Meeting to share industry updates, as well as the Drainage Engineers Conference, which features expert speakers and case studies on projects under the Drainage Act.

Objectives

Our prime objective is to improve the practice of drainage engineering under the Drainage Act of Ontario. Our purpose and objectives are included in our Terms of Reference.

Achievements

This committee serves as a resource to many of the industry stakeholders, such as the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Drainage Superintendents of Ontario (DSAO), Land Improvement Contractors of Ontario (LICO), and Conservation Ontario (CA), along with others. This committee also participates as a Sub-Committee member for inter-agency initiatives such as the Drainage Act Working Group (DAWG) – a committee led by DFO, and the Drainage Act Regulations Team (DART) – a committee led by CA.

Jeremy Taylor, P.Eng.

Committee Chair

Jeremy Taylor, P.Eng. is a Senior Vice President at R.J.Burnside & Associates and has been at Burnside 19 years. Jeremy’s projects for Municipal clients has included providing services under the Drainage Act for Municipal Drains as well as water supply and treatment systems, stormwater management, street and road reconstruction, culvert analysis and replacement, peer review. He has written a number of reports under the Drainage Act for both pipe and channel systems. He provides senior peer review for staff working under the Drainage Act as well as leadership to the team at Burnside. He also provides engineering services for private clients for land development including preliminary and detail servicing for subdivisions, stormwater management and drainage for commercial and industrial sites.

Initiatives

The OSPE Land Drainage Committee (LDC) has an active and ongoing role in the Drainage Act and Section 28 Regulations Team (DART) Committee, a collaborative working group established in 2008 to improve coordination between the Drainage Act and environmental legislation administered under Section 28 of the Conservation Authorities Act. The DART Committee prepares protocols to streamline approvals, clarify responsibilities, and reduce delays for drainage projects requiring both engineering and environmental consideration.

As a key stakeholder representing the professional engineering community, the LDC contributes technical insight, practical field experience, and policy recommendations to the development, refinement, and implementation of the protocols. The LDC ensures that the engineering profession’s perspective is well-represented in inter-agency discussions, particularly where the Drainage Act, Conservation Authority Regulations, and other environmental legislation intersect.

Through this involvement, the LDC supports balanced and workable solutions that maintain environmental protection while facilitating effective drainage infrastructure delivery. The LDC’s contributions have included reviewing draft protocols, participating in pilot project assessments, and advising on regulatory alignment strategies in cooperation with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA), Conservation Ontario, individual Conservation Authorities, Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Drainage Superintendents Association of Ontario (DSAO), the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA), and more recently the Land Improvement Contractors of Ontario (LICO).