a conveyor guard may have saved his life - Workplace Safety North

Teamwork for a safer North
ARTICLE CONTRIBUTED BY HEALTH AND SAFETY ONTARIO
Starting in 2011, northern Ontario will benefit from improved
coordination between the province’s four occupational
health and safety associations.
The benefits include
- easier access to training and consulting services
- more frequent training offered closer to your home
- a larger pool of industry consultants available to help you
- access to a variety of specialized, sector-specific and ergonomic
resources
- training and support from local experts who understand your
part of Ontario.
Working together to serve you
A year ago, Ontario’s health and safety associations came
together to form four leaner, more efficient associations: the
Infrastructure Health & Safety Association (IHSA), the Public
Services Health & Safety Association (PSHSA), Workplace Safety
North (WSN), and Workplace Safety & Prevention Services
(WSPS). Together, these four groups make up Health & Safety
Ontario, your authoritative source of expertise on preventing
injury and illness in your workplace.
The purpose of this change was to pool resources and avoid
Hearst is leading the way
BY JEAN BÉLEC, WORKPLACE SAFETY NORTH
For Gilles Boisvert, WSN consultant-trainer in Hearst, the
lines that define his district are no longer sector-specific but
simply geographic. As early as 2009, through agreements entered
with the former Ontario Service Sector Alliance, now falling under
Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, Gilles started working
with clients not traditionally served by him as a consultant-trainer
with the former Ontario Forestry Safe Workplace Association.
The traditional approach to serving an area like Hearst was for
each health and safety association to focus solely on the firms
that fall within the WSIB rate groups assigned to it, and for which
it is funded. Since the restructuring of the 12 associations into
four, each association’s clients have been able to benefit from
the availability of what to them are new consultant-trainers. The
newly formed associations have also reached agreements for
a more seamless delivery of service. This more flexible model
allows WSN to benefit from the full spectrum of work experience
possessed by its employees. Among other things, Gilles’
knowledge and experience as a former business owner can now
be leveraged in servicing WSN clients.
In the Hearst area this means that firms like financial institutions,
14 www.healthandsafetyontario.ca
duplication to give you more and better front-line service. That’s
exactly what you’ll get from our new collaboration in the North.
Right now, the health and safety associations have dozens of field
consultants with diverse industry backgrounds and expertise
working in the North. We can now make this range of expertise
available for the benefit of all industries in the North. As we
collaborate, the health and safety associations will continue to
operate as separate organizations. Serving our specific industries
remains our priority. At the same time, you can look forward to
these benefits of our teamwork.
Benefits coming in 2011
- Easier shopping for training: You’ll be able to view a joint training
calendar on www.healthandsafetyontario.ca, and register for the
four associations’ courses on www.workplacesafetynorth.ca.
- A better Safety Group experience: In areas with large populations,
such as Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Timmins,
and Sudbury, several associations host Safety Groups.We will
combine the meetings, resulting in greater opportunities for
collaboration and networking. The Safety Groups themselves,
however, will continue to operate as separate groups.
- Partners in Prevention conferences and workshops in the
North, with events in Thunder Bay, Timmins, North Bay,
Sudbury, and Sault Ste. Marie.
railway companies, social services agencies, motels, school boards,
drilling companies, gas stations, hospitals, retail stores, pharmacies,
pulp and paper companies, municipalities, car dealerships, the
University of Hearst and even the Tim Hortons in Hearst are receiving
health and safety consulting and training services from Gilles.
Because of staffing issues, tight budgets and geographical
challenges, the North as a whole has been under-serviced in the
past. First contact with firms is sometimes awkward because of
their lack of knowledge about the health and safety system. The
new alignment has opened doors for Gilles and his colleagues
in the North — a welcome change from the recent challenges
the forest industry has been facing. By reaching a wider range
of industries, the safety message is making its way through
the community much faster. By communicating WSN’s safety
message to a broader variety of firms, Gilles and his northern
colleagues are becoming the go-to people for health and safety in
their respective communities, which happens to be another long-
term goal of the health and safety system realignment. There
are still many obstacles to the system partners reaching a fully
aligned delivery system, but we are on our way.