Canadian Occupational Safety

www.thesafetymag.com/ca 21 production are concerned. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Western Canada generally are really starting to lead the focus on renewables. Although oil and gas has been one of Canada's core industries for centuries, in recent years, there has been a negative discourse around oil and gas as environmental concerns have encouraged a push to more sustainable and renewable energies. But sustainability also applies to people, too, and as an industry, oil and gas currently keeps a lot of people employed. With the pandemic, it is more important than ever for Canadians across the country to have access to employment. Furthermore, these workers would not necessarily be able to find new jobs in the renewable energy sector. This could massively affect communities which are reliant on employment in oil and gas projects. Rather than entirely vilify an industry, we need to open a dialogue that will help strike a balance between ecological concerns and sustaining jobs. Upskilling One big issue tied to this is the reduction in human capital. "The workforce may never get to pre- recession levels," says Campkin. "In terms of the labour market, we've lost a lot of people." So, there will be a requirement for upskilling — both for workers needing to shift to the renewable energy sector and for new workers needing to be trained to replace others who have moved on. "With that exit of human capital, it is really important that those who are going to be remaining have that critical knowledge. Because we've had such a mature industry for so many years, losing all of those experienced workers is going to have an impact," says Campkin. Upskilling will be necessary to bring new workers up to speed in an effective manner and give them the tools that they need to do the job safely. Cross-industry collaboration "We need to collaborate and share information and standardize as much as possible," says Campkin. "We are going to continue to see data-driven decisions." This means that whether at a company level or sector level, those in the industry need to look at required training and recommended practices and using data to help steer those conversations. For example, Campkin mentions Energy Safety Canada's set of 10 Life Saving Rules as adopted from the International Organization of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP). Energy Safety Canada uses data and collaborates with industry on the development of best practices to improve health and safety in the sector. "Everything is changing," she says. "Companies are having to get a lot more efficient. Rather than each company doing things on their own, let's get together as an industry and standardize and harmonize across the provinces." As previously mentioned, there has been a reduction in injury rates in the industry. Yet Campkin says there is still room for improvement and that right now the industry is looking at emerging approaches such as human and organizational performance. This is a science-based approach to understanding how and why people make mistakes and what we can do about it either as a company or as an individual. It is hoped that by understanding and adopting principles of human and organizational performance, we will see a further step change in industry safety performance. "Our company's mandate … across Canada is to ensure that there is Indigenous inclusion at the ownership level in major projects in the oil and gas and energy sector." Trent Fequet, Steel River Group CANADA'S OIL & GAS MARKET STATISTICS Canada ranks as the world's fifth largest producer of oil and natural gas, with an average production per day of 3.5 million barrels of crude oil and 13.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas (at year-end 2013). The vast majority (97 per cent) of Canadian oil production occurs in three provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2015, Alberta produced 79.2 per cent of Canada's oil, Saskatchewan 13.5 per cent and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador 4.4 per cent. British Columbia and Manitoba each produced around one per cent. Canada's energy industry employed (directly and indirectly) more than 902,000 workers across the country in 2013. Sources: National Energy Board, Invest in Canada

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