Canadian Occupational Safety

20 www.thesafetymag.com/ca P E O P L E I N D U S T R Y P R O F I L E CONSTRUCTION SAFETY, AN EDUCATION The Alberta Construction Safety Association's COO, Tammy Hawkins, on the challenges the construction industry is facing, and how ACSA is fulfilling its mission to help construction workers live life safely there were a total of 237 cases of COVID-19 reported among building trade members. Many construction organizations across the country are advocating for construction workers to be part of priority groups receiving vaccinations. In Alberta, on May 3 the Alberta Construction Association (ACA) sent a letter to Health Minister Tyler Shandro requesting that construction employees be listed along other essential occupations to receive vaccines. Essential workers In a number of provinces, including Alberta and Ontario, construction workers have been deemed to be essential workers and have continued working throughout the pandemic. "Construction as an industry has been deemed an essential service across the country," says Hawkins. "We have largely deferred to health authorities in terms of giving specific gathering direction and such, but have always considered pandemic as a potential hazard with a lower probability, and hadn't anticipated it would impact us with this severity over such an extended period of time." "Indeed, as an essential service, we all need this industry to continue thriving as smoothly as possible —but for some, implementing COVID-19 guidelines COS recently spoke with Tammy Hawkins, Chief Operations Officer of the Alberta Construction Safety Association (Your ACSA). Your ACSA's mission is to engage their stakeholders in supporting a culture that promotes health and safety values in the construction industry in Alberta. "Our vision is: Lives Lived Safely. This vision resonates with us because we understand living safely is a value that carries through all aspects of our lives, at work, at home, and at play," says Hawkins. "We partner with the Government of Alberta in offering the Certificate of Recognition (COR) to companies that develop and maintain a health and safety management system, which is hasn't been easy," she says. "Some jobs in construction and industrial work in camps, for instance, provide unique challenges in doing the work and maintaining physical distancing protocols." There is obviously an imperative to balance the need to build with the need to ensure worker safety on-site as construction workers are obviously not able to work from home. Construction companies and workers are having to be super creative in learning how to minimize risk while also working effectively. This is an ongoing consideration, which now has been expanded to include pandemic responsibilities. Telework Hawkins says that the staff and infrastructure at ACSA were somewhat prepared for the changes the pandemic brought, as they had some good capability to transition to remote work, but it had been largely untested. But nothing truly prepared them (or any other organization) for the scale of it. Working from home has been a huge issue across all industries, including construction. Though many workers are necessarily still working on-site, a number of roles (administrative in nature for instance) have more easily ACSA TRAINING FACTS & FIGURES "Our vision is: Lives Lived Safely […] We understand living safely is a value that carries through all aspects of our lives, at work, at home, and at play." Tammy Hawkins, ACSA. based on continuous improvement, and is measured annually against an approved audit standard." The association offers a range of courses to help those in the industry to implement and maintain health and safety in their workplaces. "Our focus is construction, but we certify people throughout all industries," she says. "We also partner with the Canadian Federation of Construction Safety Associations (CFCSA) to stay connected and current, and to build National standards wherever possible." The pandemic has had a huge impact on the construction sector. "Workers have had to learn how to do their work differently in accommodating new protocols," says Hawkins. COVID-19 According to Statistics Canada, investment in residential construction projects has exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Despite the pandemic, the construction sector is as busy as ever. The Governments of Canada and Alberta have committed $52.7 million to help complete several infrastructure projects in the province through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. Nevertheless, as essential workers, construction workers are vulnerable to COVID-19 — especially in Alberta. At the time of writing this, Alberta is experiencing an explosive surge in COVID-19 cases. And even before, during the second wave in winter, provincial sources said that some of the hardest hit sectors were manufacturing, transportation and construction. In Ontario, the Building and Construction Trades Council reported that between January and April 9, 2021, • ACSA has 39,036 members, including 37,108 active members and 1,928 associate members • 92.3 per cent of members have fewer than 20 employees, 6.1 per cent have 20-99 employees and 1.6 per cent have over 100 employees • In 2020, its classroom, online and vILT courses had 326,834 participants • Also in 2020, 1,858 students attended an ACSA course for the first time, with almost 60 per cent of students under the age of 60 Source: Alberta Construction Safety Association

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