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20 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com SILVER: • County of Wellington the joint health and safety committee, he adds. It is composed of employees from all levels of the organization, and membership is on a rotational basis. "So every employee has many opportunities to be directly involved in safety during their career," he says. Vincent says managers encourage all 210 employees to review and assess safety programs and policies. "Every year, each person reviews what they do and what the risk assess- ments are, and they update them as necessary." Workers participate in emergency drills, from fi re evacuations to tor- nadoes. They can also go out and see how other employees do their jobs — whether road surfacing or even blowing up a beaver dam or two, Day- Hampton says. "So they understand and appreci- ate the safety mechanisms involved in others' work. And it helps develop that internal responsibility system." Because employees perform a wide variety of jobs, they face a huge number of occupational hazards. Once risks are identifi ed, the safety team must provide many different, and often unusual, training sessions. "We are so diverse, and we often have to anticipate hazards. Some of our training is bear and cougar train- ing. And we had to bring in the RCMP; we teach our guys about marijuana and crystal meth because they're going out to houses that could have it," she says. Three safety awards recognize work- ers' knowledge and contributions to safety. In June, operations close down entirely for several hours, and work- ers head off to the annual health and safety barbecue. Employees stay informed on safety issues through intranet, monthly newsletter, bul- letins, social media and a poster program. And during an annual, day- long workshop that is held in a movie theatre, everyone stops and watches a safety video together. In an external safety audit done last year, Parkland County achieved a rating of 98 per cent. Their municipal council immediately announced they expected better next time. "Improving on that will be a chal- lenge," Vincent says. "But we hope to do that." PowerStream is very active in the public school system. Teams of employees regularly speak at schools within PowerStream's service terri- tory of Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan in Ontario. They tackle 35 schools per year. They teach the students about safety, electrical awareness and "what the green boxes are in front of their houses and what not to touch," says Ken Read, director of health, safety and environ- mental services. PowerStream employees also help educate the public through part- nerships with the Electrical Safety Authority and the Community Pow- erline Safety Alliance. "We fi nd that when we teach and promote, it helps raise our awareness as well," says Bentz. To keep employees engaged, the company brings together all 546 employees for an annual heath and safety barbecue in the summer. The leadership team talks about health and safety metrics and there is always a guest speaker to discuss the impor- tance of safety. "We get everyone there to celebrate the achievements we've had in the year, the goals we've had," says Bentz. Topics have included young work- ers, lifting safely, loading doc safety and fi nding lost children. Each safety talk has to be signed off by all 208 employees. "Just before the summer months, One of the biggest challenges with a convention centre is that safety ele- ments change with every event. "It could be a construction zone for one event as we're setting up staging and rigging, that sort of thing, and for the next event we could have 200 local people bringing in boxes out of their trunk for a show in the exhibition hall," says Sweeney. Every couple of months, managers conduct safety talks with their work- ers on a hot topic in health and safety. W hen the new Scotiabank Convention Centre opened in Niagara Falls, Ont., two years ago, it was a great opportunity to revisit occupational health and safety, says Tammy Sweeney, director of human resources. "We've been looking at everything with fresh eyes from the day that we opened — really identifying what our contractors need to do, what our partners need to do and what our employees need to do," she says. Adapting to change Gold: PowerStream Category: Utilities and Electrical I n June 2013, every employee at PowerStream signed a health and safety charter. But they didn't just sign a boring piece of paper, instead, they all signed team Canada hockey jerseys that are proudly displayed throughout PowerStream workplaces. "It's a visual reminder that it is the responsibility of everyone to learn about safety, innovate around safety and pass on the knowledge to future generations — and take personal accountability for our safety," says Brian Bentz, president and CEO of the Vaughan, Ont.-based electricity distri- bution company. The charter is a symbol of the safety culture that is ingrained within the organization. "Safety is the most important prior- ity in everything we do. That goes from senior leadership right down to fi eld workers outside," says Bentz. Spreading the word continued from page 19 Gold: Scotiabank Convention Centre Category: Hospitality