Canadian Occupational Safety

10 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com Harmonization of OHS education, training, competency needed Headway being made among construction safety associations C anada can be a confusing place to try and establish strong programming in occupational health and safety. We operate with 14 different occupational health and safety jurisdictions — one federal, 10 provincial and three territorial. This diversity of rules and regulations causes considerable problems for people who work in more than one jurisdiction because their education and training may not always be transportable. It also causes problems for companies that work in more than one jurisdiction because their employees may be qualifi ed in one province but not in another. It also causes diffi culty for organizations that offer foundational OHS education and training as they struggle to keep up to date and ensure their programming meets all jurisdictional requirements. What is really missing is a national competency framework that is informed by these varied and diverse OHS rules and regulations. While these differences cause con- cern in general, we do have the benefi t of some harmonized rules and regula- tions. For example, Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) regulations are a set of rules that set safety stan- dards and shipping requirements for hazardous goods and are consistent across Canada. We have also aligned legislation related to hazard com- munication for hazardous materials, known as the Workplace Hazard- ous Materials Information System (WHMIS). The purpose of WHMIS is to give all working Canadians a uni- form and appropriate quantity and quality of information about hazard- ous materials used in the workplace. TDG and WHMIS were deemed such signifi cant risks that the effort was put into national harmonization. Many of the basic elements of OHS legislation (such as rights and responsibilities of workers, employ- ers and supervisors) are similar in all jurisdictions. But this is largely where the harmonization ends. The detailed requirements of the occupational health and safety legislation and how the laws are enforced vary from one jurisdiction to another. The legislation governing fall protection in Canada, for example, is a crazy and inconsis- tent hodgepodge of requirements, to say the least. Depending on what province or ter- ritory you work in, the requirements can vary signifi cantly. This leads to variations in the education and train- ing requirements for these workers who must work at heights. Further, in some provinces there are regional require- ments for workers to have even more specifi c fall protection training, such as in the oil sands area of Alberta. In Fort McMurray, an employee needs to not only have basic safety training, he may also need specifi c fall protec- tion training that would not only meet Alberta provincial requirements but also the specifi c requirements of the Oil Sands Safety Association (OSSA). Fall protection training provided by anyone other than an OSSA-approved provider will not meet the requirements and a worker could reasonably be denied access to a site to do work at heights. How can it be that all of this vari- ability makes sense? Is working at heights more or less a risk depend- ing on where you are in Canada? Are workers less prone to injury and death in certain parts of the country due to falls? The statistics would suggest oth- erwise. Across Canada every year there are more than 50,000 lost-time inju- ries from falls and at least 70 fatalities. Is the OSSA-approved fall protection training or any other provincially specifi c or territorially specifi c fall pro- tection training really any better than the fall protection education and train- ing provided elsewhere in the country? To be clear, I am not suggesting that the inconsistency in the legislation or the education and training require- ments is the cause of these incidents, but harmonization in legislation would allow for harmonization in education and training. Surely con- sistency in managing these high-risk aspects of work operations would be a fi rst step to reducing the risk of death or disability. We need to fi nd a path forward through the maze and work towards harmonization and reciprocal acceptance of each other's education and training standards. Fortunately, a path forward is cur- rently being carved by construction safety associations under the umbrella organization the Canadian Federation of Construction Safety Associations (CFCSA). Currently, construction safety professionals can obtain various des- ignations, including the National Construction Safety Offi cer (NCSO), Construction Safety Coordinator (CSC) and Construction Safety Offi cer (CSO). Up until now, the education, training and work experience require- ments to obtain and maintain one of these credentials have been as varied as the OHS legislation in Canada. This situation had limited cross- jurisdictional opportunities for safety professionals and construction com- panies because the education, training and credentials of these safety profes- sionals were not always transportable. The CFCSA has been working for more than 10 years towards harmo- nization of the education, training and work experience requirements for construction safety professionals. They are moving towards a standard competency framework for construc- tion safety professionals along with a standardized exam and requirements for professional development and ongoing recertifi cation. The result will be greater consistency in competency development and assessment along with complete portability and national acceptance of the NCSO, CSC and CSO designations across Canada. This will be a great benefi t for the construction safety professional as well as the thou- sands of construction companies that work cross-jurisdictionally. The standardization of construction safety professionals' education, train- ing and competency requirements is a major accomplishment. The people in CFCSA and their provincial and territorial organizations should be congratulated for breaking through the old regional way of thinking and working towards this nation-building way of thinking. This will hopefully be a signal that harmonization of other aspects of the occupational health and safety framework in Canada is possible. Glyn Jones is a partner at EHS Partnerships in Calgary and he provides instructional support to the University of New Brunswick's OHS certifi cate program. He is also the regional vice-president of Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut for the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering. He can be reached at gjones@ehsp.ca. PEOPLE&PLACES GLYN JONES TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT PEOPLE&PLACES GLYN JONES TRAINING PEOPLE&PLACES TRAINING PEOPLE&PLACES AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION TODAY FOR A POUND OF CURE TOMORROW A CULTURE OF PREVENTION IS AN INDICATION OF THE HEALTH AND SAFETY FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES AND YOUR ORGANIZATION. Employer D OHS solution software allows you to manage all occupation health and safety activities. Employer D, Desjardins scalable solutions for payroll, human resources and occupational health and safety management. Contact us now Our specialists will help you select and configure modules. 1 888 311-1616 desjardins.com

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