Prince George, B.C.- In just a couple of weeks, Prince George will mark the first anniversary of the deadly explosion and fire at Lakeland Mills. It was a tragedy that claimed two lives, injured many others, and   rocked the community. It was the second blast at a sawmill in the interior in three months, as the Babine Forest Products mill was levelled by a similar blast in late January. Two workers died, numerous others injured.

 

Yet, the tragedies brought the industry together says Alistar Cooke, Senior VP for Canfor’s Wood Products Operations.  He says collaboration within the industry and with regulatory agencies was crucial last year in getting a handle on the issue of combustible dust in mills throughout the province.

 

Speaking to delegates at the COFI convention in Prince George, Cooke says that in the wake of the explosions, companies shared information and gave unprecedented access to each other’s operations. Cooke says there have been major gains overall in recent years in tackling health and safety issues.

 

Strengthening a culture of safety in the industry is viewed as a key to recruiting the next generation of workers.

 

It can be done says  Bob Matters, Chair of the Wood Council of the United Steelworkers and one of the first steps should be to move away from the “ behavioural  approach” to pinpointing health and safety issues.  He says that approach sends a message to workers that they are the problem. He equated this to requiring workers to tiptoe through a minefield rather than clearing the mines out altogether. Furthermore, having a “fail safe” approach is important, i.e. when a system fails it does so in a safe manner. 

 

Reynold Hert, CEO of the BC Forest Safety Council, believes we have an opportunity to make the forestry and mill practices even more safe than today. But to do so, we need to first change belief systems amongst workers on the shop floor who jeopardize safety. He cited the example of the Dupont Corporation which found that 85% of the behaviour that caused accidents came about because workers felt that management wanted them to carry out the unsafe work. It was his experience that, when these belief systems were eliminated, workplace injuries went down, costs were reduced, and quality went up.

 

There are positive signs on the safety front says Al Johnson, VP of Preventative Services for WorkSafeBC. He says the  overall injury rate in forestry has been going down since 1992, although some sectors, such as mechanical harvesting, log hauling and hand falling still pose serious health & safety problems. Fatalities peaked in 2005, with over 30 employees being killed across the province, but have been trending down since then.

 

But injury prevention is not enough says Johnson , he says the industry needs more risk prevention as a precursor.