Prince George, B.C.- A Vanderhoof company is among the first 50  individual owner operated companies to be certified SAFE.

 

Clear Sky Enterprises, located in Vanderhoof, is one of the first 50 companies to achieve certification. Owner Bevan Funk applied for the course in May 2008 and less than five months later was certified. It’s an accomplishment he says is hard to believe.

 

“I try to be safety conscious in everything I do,” says Funk. “The most important thing to me is that I come home to my family at the end of the day and that’s a really great motivator to stay safe.”

 

To date, the Council reports more than 3,700 companies have registered with its SAFE Companies program and more than 900 have earned certification by completing the training, demonstrating their commitment to safety, and showing their safety programs meet industry standards through an audit.

 

SAFE Company Certification is becoming a crucial business factor in BC’s forest sector.  Going forward, SAFE certification will be a requirement of major forest companies and BC Timber Sales.

 

“If you want to work in BC forestry, you must operate safely,” says BC Forest Safety Council CEO Tanner Elton. “That message is coming through loud and clear from companies in the industry and the provincial government. The province is not only ‘talking the talk’ of greater safety in the woods but it’s also ‘walking the walk’ and treating safety as an overriding priority – something everyone in this industry should be doing.”