BC Forest Safety Council Appoints 'Safety Advocates'
By 250 News
Neil Campbell of Penticton on the left and John Gooding of Williams Lake on the right
The B.C. Forest Safety Council has chosen Williams Lake resident, John Gooding, as one of its first two ’Safety Advocates’ under the SAFE Companies program.
The program is a Council initiative to "develop, certify and conduct annual audits on the effectiveness of safety programs in all forest companies."
The Council says Gooding brings extensive forest experience to his new role. He worked for Lignum Limited out of Williams Lake for 20-years, part of which was spent as a logging supervisor, and now works with small contractors to develop Environmental Management Systems and safety programs.
Neil Campbell, out of Penticton, is the other appointee. B.C. Forest Council spokesperson, Keith Rush, says, "Their job is to work with industry in their area and assist individual companies to achieve SAFE Company certification."
Rush says, in addition to promoting safe practises in their area, both men will work with small and medium-sized forest harvesting firms, assisting them in the development of safety programs leading up to their audits.
News of the appointments comes less than a week after the B.C. Coroner’s Service issued a call to forest and wood manufacturers to ensure proper safety procedures are followed at all times, in the wake of several preventable fatalities. (click here for previous story)
"The role of the Safety Advocate is crucial to improving safety performance and awareness in the forest sector, and to developing a ’safety culture’ within the industry," says Rush. "This is all about making our industry a safer place through mentoring, training and continual improvement."
The Council plans to hire up to seven advocates province-wide by mid-year to service approximately one-thousand companies throughout the province.
For more information, go to www.bcforestsafe.org
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Give the incentive to employers to ensure they have paid to have proper training regardless of the employees experience prior to joining the company. If they change employers they take the training course again. If employers have high turn over they pay more for training. If employers have all new employees trained within a time period like 3-months (2-day course), then maybe they can qualify for a reduction in insurance and a tax deduction?
This would ensure safety does not become a cover for a selective qualification process favoring those with financial resources for the employment through their 'certification'.