CANADA Alberta Targets Commercial Construction Site Safety

In a continuing bid to improve its health and safety record, Alberta's labor minister has announced that a safety blitz targeting commercial construction sites will take place in the province.

The blitz, which was announced and initiated earlier this month, will take place for at least a month and will target commercial construction projects over five storeys, confirms Chris Chodan, a spokesman for Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI) in Edmonton. "We've had a number of incidents, primarily in the Calgary area, but there have been one or two incidents in other cities," he says. "We thought it was just a good idea to make this a reminder to employers." (WCxKit)

The increased inspections will focus on ensuring that proper fall protection is in place and that workers have secured all materials when working at heights. Chodan reports that the blitz has been dedicated to the memory of Michelle Krsek, a three-year-old girl who was killed last year after metal sheets fell on her while she was walking down a Calgary street with her family.

The enforcement blitz is in line with the province's 10-point safety plan, released in July, which promised to implement updated compliance and enforcement procedures. Robin Kotyk, chief operating officer of the Alberta Construction Safety Association in Edmonton, suggests that the blitz will be "beneficial to the industry," but argues that it is needed in all sectors

Construction, he suggests, is a particularly visible industry, which makes it a strong candidate for a high-profile blitz. "Construction is basically in the forefront of your observations when you drive down streets. It's out there," he says.  

Ron Harry, executive director of the Building Trades of Alberta, which represents over 60,000 construction union members province-wide, also endorses the blitz. "You're going to have a lot of workplaces that are safety oriented, but you're going to have those that are not, and that's the enforcement part of that," he suggests.

While Harry supports the blitz, he is opposed to the idea of on-the-spot ticketing for workers, an idea that Minister Thomas Lukaszuk is currently considering. "Right off the top of my head," Harry says, "I'm not in favor of fining employees simply because the employees are subordinate to the employers."

But Bob Robinson, president and general manager of Westcor Construction in Calgary, argues that both parties are potentially liable for safety violations. "There's always the human element that's part of the equation and tough to put your finger on," he notes.

If a worker is found to have been properly trained, he suggests, the individual error should be corrected. "If individuals can be ticketed for not working safely, putting themselves or others in danger, if they're aware that that's a possibility, there is a handful out there that needs that motivation."

However, he points out, employers must be held to the same standard. "If the company just hasn't looked, if the worker hasn't been told, hasn't been orientated… the company's at blame, and they should be ticketed."

Kotyk supports both increased enforcement and ticketing, as well as a renewed focus on education for both workers and employers, endorsing "education of the workforce in general, education of the owners themselves on what they need to know for compliance." If a worker or employer is found to be in violation of a safety regulation, he says, they should be given the chance to receive education on the subject, and if it recurs, a fine should be levied.

Harry, however, suggests that the industry move away from assessing safety according to what he calls a behavior-based system. "The environment itself on a job site, each and every thing that occurs on that job site, whether it be the actions of the employer, whether it be the actions of someone delivering material…all contribute to the safety factor," he argues.

In August, Robinson and the Calgary Construction Association published a best-practices guide for construction sites in the city, focusing on four areas of safety: hoarding of a construction or demolition site; managing vehicular and pedestrian traffic adjacent to sites; lifting and hoisting operations; and securing construction materials and equipment on site. (WCxKit)

 

The guide represents "the accumulation of ideas from over 1,000 man-years of hands-on construction experience from a great number of companies, specifically focused on the interface between construction sites and the public," Robinson reports.