Estevan was the first city in Saskatchewan to sign on with the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association's Certificate of Recognition program in 2005, and they've been recertified every three years in accordance with the program's requirements.
"It's a check on all our safety management systems and programs with independent audits being carried out, and that includes audits of documents," said Estevan's emergency measures co-ordinator Helen Fornwald.
"We carry out a lot of observations and follow-up interviews," said Roger Berriault, safety adviser for SCSA.
Because Estevan has several layers within its safety platforms, the local audit took about four days to complete, Berriault said.
"We received our highest mark ever this year," said Fornwald, referring to this year's assessment and examinations that resulted in the presentation of a new COR certificate, which was presented to the City last Tuesday afternoon with Fornwald and City Manager Amber Smale accepting on behalf of the local employees and administration.
Fornwald is responsible for visiting each civic department and identifying what needs to be done on the health and safety fronts, and after the department heads and employee base recognize where additional training is required, the action plan is implemented to provide it.
"Saskatchewan still has the second highest work-related accident death rates in Canada. It's gone down significantly from about 60 to 30 in the past few years, but it's still way too high," said Berriault.
The two safety advisers said that training is carried out in a variety of modes, using regional colleges and their format, engaging private safety program companies or self-administered programs.
"We also have a number of regional safety meetings. Estevan has conducted several of them, and the local groups and the City of Estevan have been very active in that regard. Their participation level has been very strong," Berriault said.
