Companies working in British Columbia's forest industry will need to have their workplaces certified as safe if they want to operate in the province in the future, the B.C. Forest Safety Council and the province announced Tuesday.
The council also announced it would be appointing an ombudsman to act as an independent voice for the industry, as well as up to six safety advocates to help smaller companies pass safety audits. All appointments are expected to take place by April.
The Safety Accord Forestry Enterprise program will require industry participants to be audited for compliance with safety standards set by the industry. Those who pass the audit will be certified SAFE. Those safe companies will be in turn be expected to not hire unsafe companies.
If companies don't pass the audit, they won't get work, safety council CEO Tanner Elton said at a news conference.
"If you are an unsafe company, you'll have trouble attracting workers. If you are an unsafe company, you'll have trouble attracting work. If you are an unsafe company, you'll have trouble attracting investment," Elton said. "We expect that those companies will be exiting from the industry."
The program, which is self-regulating, requires industry members to agree to shun companies or contractors that don't pass the audit.
Elton said all major companies and the province -- which administers about 20 per cent of B.C.'s timber through its agency, B.C. Timber Sales -- have signed on with the program.
Concerns had earlier been raised that B.C. Timber Sales did not have safety as a mandate but Forests Minister Rich Coleman said at the news conference that the province would only hire approved companies.
"As we go forward, unless you are qualified as a safe company, you won't get the bid [for timber]," Coleman said. "We're going to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."
It won't be just B.C. Timber Sales that is affected, Coleman said. Any company that doesn't meet the safety standards won't be working on the province's land base, he said.
The council is currently developing audit training protocols, and hopes to carry out pilot audits by the fall, the council's Keith Rush said. After that, companies will register to be audited, and the council hopes all audits can be completed -- and the program in full force -- by the fall of 2007, Rush said.
Companies that are certified safe will also receive a WorkSafeBC certificate of recognition entitling them to discounted premiums, Rush said.
The initiative comes after an unprecedented year of fatalities in the industry. In 2005, 43 workers died on the job, and 110 others were seriously injured.
"What is even more shocking about these numbers is that last year was not that different from many years prior," Jim Shepherd, chair of the safety council and CEO of Canfor Corp., said. "What was different was the attention it has received."
Shepherd predicted 2005 would be remembered as "the year when the safety record of the industry finally received the attention and the outrage that it should have many years ago."Vancouver Sun
