National Safety
This year will finally see some long-awaited changes come into effect
to ensure the heavy construction industry is working smart and safe
across Canada
By Jess Campbell
Patience, as they say, is a vir-tue.
It’s also a necessary ele-ment
when you’re trying to
build something from the ground up; to do
something that’s never been done before.
For the various governing bodies involved
in the heavy construction safety sector, pa-tience
has been one virtue that’s been put
to the test when it comes to the standard-ization
of safety across our nation. But after
many meetings, much planning and more
than a bit of compromise, the provinces
and territories are beginning to roll out
their new requirements for the National
Construction Safety Officer (NCSO) and
National Construction Safety Coordinator
(NCSC) designation. In other words, the pa-tience
they’ve had to exercise over the past
two decades is finally beginning to pay off.
Past preferences
Steve Wallace is the senior safety pro-gram
consultant and special projects for
the Heavy Construction Safety Association
of Saskatchewan. For 20 years, he’s been
working toward changing the way workers
achieve their safety designation certificate,
recognizing the importance of having one
overall method in which to be tested and
certified, no matter which province or ter-ritory
you live in.
“We have had a safety designation for
years but how you got it was different from
province to province because everyone has
different legislation,” says Wallace. “Now,
34 Think BIG | Quarter 2 2016 | saskheavy.ca
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