CHANGES TO THE ALBERTA OHS ACT

AND YOUR SAFETY PROGRAM

The opinions in the following presentation are

those of the presenters and do not represent

the official government legislation and are open

to interpretation and are subject to change.

Presenter Information

Introducing

Nicolai Massyn & Riley Fairbanks

About Ariscu

OHS Act Changes

Key Change Areas

Information Management

Agenda

A Breakdown of Ariscu

An Introduction to Key Change Areas

Worksite Parties | Harassment & Violence | JWHSC |

Safety Program | Incident & Near Miss | Penalties |

Information Management

An In-depth Look

Ariscu SolutionsBest Practices | Examples

QuestionsQuestion Period

Introduction

• Ariscu is a joint venture with

ComplyWorks and in 2018

began to expand field level

EHS management service

offerings into the market

• Global EHS-Q management

system

• 100’s of clients in 19+

CountriesGlobal reach with offices or representation in:

Calgary | Toronto | Vancouver | South Africa

1-5 How compliant

do you think you

are to the Alberta

OHS Act?

Poll Question 1

• The Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act came into

force on June 1 2018

• Internal responsibility:

• All parties are responsible for OHS based on their level of authority and control

• Internal monitoring is done by Joint Worksite Health and Safety Committees

(JWHSC’s) and HS representatives

• External monitoring conducted by the government

• 3 key worker rights:

1. To know

2. To participate

3. To refuse dangerous work

Intro to the Alberta OHS Act Changes

About Ariscu

OHS Act Changes

Key Change Areas

Information Management

Agenda

A Breakdown of Ariscu

An Introduction to Key Change Areas

Worksite Parties | Harassment & Violence | JWHSC |

Safety Program | Incident & Near Miss | Penalties |

Information Management

An In-depth Look

Ariscu SolutionsBest Practices | Examples

QuestionsQuestion Period

New Obligations:

• Workers and other parties - Risk assessment,

hazards and controls are expanded to other parties as well

• Protect workers from harassment/violence -

Policies, training, reporting are all required

• Ensure competent supervision – Min. requirements

set for supervisors. Provide Prime with supervisors’

names

Existing obligations:

• Ensure workers are aware of OHS rights and duties

• Ensure workers are trained

• Co-operate with JWHSC’s/HS representatives

Worksite Parties - Employer

• Must be competent - Supervisor has minimum requirements for a

particular worksite and job

• Take all precautions to protect workers’ health and safety - Be able to

prove it, have a paper trail

• Ensure workers comply with legislation, hazard & controls and use PPE -

Access to job and site hazards and controls, do inspections/checklists,

knowledge of worker training and if they have read policies and

procedures

• Ensure workers are not subjected to or participating in

harassment/violence - Policies, training, reporting being complied with

• Advise workers on known and foreseeable hazards - Field level hazard

assessments/tailgate meetings

• Report OHS concerns, incidents to employers - Procedure for reporting

and tools to do so

Worksite Parties - Supervisor

New Obligations:

• Protect own HS and other parties at or in the

vicinity of the worksite - Risk assessment, hazards

and controls expanded to include others, hazard

assessments

• Do not cause or participate in

harassment/violence - Policies, training, reporting

Existing obligations:

• Use safety devices and wear PPE

• Co-operate with supervisor, an employer or any

person to protect HS

• Report OHS concerns

• Comply with legislation

Worksite Parties - Workers

New Obligations:• A Prime Contractor is required for all oil & gas and construction sites or when

designated by a director (with 2 or more employers or self-employed persons).

Any site with 2 or more employers must have one designated Prime

• Ensure own activities do not create HS risk to others - Hazard management same

as employer

• Consult and co-operate with JWHSC or HS representative - Document and

information sharing

• Coordinate the HS programs of employers and self-employed on site - complex

HS information sharing, hazard sharing, workflow impacts

Existing obligations:• Establish a system to ensure compliance with legislation - New legal obligations

require an extensive system for information collection, coordination and sharing

• Comply with legislation - New legal requirements need to be measured using

legal audit or gap analyses

Worksite Parties - Prime Contractors

• Harassment and violence prevention plan

is required and must be developed by the

employer

• Must be developed and reviewed with

JWHSC/HS representative

• Include sections on: policy, procedure,

training, responding, reporting,

investigating, documenting, referring

workers to treatment

Harassment and Violence

• When? – On site for >90 days and >20 workers per site = JWHSC in place, or

5-19 workers = HS representative in place

• HSC administration (formation and meetings) and tasks mandated - Plan

tasks, keep records, create a process for complaints handling, site

inspections

• Members must be nominated not appointed

• Mandatory training for members

• Record keeping and Information management for due diligence very

important. All HS information received and processed must be recorded

• Working with other worksite parties on developing and sharing - HS policies,

procedures and information, document management, complaints, incidents

and inspections management and record keeping across multiple sites,

minutes shared

New JWHSC (Joint Worksite Health and Safety Committee)

What do you base your

safety program on?a) In-house Policies

b) SECOR/COR

c) AB OHS Code

d) ISO Certification

Poll Question 2

• All companies must have a safety program if they employ > 20

workers

• Prescribed content (minimum 10 elements):• OHS policy

• Hazard assessment

• Emergency response

• Responsibilities of worksite parties defined

• Schedule and procedure or Inspections

• Procedure for OHS on site when other employers or self-employed persons are on site

• Orientation and training

• Incident investigation

• Procedure for worker participation

• Review and revise the program every 3 years

Safety Program

• Reportable incidents have been clearly defined:

• Death

• Injury leading to hospital admission

• Incidents listed in section 40 of Alberta OHS act,

including a list for mines

• Incident management tools need to be aligned

with the Act to ensure the reportable incidents are

reported

• Near misses or Potential Serious Incidents (PSIs)

• Companies now have to report on near misses that

could have, in different circumstances, caused

serious damage. (PSIs)

• Incident management tools need to be aligned

with the Act to ensure the reportable incidents are

reported

Incident and Near Miss (PSIs) Reporting

Penalties

More aggressive penalties

Increase in # and $ of convictions

1 = $500k/$30k per day/6 months

2 = $1 mil/$60k per day/12 months

OHS tickets have been updated

and can be issued on-the-spot

Range from $100 -$500 and can be issued to workers

or companies

Total $ in tickets issued in 2018

increased 125% from 2017

Expected increase in tickets issued

beginning in June 2019

Poll Question 3

How do you currently

manage health & safety information?

a) Unsure/we don’t

b) Paper/excel based internal

system

c) Some external systems

d) Comprehensive health & safety

management system

Static + Dynamic Data Requirements

Information Management

Policies Training Inspections

Reporting Hazard ID

The largest increase in administrative burden under

the new act comes from inspections, hazard

identification and reporting

As you work on multiple sites the legal obligations for

information management increase greatly

About Ariscu

OHS Act Changes

Key Change Areas

Information Management

Agenda

A Breakdown of Ariscu

An Introduction to Key Change Areas

Worksite Parties | Harassment & Violence | JWHSC |

Safety Program | Incident & Near Miss | Penalties |

Information Management

An In-depth Look

Ariscu SolutionsBest Practices | Examples

QuestionsQuestion Period

OHS

Supervisor

Employer

Workers

JWHSC / or HS

Representative

Information on Site

-All workers Training Records, Policies and

Procedures, etc.

Supervisor must

ensure workers

understand risks,

and enforce the

safety program

Must share

hazards, rights/

duties, policies/

proc. w/ workers

Supervisors must

share incidents/

concerns w/

employer

JWHSC has to share

information w/

workers and w/

management of the

company

Workers need to

report incidents to

supervisor; submit

complaints to

JWHSC; employers

share with JWHSC

Employer to report

back to OHS on

serious incidents

and PSI’s

Information Management - Company’s Own Worksite

OHS

JWHSC

Owner shares hazards with all companies on site. If no party is appointed prime, then site owner is prime by default

Companies must share H+S w/ Prime and JWHSC. Also share the names of the supervisors

JWHSC shares information (including meeting minutes)/feedback w/ Prime, employers and workers

Primes share information w/ companies and the JWHSC

Owner

Prime

Employers

Prime coordinates the SP of companies. Establishes a system to ensure OHS act compliance coordinate, organize and oversee all work

All companies report to OHS for incidents and PSIs

Information Management - Shared Worksite

Company A

Company A needs to keep all relevant info

and push down safety program

requirements to all their worksites and

ensure their compliance on any other sites

they work on.

Information Management - Multiple Sites

Own Site

JWHSC

Company

A

Workers

Client Site 1

JWHSC

Prime

Company

A

Workers

Client Site 2

JWHSC

Prime

Company

A

Workers

Company A uses the data to improve decision

making and site specific data must be

available and collected from each site.

1-5 How compliant

do you think you

are to the Alberta

OHS Act?

Poll Question 4

About Ariscu

OHS Act Changes

Key Change Areas

Information Management

Agenda

A Breakdown of Ariscu

An Introduction to Key Change Areas

Worksite Parties | Harassment & Violence | JWHSC |

Safety Program | Incident & Near Miss | Penalties |

Information Management

An In-depth Look

Ariscu SolutionsBest Practices | Examples

QuestionsQuestion Period

Task Centric

Management

Approach

Hands-on

Involvement of

Workers in the Field

Inspect, Audit, ReportActively Improve

PlanDo

CheckAct

Best Practices in Health and Safety Management

Alberta OHS Act Gap Analysis

• Know what the act expects

of you

• Evaluate how well you comply

• Help you become compliant

Our EHS Management Solution

• Mobile/offline

• Linked to ComplyWorks

• Full health, safety & environment

management system capability

Ariscu Solutions

QUESTIONS?Contact us for more information on

our solutions and services

• Link to AB OHS Act

• Alberta OHS Code

• https://www.alberta.ca/workplace-harassment-violence.aspx

• www.alberta.ca/work-site-health-safety-committees.aspx

• Free training for certain HSC members www.ccohs.ca/distributors/alberta/

• Incident and PSI reporting:

• Phone: 780-415-8690 (Edmonton)

Toll free: 1-866-415-8690

TTY: 780-427-9999 (Edmonton)

TTY: 1-800-232-7215

• PSI reporting: https://psi.labour.alberta.ca

• Farm and Ranch

• Gas Station worker safety

Resources

• We have a quite a few service techs in the field, they work on multiple worksites they attend in a day. With the changes how would we properly supervise these employees? they work alone. As per working alone legislation you are required to maintain regular contact with workers. Link to gov worksheet https://ohs-pubstore.labour.alberta.ca/wa002

• How do the on-site documentation requirements and information management systems consider environmental surveys conducted in the natural environment accessed by walking and accessible by the public? Sites should be restricted to the general public. Management systems can store the results of these surveys and help to track needed corrections.

• Do you have an information package on your EHS Management Solution system that you can provide? Yes

• Can Harassment and Violence prevention be one policy or do they have to be separate? Government Ask an Expert response to this question. Prevention plans -Every employer must develop and implement workplace harassment and violence prevention plans. The plans must: Include a prevention policy and prevention procedures and be in writing and readily available for reference by workers at the work site, either in paper or electronic formats. Policies and procedures - Policies set overall expectations that harassment and violence are not tolerated in the work environment. Procedures outline the methods or processes required to make the policy work on a day-to-day basis and establish a way of doing things that the employer and workers are to follow. As long as all the legislative requirements are met, employers have flexibility in how they organize the information.

Questions and Answers

• When do you have to hire a Health & Safety Representative? You do not have to hire a HSE representative. You would appoint from your current employees and ensure they are given training. On work sites where there are from 5 and 19 worker employed for more than 90 days, the employer shall ensure that there is a designated HS representative.

• Further to the first question, do you have to hire a full time safety person for a site with under 20 workers, or is a regular worker with additional Health and Safety Representative responsibilities sufficient? What about larger sites? 16 hours of annual training wont get them to safety professional status. You do not have to hire an HS representative but appoint and train from your current workers. Some of the certifying partners require a company to have a full time HSE person to obtain COR status. Based on the nature of the work you do it is recommended you have a safety person.

• If you bring in a contractor such as an electrician or similar to your location, do you have to do a Work Permit for them

for your location? No, you are not legally required to complete a work permit but you are required to ensure they are aware of the hazards of the site and the work being performed which can easily be accomplished by completing a work permit.

• Can the Health and Safety Coordinator act as a Health and Safety Representative? Yes

Questions and Answers

• Do the H&S reps have to be nominated? Can they volunteer to be part of the JWHSC? Representatives are appointed but the members of the JWHSC must be nominated. If you would like your HSE representative to be in the JWHSC meetings they can attend as a guest, but they have no voting power in the meetings and are only to attend as a bystander with no voting power.

• What about contractors who do not have a HSE program or a lesser program, do they follow the Prime’s Policies/Procedures? If you allow a contractor to work under your program they must be trained on the policies, programs and procedures and acknowledge that they have been trained and will be working under the requirements of your program. It is recommended that contractors have programs of their own which meet legislated requirements.

Questions and Answers