SECRETARY’S REPORT – Terry Ablett on behalf of Lou Cerruti
I’d like to provide a quick overview of OPCA initiatives and some of the association’s activities over the past year.
POST committee / Sub-Committees –
The POST committee comprises of contractors, service companies and major oil companies. We also have representation from an Alberta contractor Howard Heal of Bar W Petroleum to represent the western provinces – Howard is actually here today travelling from Calgary to attend the conference. The OPCA has offered to host similar safety forums for the other contractor associations so we hope we can organize this in the near future.
Ron Ballantyne continues his work with us in promoting POST to the independent oil companies. Recently he and Michelle Rae met with Husky Energy in Calgary which had very positive results. They have become very familiar with the POST program as many of their contractors use POST documentation. They are also working on a meeting with Parkland Fuels in the next couple of weeks. Bob Reid of Pioneer Fuels has been a strong supporter of POST and has been great in connecting us with the right contacts at Parkland.
The committee meets several times throughout the year and has ongoing discussions on our safety requirements for our industry, aligning our ideas with requirements across Canada as well as trying to come up with improvements with current safety processes. The oil companies also compare their own statistics and discuss whether improvements or amendments need to be made to POST. One example is the rise in hand injuries therefore the POST created a campaign on glove use. One change that may be coming in the near future is the use of FRC for all workers coming in contact with flammable products.
Also, as part of our yearly review, OPCA staff surveyed key contractors in both official languages for feedback on the POST documentation and complied the data for the sub-committee to review. The feedback was valuable in helping the sub-committee make necessary revisions and updates.
We continue to grow the POST program, including developing new levels for the POST orientation as well as a possible POST “app” for completing many POST related tasks in a cloud environment. The oil companies have also encouraged the OPCA to look at developing online software for planned job observations so we can capture data from contractors in similar format which will in turn enable oil companies to analyze the data collectively.
So, as you can see we have a lot of things on the go with POST between the committee, new initiatives and behind the scenes with staff making sure everything runs smoothly from managing the websites and the training to mailing out our wallet cards and hard hat decals.
Annual Golf Tournament
The OPCA second annual golf tournament was held on September 18th at the Nottawasaga Resort in Alliston. We had approximately sixty-five golfers participate. Fortunately, Mother Nature cooperated this year as there were only a few light showers toward the end of the day.
On behalf of the association, thanks to everyone who came out to the event including OPCA members, POST committee members, industry suppliers and several friends and family. CPCA President Marcus Cormier and POST committee member Howard Heal both hailing from Alberta also joined us for the day. We are also grateful for the continued support of Shell and Suncor who also participated in our event.
Also a big thank you to our sponsors. With their help and OPCA’s contribution we were able to raise $7,740.00 for Threads of Life, exceeding our total from the year before.
We are extremely proud to support such an important organization as Threads of Life, a very special organization that promotes safety in the workplace and supports families who have suffered a workplace fatality, traumatic life-altering injury, or occupational disease through many of their programs across Canada. We were also lucky to have Threads of Life volunteer Johanna Leroux join us that day to accept the proceeds on their behalf.
PROMOTION
We continue to promote the OPCA by advertising the trade through various schools such as the University of Waterloo, Conestoga College and Ryerson Engineering.
We have also delved into the social media realm are also now officially on Twitter. Our handle is @opcaonline. This is a great way to cross promote safety initiatives and activities to related organizations. We will also be launching a Facebook page this summer. Watch for news on that and be sure to follow us!