2019 Round Table
Thursday April 25th, 2019
Vancouver Club

BC Safety Charter Round Table 2019

On April 25th, the BC Safety Charter will convene at the 9th annual BC Safety Charter Round Table. Signatories from across the province will learn, teach and share their experiences with each other on how to build a safer workplace and help make BC the safest province in Canada to work in.

This year’s agenda will be similar to previous years, with round table discussions, networking and a powerful keynote presentation. The event will be capped with a networking dinner and presentations.

The Steering Committee is proud to announce that Greg Stewart, President of Sinclar Group Forest Products will be the Keynote speaker.

“On April 23, 2012, British Columbia’s second largest industrial accident happened resulting in two deaths and 23 injured employees. Lakeland Mill’s sawmill explosion could have been prevented and it only required one action to stop the chain of events.”

Greg will discuss the incident, contributing factors, and the steps taken after the incident to prevent another explosion. Following the keynote address will be an opportunity to interact with Greg to help members learn and better understand Sinclar’s safety journey.

The 2019 Round Table is being held at the Vancouver Club in downtown Vancouver. This year’s event is expected to sell out, so don’t miss out on this opportunity for your company, your company’s key Contractors or Supply Chain partners to learn and share with other high-level executives.

Keynote: Greg Stewart

President, Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd.

A Chemical Engineering graduate of the University of British Columbia, Greg began his career working at Teck Cominco’s metallurgical facility in Trail, British Columbia. After completing an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in 2005, Greg returned to Prince George, BC to work for the family business, Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd. Greg spent his first three years leading Winton Homes, where he gained valuable experience in the retail and engineering side of the business. Greg was named Interim President of Sinclar Group Forest Products in January 2009, and President in October 2009.

Sinclar Group is an integrated forest products company founded in 1962 by Greg’s grandfather, Bob Stewart, in partnership with Ivan Andersen. The company continues to operate today by the same values upon which it was founded: leadership, family and community. Sinclar Group has grown to be a leading supplier of SPF stud lumber to North America and Japan through its Apollo, Lakeland and Nechako mills. Included in the group of companies are Premium Pellet, Winton Homes, Nechako Green Energy, and other partnerships aimed at extracting the full value of the fibre processed.

In addition to his role as President of Sinclar Group Forest Products, Greg serves as Board Chair for BC Wood and Wood WORKS! BC provincial steering committee and a Director on the Boards of the Council of Forest Industries, BC Lumber Trade Council, and the International Bioenergy Conference and Exhibition Society.

Greg lives with his wife and two daughters in Prince George, British Columbia.

Panel Topic: Cannabis in the Workplace

Panelist: Dr. Perry Kendal

Provincial Health Officer

Born in the United Kingdom in 1943, Dr. Perry Kendall completed his undergraduate medical training at University College Hospital Medical School in 1968 and interned at the Seaman’s Hospital in Greenwich, before spending a year as Senior House Officer at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1972, he moved to Toronto, Ontario and spent two years working in general practice and at Toronto’s Hassle Free Clinic.

In 1974, he moved to Vancouver and worked for the Vancouver Health Department’s Pine Free Clinic and East Health unit while acquiring a Master’s Degree in Health Care Planning and Epidemiology and a Fellowship in Community Medicine. In 1984, he returned to Ontario and was the Manager, Disease Control and Epidemiology Services with the Ontario Ministry of Health, until 1987. He then returned to BC as Medical Officer of Health for the Capital Regional District, in which capacity he opened one of Canada’s first needle exchange programs. In 1989 he took on the role of Medical Health Officer for the City of Toronto, a position he held for six years during which time he pioneered programs for AIDS/HIV and drug abuse prevention, established Harm Reduction as the official City policy for substance abuse and was involved in developing and promoting the City’s comprehensive tobacco control by-laws.

In 1993, Dr. Kendall spent a year on secondment to the Deputy Minister of Health as Special Advisor on Long Term Care and Population Health. In March 1995, he was appointed President and CEO of the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, one of six academic health science centres in Toronto and a WHO Collaborating Centre, a position he held until the Foundation’s amalgamation with three other hospitals to form the Addiction and Mental Health Services Corporation on January 23, 1998. In April 1998, he took on the position of Vice-President, Seniors’ Health, with the Capital Health Region in Victoria. May 3, 1999, Dr. Kendall was appointed to the position of Provincial Health Officer for the province of British Columbia. During his term as BC’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Kendall received a variety of awards and recognition. In particular he was awarded the Order of BC in June 2005, he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award in June 2013 and the BC Premier’s Legacy Award in October 2015.

Panelist: Melanie Vipond

Labour Lawyer & Partner, Gall Legge Grant Zwack

Melanie Vipond focuses her practice on labour and employment law, human rights, privacy and administrative law. She advises both private and public sector employers on issues relating to unionization, collective agreement negotiation, disability and harassment, workers compensation as well as general employment law issues, including wrongful dismissals and employment contract negotiation. She provides training on those issues to the employer community. She has appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as the BC Labour Relations Board, arbitration boards, human rights tribunals, and other administrative tribunals.

Ms. Vipond is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of British Columbia (UBC) and teaches in the areas of labour, employment, human rights and privacy law. She has also lectured as a guest speaker in those areas at Stanford Law School and UBC Law School, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars. Ms. Vipond completed her Master in the Science of Law at Stanford University in 2010 where she conducted empirical research on the B.C. first contract arbitration model and presented her findings across the United States. Her thesis, entitled “First Contract Arbitration: Evidence from British Columbia, Canada of the Significance of Mediator’s Non-Binding Recommendations”, was published in the Fall 2011 edition of the American Labor Law Journal and has been published into a book.

While attending law school, Ms. Vipond won the Ottawa University’s Hicks Morley Labour Law Advocacy Competition in addition to maintaining her involvement with the Community Legal Clinic, Women’s Legal Education Action Fund (LEAF) and the Common Law Student Society (CLSS). She was also admitted to the Golden Key International Honour Society in recognition of her academic achievement.

Ms. Vipond previously worked at two large national law firms and completed a secondment at a large international company as in-house counsel.

Panelist: Thomas Brocklehurst

Director of Prevention Practices and Quality, WorkSafeBC

Tom Brocklehurst is the Director of Prevention Practices and Quality at WorkSafeBC. Tom’s department provides a variety of services to WorkSafeBC’s Prevention Field Services, including technical and engineering services and legal and policy advice. Tom was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 2000, and he has been providing legal and policy advice in the area of occupational health and safety at WorkSafeBC for the past 15 years.

Panel: Leveraging Health, Culture, and Safety to Recruit and Retain Talent

This year’s interactive panel discussion will be on “Leveraging Health, Culture, and Safety to Recruit and Retain Talent.” Emcee Kathryn Gretsinger will guide and moderate the conversation between three top-notch professionals who will discuss the realities of retaining and recruiting the best talent. With a recognized labour shortage in British Columbia, employers need to apply every tool available, and safety is fast becoming a filter that new and young workers use when evaluating potential jobs. Listen to real-life experiences, identify employee expectations and learn how you can make a difference in the changing workplace.

Emcee: Kathryn Gretsinger

EMCEE

Kathryn Gretsinger is a Vancouver journalist. She is the lead instructor at UBC’s Graduate School of Journalism. Her journalism focuses on social justice issues, civic affairs and health/public policy. She continues to train, coach and produce at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Kathryn has reported and hosted local and national programs at CBC for many years, producing award winning journalism.

Dr. Joti Samra

Principal and Founder, MyWorkplaceHealth.com

Dr. Samra is a national thought leader on issues relating to mental health. She is the Principal and Founder of MyWorkplaceHealth.com. which offers a comprehensive suite of clinical, consulting and training services in workplace mental health. She is an innovator in the area of psychological health and safety in the workplace and has been the lead on a number of pivotal national workplace projects that have contributed to policy change in Canada.

Dr. Samra has been involved as an expert advisor on a number of provincial and national steering committees in the area of workplace psychological health, including being a founding member of the Technical Committee that developed Canada’s National Standard for Psychological Health & Safety in the Workplace (CSA Z1003/BNQ9700) – the first Standard of its kind in the world. Dr. Samra is the principal developer of the following evidence-based, public domain assessment resources: Guarding Minds @ Work (organizational assessment); Managing Emotions (emotional intelligence assessment); and Psychologically Safe Leader Assessment (leadership assessment). She also led an extensive research investigation on the evolution of Canadian workplace mental health strategies and initiatives from 2007-2017.

Dr. Samra has created a breadth of evidence-based resources for individuals and organizations in the areas of mood disorders, suicidality, chronic health conditions, emotional intelligence, and workplace psychological health and safety. A dynamic and engaging speaker, Dr. Samra presents her work extensively at the invitation of public and private sector organizations and is regularly called upon by provincial and national print, radio and TV media to comment on issues relating to human behaviour.

Larry Jones

Vice President, Ledcor Group of Companies

Larry is the Vice President of Health, Safety and Environmental Protection, Corporate. He is responsible for the HS&E program for all operating groups including: Commercial and Industrial Construction, Pipeline, Forestry, Aviation, Communications, Transportation, Mining and Infrastructure. Larry joined Ledcor in 2011 as the Director of Health, Safety and Environmental Protection and was promoted to Vice President in 2013.

He has started his career in the forest industry spending four years in sawmilling and 18 years in pulp and paper in various operational leadership roles including health and safety. In 2007 to move his health and safety career to another level, Larry became the Director of Health and Safety for the Alberta Forest Products Association, representing the forest industry across the province.

In 2008, Larry made the move to the construction industry where he join the Pyramid Corporation as the Corporate Safety Manager and later added the role of Human Resources to his title.

Larry has completed his OHS Certificate with honours from BCIT and has been a Certified Registered Safety Professional since 2008. He has been a board member of the Job Safety Skills Society, a Safety Committee member of the Construction Owners Association of Alberta, a member of the Operational Advisory Committee with the Oil Sands Safety Association and has participated on various committees for OHS legislation review and publications.

Jon Walker

President, Lincor Enterprises

Jon Walker has over 20 years’ experience in the construction industry from working as a site laborer to managing 25 employees as current president of Lincor Enterprises. During this time, he has experienced first-hand the vital role safety plays at job sites and in the overall workplace culture.

In 1998, Jon established a small painting company while enrolled at the University of Western Ontario. During this time, he was involved in every aspect of the business from customer service, sales and site management. This boots on the ground experience enabled Jon to understand safety first hand.

Jon continued his education at Royal Roads University with a Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management in 2012. He holds a Red Seal Certification in the Painting and Decorating trade and serves as a director on the board at ICBA.

In 2012 he acquired Lincor Enterprises, a painting business established in 1980 heavily involved in commercial and institutional projects across the lower mainland. Jon has continued to maintain a strong safety culture at Lincor through the COR audit program, regular training certifications and custom in-house incentive programs.

Jeff Somersgill

Senior Manager, Consulting | Human Resources Transformation, Deloitte Canada

A leader within Deloitte’s human capital practice, Jeff Somersgill brings 19 years of experience working with companies to transform functions and processes, leveraging technologies in HCM, Safety, and ECM.

Jeff’s focus is business development and project execution for HR transformations in Western Canada.

Event Details

Thursday April 25th, 2019 Time: 1pm – 9pm (1:30 Start)

Vancouver Club
915 W Hastings St
Vancouver BC

If you would like to purchase a seat for an additional guest, please contact George Higgins.

2019 Event Photos

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