THE EXECUTIVE HEALTH AND SAFETY COUNCIL OF BC – ROUND TABLE 2024

On October 1st, the Executive Health and Safety Council will be holding the 14th 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 stronger safety cultures and help make BC the safest province in Canada to work in.This year’s agenda will be like previous years, with safety discussions, round table topics, and a powerful keynote presentation.

The event will be capped with a networking cocktail reception.The Board of Directors is proud to announce that Vik Kohli, Vice President Safety and Reliability at Enbridge, will be the Keynote speaker.

The 2024 Round Table is an opportunity to learn and share with other C-suite leaders.

If you are not a member, email us for more information.

Speaker: DIANNE RIDEOUT

Partner, Employment & Labour
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP

Dianne Rideout has been practicing in the area of employment law for more than 18 years.  As part of her practice, Dianne regularly advises domestic and international clients in all aspects of the employment relationship, including provincial and federal employment law, hiring, discipline, termination, human rights, wrongful and constructive dismissals, and other employment-related litigation. Dianne regularly acts for vendors and purchasers in connection with employment and labour implications arising from complex corporate transactions. Dianne has appeared as counsel in all levels of Court in British Columbia, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada.  She is recognized as a leader in her field with rankings in Best Lawyers in the areas of Labour & Employment Law and Workers’ Compensation Law, and in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory for Employment & Labour law.

Mental Health in the Workplace:

Mental health is a prevalent and pressing issue in all Canadian workplaces. Recent statistics at least 500,000 Canadians miss work due to mental illness each week, with an estimated economic cost of $51 billion annually. In this session, Dianne will discuss the intersecting legal regimes creating obligations on employers in relation to mental health and will work through cases scenarios on how to deal effectively with mental health issues in the workplace.

Speaker: RYAN HAZLETT, P. Eng., CFEI

Leader, Incident Investigations at Technical Safety BC

Mr. Hazlett is a mechanical engineer specializing in failure analysis and investigation. Mr. Hazlett has investigated incidents for over 10 years with a focus on fire and explosion investigations. His passion, in line with Technical Safety BC’s mandate, is to understand what went wrong and share that information to inform the prevention of similar incidents in the future.

False Economies: Stories from the Safety System 

In financially challenging times, it is hard for leaders to balance investments in new areas of growth while still maintaining their existing operation. Ryan will share incidents where those tricky management trade-off decisions ended in harm to people and greater cost to the organization, and how they might have been avoided. 

Presentation: DAVE HARALDS

Executive Director, Employers’ Advisers Office | Ministry of Labour

Dave has been involved with the Workers’ Compensation System in BC for the past 30 years and gained a unique perspective within the system from being employed with WorkSafeBC, the Workers’ Advisers Office and currently with the Employers’ Adviser Office (EAO), as the Executive Director.  His educational studies are in management systems, OHS, and mediation through BCIT and the Justice Institute of BC.  The EAO provides advice, assistance, representation, and education sessions to BC employers concerning workers’ compensation issues.

He is also a Paid-On-Call Firefighter with the Township of Langley Fire Department since 2008.  He holds the position of Captain at Hall 8 in Walnut Grove.

WorkSafeBC Bootcamp: 

  • Learn how claims impact your rates and how the experience rating system works to reduce your individual company rates.
  • Relief of costs – what is it and how does it work?
  • You have just received a decision from WorkSafeBC that you disagree with – what are your options?

Presentation: LEON GABER

National Lead – Critical Infrastructure Resilience & Emergency Management Practice, KPMG

Leon Gaber is an Executive Director and National Lead for KPMG Canada’s Critical Infrastructure Resilience & Emergency Management practice. He specializes in supporting governments, communities, and critical infrastructure asset owners in emergency planning and response, and in long-term planning to build resilience to climate hazards and reduce disaster risk.

Leon spent 15 years working in the government of British Columbia, focusing on the oversight and implementation of large scale, politically sensitive initiatives across multiple sectors. His experience spans professional governance, emergency management, supply chain management, natural resource management, and environmental spill response. He is also a seasoned facilitator and has significant experience engaging with a wide variety of groups including local government, First Nations, industry, and non-governmental organizations.

Disaster Resilience in British Columbia – 2024 and Beyond
BC’s disaster risk landscape is changing. To meet this challenge, the BC government has just modernized the province’s legal framework for emergency management. In this presentation, Leon will discuss BC’s changing disaster landscape, the new requirements coming from emergency management legislative changes and the impact these issues have on health, safety and operations of organizations across the province. Leon will also discuss how organizations can improve their disaster resilience as our climate continues to change.

Keynote: VIK KOHLI

Vice President, Safety & Reliability of Enbridge

Delivering on a Culture of Leading Safety Performance

Enbridge has a proud history of leading when it comes to health, safety and environment performance.  Our safety journey has not been perfect, and we have learned through hardship the importance of reassessing, learning and changing our approaches to ensure success.

At Enbridge, safety is not just a stated top priority, it is a corporate value and guides our decisions and actions each and every day. Four pillars define our approach to safety at Enbridge: 1) Board and Management Governance 2) Management Systems 3) Safety Culture and 4) Assurance. Foundational to all four pillars is operational risk management and learning to ensure scalable approaches to allow our businesses to thrive.

As Vice President, Safety and Reliability, a corporate officer position that Vik has held since August 2021, Vik is accountable for company-wide Safety, Environment, Lands & Right-of-Way services for both operations and projects, as well as establishing cross-company governance of functions delivered through each business unit, including: operational risk, performance reporting, integrity programs and system safety, and emergency and crisis management.

Vik has been with Enbridge for over 23 years and has held roles in engineering, operations, projects, and safety & reliability in Alberta, Ontario and the Midwest USA.  Prior to this role, Vik was the Director, Liquids Pipelines Eastern Region Operations and was accountable for safety, reliability, maintenance and emergency response.

Vik is a Professional Engineer and graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Science degree. Vik also graduated from Queens University and Cornell University and holds Master of Business Administration degrees from both institutions.

If you are not a member, email us for more information.