On April 4^th, 15 Members of the Council attended a very fun and interesting site tour of Vancouver International Airport.  Starting with lunch, Members were able to get to know each other a bit better, and heard from many YVR representatives, including Tamara Vrooman, CEO.  After a short Q&A, the tour moved from the boardroom to the Emergency Response Center.  Members learned about how YVR incorporates H&S into every aspect of its business, and how some specific issues are dealt with.

The second portion of the discussion was a walkthrough of the Virtual Twinning of the airport and all of its operations.  This custom built system allows YVR employees the ability to see what is happening at the airport in real-time, including everything from landings and takeoffs to baggage snarls and lineups for tickets.  The system also allows for post event review and gives YVR the opportunity to improve its methodologies.  There are only 3 similar virtual systems like this in the world, and YVR is the leader in North America.

Following the presentation on the virtual twinning, members donned safety vests, cleared through security, and were given an on the tarmac tour of ground level operations at YVR.  This interactive tour talked about how/what and why safety is so important, covering everything from potholes in the tarmac to lead in paint, the colours of safety vests and how the digital screens strategically located are used for guiding and other situations.  Many members identified that they have/do business at YVR and some very interesting stories were told.

Back in the board room, EHSCBC Member Tamara Vrooman wrapped everything up, with a heartfelt speech on the importance of H&S, and how YVR is a strong team of people all working towards the same goals.  It was obvious that the safety culture at YVR is found in every person that members interacted with, and everyone enjoyed the tour immensely.

Thank you to Tamara and Richard, and all of the YVR Team, this tour was inspirational and motivational.  We really appreciated the opportunity to see “behind the scenes”.

Today’s Virtual Breakfast Forum featured speaker Dave Herald, the Executive Director of the Employers Advisors Group.  This organization is in place to help employers understand their rights & responsibilities, and how to navigate WorkSafeBC. They provide advice, assistance and representation to the employer community.

The Employers Advisors Group is independent from WorkSafeBC, and there is no charge for their services. It is paid for by the accident fund/premiums that employers pay into WorkSafeBC.

There are 8 offices around the province, with 25 Employers Advisors, 8 Admin staff and 7 on the Leadership team.

Their support is not traditional representation on behalf of the Employer, like a what a lawyer would handle. They don’t take things over, but it is the employers’ voice they assist with, to get forward within the system. While they are bound by confidentiality, they do have real time access to files and can notice some issues that they can encourage employers to go back to WorkSafeBC to get more info that they can discuss with them.

You can download the presentation deck here.

For more information, you can contact them at 1.800.925.2233 / EAO@eao-bc.org

In today’s Virtual Breakfast Forum, we focused on updates from Victoria, Vancouver and Kelowna.

In Victoria, it was reported that it is encouraging to see that demand from customers has risen to nearly pre-pandemic levels, although retention and recruitment are still challenging. We have all tried creative ways to retain staff and are still struggling with certain skill sets. The high cost of living on the island presents challenges to attracting skilled workers. Evaluations are done to determine if workers need to come into the office, and whether or not they can work remotely is based on their role. Having hybrid work opportunities helps to attract a more diverse workforce. Supply chain continues to be an issue on the island.

In Coquitlam, one member shared that the organization had an incident of COVID, tested positive and then 3-4 others phoned in as well. People seem to be more casual about getting vaccines. There are still issues with supply chain, and the team are exhausted trying to get ETA on delivery parts. During a recent hiring process, there was a very positive response, with more applications than expected, and it seems that the demand for higher salaries isn’t as prevalent as before.

The wildfires was the hot topic today, in Kelowna.  The fire started on August 15^th, on the West Kelowna side. Initially it was up in the hills, but on the 2^nd day the wind spread across moutainside, down the back of the mountains and then directed towards the lake. Evacuation orders started, and then the fire jumped 2.5 km over the lake. At its height, there were 35,000 people on evacuation order, and 30,000 people on an evacuation alert. There were 189 structures/homes lost. For workers, this caused a lot of nervous work days, but the community came together to help each other through it. The Tourism industry in Kelowna took a real hit. Kelowna is in a recovery period now, and the trickle down effect is interesting: there is an even further shortage of home or rentals, which impacts recruitment, when trying to bring skilled workers in. The mental health toll has been hard, with days off needed.

It was recommended that employers consider putting together some emergency packs to offer to workers who might be dealing with evacuation orders and may not be able to get home. F.A.S.T Limited was identified as a resource to source emergency kits at many different levels.

Coming down the pipe is an event with KPMG “Private M&A Outlook and Strategies for Success”.EHSCBC Members have been invited to attend, more information and the registration link is included in the regular eblast.

WorkSafeBC has announced changes to occupational first aid, taking place in 2024. Also they are restructuring training on the Bullying and Harassment policy, with more info to come.

We are looking forward to a very well attended Round Table in a few weeks, and our next Virtual Breakfast Forum will be in October, date TBD.

Members have been really enjoying our video weekly calls, and participants have been getting a lot out of sharing successes and opportunities with each other. With many of us shifting focus as to how to re-open our organizations, it was decided that we will continue our calls on a bi-weekly basis beginning in June. Next week on our call, we are thrilled to revisit the 2019 Round Table keynote speech by Greg Stewart from Sinclar Forest Products Group. The video is just over an hour-long, and Greg will host a live Q&A period immediately following. We hope that you will join us for a dynamic and riveting call that will be time well spent.

This time, discussion revolved around updates from each of our members. While it has been a tough few months for many, everyone is feeling cautiously optimistic that the return to work will be smooth, provided that organizations do not proceed too quickly.  One important consideration when re-opening offices is that we can’t control what people do on their own time, or where they stop off on their way to work, which could increase exposure. People take for granted that they have been staying at home which can be a safe environment, but reinforcing the idea of coming straight to work with no stop-offs can significantly limit further exposure. Many of our participants have decided not to re-open hastily, but rather to wait a few weeks after other organizations re-open to better evaluate the risk.

A few interesting statistics were shared during our call:

• BIV digital report announced new CEO of YVR Tamara Vrooman will be starting this summer. It’s reported that YVR is expecting passengers going through the airport to drop from 26m/y to 10-12m/y.
• It took approximately 4 years for the travel industry to bounce back to normalcy following 9/11
• During the Spanish flu pandemic, the 2^nd wave death rate was 5 times greater than first. This simply reinforces the reasoning for not going back to work too soon.

Workshare has been approved for a number of our participating organizations which has helped keep things afloat. The government has loosened the criteria for eligibility. Organizations no longer have to prove a year-over-year reduction of revenue, so anyone is entitled to apply for this program.

It is widely agreed that discussions surrounding mental health are vital at this time. Returning to work can be a stressful situation, or even continuing to work from home when staff are typically travelling or having to juggle childcare and work/life balance. Keep yourselves healthy to make sure you can keep others healthy and support them on this journey too. Remember: take care of yourselves too!

There are also webinars that are available from Diversified Rehabilitation to share with your employees and teams – you can find the link here. members.diversifiedrehab.ca

On May 28^th Dr. Joti Samra will be sharing a timely presentation on Mental Health. More information to come on this meeting.

We look forward to having you join our next week’s call and video presentation/Q&A with Greg Stewart from Sinclar. Please feel free to invite anyone you think would benefit from this presentation, and this opportunity can provide great value to potential new members.