16th Annual Round Table a great success!
On September 24th, over 60 C-suite leaders from across the province convened to “teach, learn and share” from their experiences regarding health and safety. After a few short introductory words from Executive Director George Higgins, the program moved into the speaker’s series.
Up first was Katelyn Jones, partner at MLT Aikins, who spoke on “Safety Systems on Trial: Criminal Negligence in the Workplace”. This presentation set the tone for the day, reminding members and guests that there are very hefty fines and penalties (including up to life prison sentences) for negligence of health and safety. Ms. Jones left attendees with her “Questions to ask tomorrow morning”, an excellent set of reminders to help strengthen their safety programs and culture.
Up next was Kimberley Fenwick, Director, Legal, Standards and System Risk at Technical Safety BC. Ms. Fenwick’s topic was “Beyond the incident: How Risk Intelligence Focuses System Influence”. This presentation explained much about how TSBC addresses issues, and looks at them more holistically in order to see trends and identify ways that can help make changes in behaviour. She made her points through case studies, and imparted a great deal of interesting information.
After the first two speakers, members and guests took a break for the annual group photo, lunch, and networking.
Following the lunch break, members received a few words from Todd McDonald, Head of Prevention Services at WorkSafe BC, as he introduced the next presentation.
Members heard from 2 speakers from KPMG, covering the topics of Tariffs and Supply Chains. Speaking first was Angelos Xilinas, on “Trade uncertainty is reshaping the business landscape”. Angelos talked about the many of the realities of the current “trade war”, and how many products were still covered under the CUSMA agreement. He then went into detail on some of the measures/countermeasures being used by the US and Canada in the trade dispute. Members (especially those in manufacturing) found the presentation to be riveting, and aske many pointed questions. Following Angelos was Jesse Xin, who discussed the supply chain issues, and left members with a list of questions around “Mitigating Disruption – Defence vs. Recovery”.
The keynote address was given by Michael Wrinch, President of Hedgehog Technologies Inc. Michael spoke passionately about “The Rules were written for a different fire”, and told his real-life story about being a firefighter in his 20’s, and how he and his team narrowly avoided disaster on the front lines. He then related how the lessons he learned then are applicable to what he does now, and how they influence his decisions. As an added bonus, David Greer, Executive Director of BC Wild Fire Services, “zoomed in” from Halifax to inform members about the 2026 BC Fire season and how different it is now compared to the past.
Following the Keynote address, Perry McDougall (EHSCBC Chair) and George presented new members with their Charters, and thanked sponsors, organizers and the venue for their participation. With the business of the day complete, attendees moved rooms for a networking cocktail reception.
Thank you again to all of the sponsors of the 2026 Round Table:
WorkSafeBC, SureWerx, Technical Safety BC, Acera Insurance, Atlas Anchors, CKF, Enbridge, KPMG, YVR and Station One Architects.
Without their support the event would not have been the same. As a final note, especially for those who missed the Round Table, all of the presentations were recorded and will be added to the video library for future viewing / review. The videos should be available in a couple of weeks.
