ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting March 2014

ARHCA Safety Meeting Minutes March 20, 2014

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Minutes of the ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting held on March 20, 2014, at the ARHCA office in Edmonton, Alberta. In Attendance: Scott Hyde, Chairman Park Paving Ltd. Peter Magnien Alberta Traffic Supply Ltd. Dennis Adamkewicz Alberta Transportation Joe Mah Alberta Transportation Rodge Rodrigue Alberta Transportation Ron Collins ARHCA Amber Martin ARHCA Helen Eddison Carillion Canada inc. Bill Sorensen Carmacks Enterprises Ltd. Morgan Martin Carmacks Enterprises Ltd. Howard Smith City of Edmonton Brenda MacKay City of Edmonton Dan McKinley E Construction Ltd Peter Walton Flatiron Constructors Canada Ltd. Denis Poitras Graham Construction and Engineering Inc. Ellie Wood Lafarge Canada Inc. Rob Stark Ledcor Group of Companies David Doyle Netook Construction ltd. Michael Johnstone O’Hanlon Paving Ltd. Jamie Simpson Partnerships in Injury Reductions Ken Bouteiller Proform Concrete Services Inc. Jeff Lightbrown Proform Concrete Services Inc. Mark Kondro Standard General Inc. Greg Irving Sureway Construction Group Ltd. Trevor Selymes Volker Stevin Contracting Ltd. Robert Seguin Volker Stevin Contracting Ltd. Kent Santo Wapiti Gravel Suppliers Cindi Schwartz Workers' Compensation Board Regrets: Colin Steadman Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) Gilbert Riggan Alberta Highway Services Ltd. Paul Burkholder Carillion Canada Inc. Terry O’Flanagan Carmacks Enterprises Ltd. Troy Babiy E Construction Ltd. Brad Shook Kidco Construction Ltd. Rodney MacDonald South Rock Ltd. Shane Jones South Rock Ltd. Cliff Simmons Standard General Inc. Steven Yanke Volker Stevin Contracting Ltd.

ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting March 2014

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Call to Order Chairman Scott Hyde called the meeting to order at 9:30am.

Adoption of Agenda Moved by Chairman Scott Hyde to adopt the agenda as presented. Seconded by Ron Collins. Motion carried.

Confirmation of Minutes Moved by Chairman Scott Hyde to accept the minutes of the January 16, 2014, ARHCA Safety Committee meeting held at the ACSA office in Edmonton, Alberta as presented. Seconded by Ron Collins. Motion carried.

Chairman Scott Hyde announced his retirement as committee chair as of November 2014.

Guest Speaker: The City of Edmonton – Brenda MacKay

Roads Design and Construction, (RDC) endeavors to ensure compliance with the NEB and NEB Pipeline owners while working in and around federally regulated pipelines.

RDC believes that preventing damage to pipelines is a shared responsibility, and all stakeholders have the responsibility to follow the Legislation as well as Pipeline Owners Guidelines and Procedures when working together in Damage Prevention.

"Crossing Agreement" concerns:

COE, Contractors, and Pipeline Owner responsibilities are intertwined such that, COE applies for crossing agreement, Pipeline owner issues crossing agreement and Contractor works by the safe guards issued in the crossing agreement.

Once the crossing agreement is obtained from Pipeline Owner, COE must ensure that the crossing agreements are passed along to Contractors. Sometimes this can be hampered slightly based on job scope, timeline etc... but work should not begin unless the crossing agreement is in place. It is critical that the crossing agreement is on location as well as any other documentation required from legislation and/or from the pipeline owners themselves. If Crossing Agreements have not been given to contractor by RDC project manager, notification to myself, Brenda MacKay, OHS Consultant, 780-442-0498 should be made asap.

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Contractor Process Documentation Request:

Moving forward the RDC OHS team will be requesting additional information from its Prime Contractors. The OHS team will want to review the Primes Process while working near NEB regulated pipelines. As we all share in damage prevention working together as a team will ensure success.

The OHS Team recognizes that the Primes Procedures may already contain working safely around buried underground utilities contained within its Ground Disturbance or Trenching and Shoring Procedures; but what specifically we will want to review is the process, around the those procedures ie... Code of Practice including the Emergency Management Procedures or something similar in nature.

Please see the following link from the NEB website that will assist in developing those processes in accordance with the following:

National Energy Board Pipeline Crossing Regulations, Part I

National Energy Board Pipeline Crossing Regulations, Part II

Attached please find a Sample Code of Practice

Not to forget that each Pipeline Owner has distinctive responsibilities that are unique to that Pipe Line

Owner. Being responsive to what those accountabilities are in respect to damage prevention is paramount.

The COE will be hosting a Damage Prevention Event in the late part of May. AHRCA Safety Committee Members will be graciously invited. The NEB and some Pipeline Owners have agreed to come together and meet with us to present their damage prevention guidelines. Again its working as a team and it all starts with education.

Highway Maintenance Sub-Committee – Meeting March 20, 2014 – 1:00pm ACSA Please see attached Highway Maintenance Sub-Committee Minutes from March 20, 2014.

Sub Committee and Liaison Reports

1. WCB Report – Cindi Schwartz

What happens when your worker is referred for a return to work program?

If your worker has not missed time from work (has been performing full time modified duties and received no compensation benefits from WCB)and is referred to a Return To Work Program,

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you can choose to keep the worker on full pay while in program and no compensation payments will be issued from WCB. This keeps the claim status as No Time Lost.

What’s new in Policy?

The process for providing stakeholder input on the policy consultation process and the policy manual has been improved. Instead of an annual posting of questionnaires, stakeholders are invited to provide their feedback throughout the year via a link on the “What’s new in policy?” page. The link can be found under the heading "Feedback," just above the “E-mail notification service.”

Effective March 1, 2014 the Accommodation Allowance has been increased to $126.00 per night.

For more information please visit: http://www.wcb.ab.ca/public/policy/policy_new.asp

Preventing Workplace Violence

A single incident of workplace violence can have life-long consequences for workers and their families and can forever impact how a company does business. Knowing how to assess the risks in your workplace and finding solutions to prevent violence are critical steps towards developing an effective workplace violence prevention program.

Arm yourself with the knowledge to deal with these potential life-threatening situations. Visit workplace violence news to learn more about workplace violence and how the law in Alberta is dealing with this issue.

Preventing workplace violence seminar

Creating a safe workplace is not only important, it's also the law.* The Occupational Health and Safety Act states employers must do everything they can to protect their workers. Our seminar on preventing workplace violence will teach you how to ensure compliance with the OH&S Code and how to develop and implement practical strategies for creating a safer workplace.

We offer a free seminar for employers who are interested in developing a workplace violence prevention program. For more information or to register for the Workplace Violence Prevention seminar, please give WCB-Alberta’s Corporate Security team a call at 780-498-4990 (Northern Alberta) or 403-517-6003 (Southern Alberta).

We will also consider arrangements to bring this seminar to your company.

Upcoming dates and locations:

Edmonton Location

2014 Dates: Wednesday, May 14

Calgary Location

2014 Dates: Tuesday, Mar 18 Tuesday, Jun 17

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Wednesday, Sep 10 Wednesday, Nov 19

Classes run from 8:30 a.m. to noon

Location: Millard Health 131 Airport Road

Questions? Call 780-498-4887

Tuesday, Sep 16 Tuesday, Nov 18

Classes run from 8:30 a.m. to noon

Location: WCB-Alberta McCall Court 150-4311 - 12 Street NE

Questions? Call 403-517-6003

Register online at http://www.wcb.ab.ca/public/preventing_violence.asp

PIR Rebates:

PIR rebates scheduled to be released in May 2014. Final calculation letters to be sent out in late March/early April.

Employer Appeals Consulting

Outcome/Status # in 2012 # in 2013 # in 2014 Total

In Progress 0 0 2 2

Resolved 12 15 7 32

Proceeding 5 16 1 22

TOTAL 18 36 10 64

OIS Update

ACSA employers who utilize OIS clinics provided 24% more modified work opportunities in 2013 than same industry emplpyers who didn’t access OIS. These employers also experienced a 22% decrease in the average lost days, a 16% decrease in average compensation paid in the first 90 days, as well as a 36% decrease in average health care costs paid in the first 90 days.

There is a new OIS spreadsheet available online to help you identify the appropriate clinic location for your needs.

http://www.wcb.ab.ca/pdfs/providers/OIS_clinic_info.pdf

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Effective March 1, 2014, OIS services are not available at the Alta-Sask Wellness in Lloydminster. We will advise when OIS services resume.

Effective March 3, 2014, OIS services are now available at Airdre Medical Clinics at 620 First Ave, NW Airdre.

Effective March 19 and 20, OIS services are unavailable at Lifemark Grande Prairie. Services will resume Friday, March 21.

Consider incorporating this new 4 minute video into your toolbox talks or new employee orientation to help you and your employees know what to expect when attending an OIS clinic.

http://www.wcb.ab.ca/employers/partner_ois.asp

Further discussion on this matter included the following:

WCB funding has been determined with the 2008 claim year as

the benchmark. WCB premiums have gone down due to an

increase in workplace safety.

There is a push for WCB employee claims to be done at the

time of incident. The problem arising with this method is that

most sites don’t have online access. WCB has also put forth

that doctor reports be done entirely online in order to more

accurately define claims as opposed to the report concluding

merely FIT or UNFIT for work.

There is currently a $1000 cap on WCB Claims. This is

currently under assessment as to whether this cap is

something that needs to be adjusted. Expected report on this

by June’s meeting.

2. ACSA Report – Colin Steadman

No further report at this time.

3 Silica Committee – Code of Practice Update Greg Irvin/Ron Collins

Silica update

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ARHCA released the new Code of Practice Template and Silica & Dust Exposure Control

Handbook on Thursday, March 13, 2014. The materials were sent to our entire

membership, and posted on our website at http://www.arhca.ab.ca/industry-

resources/health-safety

We are planning to host one or more information session on silica within the next month to

assist our members implement their procedures.

Thanks to Scott and the Silica COP sub-committee members for your hard work in this

extensive and time-consuming endeavor.

Further discussion on this matter included the following:

Regarding the issue of Silica transfer to site transfer buses via contaminated coveralls,

Sureway Construction created the idea of a “clean room” where employees can enter a

sealed room equipped with a hepa vac, in order to decontaminate and lower fugitive

emissions. This solution seems to be working well and is relatively inexpensive. Sureway

is looking to present this solution if permission is granted. Code of Practice is moving

forward and weekly silica testing is currently being done. Still no solution for initial silica

contamination issues.

Please refer Here for Carex Canada’s website for data and information on cancer

causing substances in the workplace.

4. Highway Maintenance Committee – Robert Seguin

Report attached Highway Maintenance Sub-Committee – Meeting March 20, 2014 – 1:00pm ACSA as per above

5. ITF – Michael Johnstone & Mark Kondro

Industry Task Force is the employers association representing all industries that focuses on the

WCB aspect of safety programs across a variety of industries.

WCB’s funding level continues to operate above the “green zone” in the “yellow zone”, estimated to be about 133% at year end. Since this is so much above the “green zone” there will be an estimated $524M “surplus dividend” paid out to employers this Spring, Once their year end is complete. This is a change from last year, when the surplus was paid out based on thirds over three years as the funding level was in the 129-132% range. ITF presentation attached.

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ITF requested a 30-year history of WCB’s funded ratio, as there have been many in the last 10 years that have been above or near the top of the current “green zone”. The resulting attached report demonstrates that our WCB has been over 100% funded for about the last 20 years, including throughout 2008 when there was a major market crash.

WCB is currently working on an online reporting upgrade, offering the opportunity to modify the reporting forms. In the next couple of months ITF will be consulting with WCB on the content of the physician’s first report. Members who have suggestions regarding the order and types of questions they wish physicians to answer on the first report can submit them to us at ITF. One of the innovations the new online format may include could be a format that asks additional questions triggered by certain answers given for the basic questions, allowing the report format to be shorter for simple injuries, and longer for more complex injuries.

6. ABCGA – Pete Walton

In support of the Alberta Common Ground Alliance in partnership with the BCCGA, a Donation of $500.00 was contributed on behalf of The Alberta Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association. To learn more about this open membership organization please refer HERE

7. Partnerships – Jamie Simpson

OH&S have increased the total number of officers in order to balance the employee/officer ratio. Please refer HERE for the Alberta Government article originally released March 27, 2014.

Old Business

1. Vice Chairperson, Safety Committee Position Open

If anyone is interested in the position, please contact Chairman Scott Hyde.

2. Flagperson Sign TC-21 Sign Symbol – Joe Mah

No Further report at this time

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3. Silica Testing Committee – Mark Kondro

No further report at this time

New Business

1. ACSA COR Audit Changes

Not many changes to report, waiting on minutes/background info. This is the first time this has been under review in approximately 10 years. The process is expected to last 18 months at least as the Partnership standard is being changed. We can expect possible changes to the ACSA Audit program.

The Administrative, Management and sub-contractor standards are being looked at. Nothing to report as of yet.

2. Employment Standards legislative review

Alberta Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour has announced that it is conducting a review of

Alberta’s Employment Standards Code. This includes minimum standards on hours of work,

overtime, employment records, general holidays and ghp, vacations and vp, maternity and

other special leaves, termination of employment and restrictions on the employment of

children.

As a starting point to this consultation, the department is inviting Albertans to complete an

online survey. As well as the survey, written submissions on any relevant topics can also be

made. Deadline for feedback is April 11, 2014.

3. Report - Second Occupational Disease, Injury and Illness Prevention Symposium March

5&6, 2014

Alberta Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour, with support from Alberta Innovates Technology

Futures, hosted the 2nd symposium at the Delta Edmonton South on March 5 and 6.

In addition to myself, Dennis Poitras (Graham) and Mark Kondro (SG) also attended the

sessions.

The theme of the two-day symposium was “Building Capacity”.

There were a variety of good speakers and topics – see Agenda.

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Presentations from the Symposium are now available online at

http://work.alberta.ca/occupational-health-safety/ohs-symposium.html

4. Additional Business:

ARHCA Safety Committee has expressed interest in attending the AGM in order to put their

voice in and have a chance for their say in new standards and practices.

Adjournment Moved by Scott Hyde to adjourn. Seconded by Ron Collins. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm.

Next Meeting Thursday April 17, 2014 in Balzac, AB

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HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE SAFETY SUB-COMMITTEE

MEETING MINUTES

MARCH 20, 2014

ACSA Boardroom

Edmonton, AB

1:00 pm

Committee Members in Attendance:

Robert Seguin Volker Stevin (Chairman)

Scott Hyde Park Paving.

Ron Collins ARHCA

Jim Poole Alberta Transportation.

Helen Eddison Carilion Canada Inc.

Bill Sorensen Carmacks Enterprises Ltd.

Morgan Martin Carmacks Enterprises Ltd.

Rob Stark Ledcor Contractors Ltd..

Pat Morey LaPrairie Works Inc.

Committee Members Absent:

Paul Burkholder Carilion Canada Inc

Rodge Rodrigue Alberta Transportation

Gil Riggan Alberta Highway Services

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Pat Morey for stepping in to represent La Prairie Group, to Rob Stark

for stepping in to represent Ledcor, to Morgan Martin from Carmacks for taking part and to Ron and

the ARHCA for picking up the tab for our lunch.

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

DISCUSSION

ACTION BY STATUS

Flagging Action Plan: H.Eddison: Implementation of helmet cams and signs indicating CCTV, Shorter work zones, Rumble Strips. Application of any of the above as determined by the situation / location. ROSA system as per the results of the pilot, Will not be adopted. (Lack of adherence from the public, awkwardness, weight.etc…)

H. Eddison

Ongoing

Silica exposure as it pertains to sweeping operations: B.Sorensen: shared controls they have implemented such as Respiratory Protection and Decontamination requirements for this task. Silica exposure as it pertains to loading of trucks from stockpile: R. Seguin: shared experience with OH&S Manager and OH&S

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Hygienists visit to sand shed in order to dispel the risk of silica exposure. Dampness of the sand, Open doors to the sand shed and Conventional seals to the equipment were considered to be evidence of minimal risk to silica exposure.

Strategy for reduction of 3rd party vehicle collisions with Plow Trucks and possible distinct lighting opportunities discussion: Group: Public attempting to pass in low visibility conditions. Lighting colors with properties to pierce through plunes of snow. Collection of data, public rear ending Plows. J.Poole: Comment, TAC is actively working on Plow Truck lighting studies. Poole Suggestion of data collection in an effort to support a proposal for distinct lighting and possible change of lighting specifications. R.Seguin: Data collection request, collection criteria I.e.; location of impact, causation etc. will be forwarded to members. H.Eddison: will contact partners in Ontario for collection of information for the same cause.

Group H. Eddison

Information Gathering Information Gathering

NEW BUSINESS: DISCUSSION

ACTION BY STATUS

.3rd party vehicles running into wings: Group: discussion as to frequency of incidents Poole commented on our ability and some liberty to equip our wings with lighting. R.Seguin: Data collection request, collection criteria I.e.; right / left wing, causation etc. will be forwarded to members.

Group

Information Gathering

Limiting worker presence in high collision risk areas. H Eddison: brought forth results from a high level investigation into an incident involving roadside workers. Results questioned the need for the employee’s presence in the area. Approaching the group to bring forward any suggestions for either different vegetation or any other product to minimize the amount of maintenance requirements in these high collision areas. Taking the initiative through the innovations process. .

Group H. Eddison

Data Collection Innovations

Dash cameras: B.Sorrenson: comments on the useful application: All of their Safety personnel’s vehicles have been equipped with Dash Cams. Taking video evidence of a scene. Evidence of traffic accommodation by simply driving through the zone. Cost efficient tool to help with showing diligence.

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Anti-Cut Gloves: R.Stark: shared a pilot project they have held with gloves. Having realized that there is value in personnel keeping gloves on, especially during high risk task, Have picked out what seems to be a clear winner and is willing to share this with the group.

NEXT MEETING JUNE 19, 2014