in their industry. Lafarge is no different, and has seen value
in being a part of developing industry best practices. When
someone learns from something that did or didn’t work
well, I think we should share that information as industry
representatives and work together on meaningful corrective
actions or practices moving forward.
What can a company do to ensure its intended
safety culture becomes entrenched across the
entire organization?
LN: Listen to your most valuable resource – your peo-ple!
The best feedback and ideas come from the people
doing the work. These are usually simple, yet the most
effective solutions.
Follow through with your commitments and hold your
management team accountable until they are accomplished.
If you have an incident and perform an investigation, imple-ment
your corrective actions. If you have a Joint Health and
Safety Committee and actions are created, ensure resources
are sufficient to correct them. If there is no accountability, the
workforce will lose trust that the company takes safety seri-ously,
Reclamation
Seeding
Erosion and Sediment control
Decompaction
Hydro Seeding
Vitae Environmental Construction Ltd. is a Southern Alberta based
business with expertise in reclamation, environmental, landscaping, civil
construction, and maintenance services, with specic expertise in
Alberta’s restoration ecology.
Vitae specializes in native plant material grown specically for a project’s
seed zone and provides wholesale native plant material in both plugs
and containerized forms for use on reclamation sites across Alberta.
1-403-627-8033
info@vitae-enviro.com
www.vitae-enviro.com
so why should they?
Inspect what you expect. At Lafarge, we believe our
leadership team needs to be engaged in the field and fol-low
up with expectations in regards to safety. It’s only then
that we can recognize and address what’s working and
what isn’t.
And sign up for the ARHCA’s Roadrunner newsletter and
read every issue of Alberta Heavy magazine. If there are new
resources created, or important announcements, this is a
great way to stay on top of it all!
Can you offer some tips to help keep workers safe in
colder weather?
LN: At Lafarge, every season we work on promoting
winter safety and techniques to prepare for the changing
conditions. As part of our campaign with our plant manag-ers,
we will work on developing site-specific strategies to
mitigate the risks of winter hazards. Some of the control
mechanisms we use include mandatory ice cleats for snow,
sleet and icy conditions, replacement of grip tape on all
mobile equipment handles, salting/sanding schedules for
common foot and vehicle paths and long-handle tools for
clearing snow.
How can construction companies do a better job of
recruiting more women into the industry?
LN: Although this industry is predominantly men, I don’t
think it is only women that need to be recruited to our indus-try,
but also new and/or young men and women. Updating
infrastructure like roads, bridges, tunnels and expanding
commercial outlets and residential neighbourhoods depends
on attracting new workers to construction.
Our industry provides a wide range of opportunities to
new hires – some that require specialized training and educa-tion,
and others that are trade-based. What’s so great about
construction is that there are so many ways to be a part of
this industry, whatever your skillset offers. n
S A F E T Y Q & A
10 www.albertaheavy.ca
/www.vitae-enviro.com
/www.albertaheavy.ca
link
/www.vitae-enviro.com
/www.albertaheavy.ca
link
