CEO Health & Safety Leadership Charter

National Leaders Forum on Health & Safety

FEBRUARY 4-5, 2009 - Calgary, AB

The Conference Board of Canada and MySafeWork partnered to host this 2-day event in Calgary.

Objective:  To identify actions that senior leaders can take to deliver on their accountabilities relating to health & safety, in particular legal, business performance, and union accountabilities.

Future Leaders Community Events

Rob Ellis, President and Founder of MySafeWork (formerly Our Youth At Work Foundation) toured with participants and Safety Champions to 4 local high schools in the Calgary area.  Rob told the story of his son, David, who was killed his second day on the job.  After the presentation, students were encouraged to ask Rob and the other Safety Champions questions about how to work safe.  Rob's message to young workers was clear:  ask questions, get proper orientation and training before starting the work, and refuse the work if you are uncomfortable or unclear about it for any reason.  If David had asked questions, Rob said, he might still be with us today.

Workshop                         

Following the Future Leaders Community events at the local high schools, participants rolled up their sleeves to focus on the accountabilities of legal, business performance and union perspectives. 

Jerry Byrne, Chief Executive Officer, DFB Group focused on the accountability for business performance and ultimately the bottom line.

 Dr. Martin Shain, Founder and Principle, Neighbour At Work Centre discussed the legal accountability of senior leaders to provide not only a physically safe workplace, but also a psychologically safe one.

Click to view Martin's presentation

Don MacKinnon, President, Power Workers' Union gave the perspective of union leaders and their view on health & safety.

Click to view Don's presentation

After hearing the presentations participants broke into discussion groups to further identify what actions they could take in their own organizations to deliver on these accountabilities.

An executive briefing discussing key learning areas of the Forum will be published in the coming weeks.

Welcoming New Charter Signatories

Following the Workshop was a networking dinner, with Duncan Hawthorne, Chief Executive Officer, Bruce Power giving the keynote presentation.  Duncan talked about the importance of the CEO Health & Safety Leadership Charter and encouraged participants to continue the work that has begun.

Three new organizations joined the Charter and were recognized during the signing ceremony:

• Daryl Kong, Vice-President Calgary Operations, ATCO Gas
• Steve Bromley, General Manager, Field Delivery, Canadian Pacific
• Brenda Kenny, President, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA)

If you have any questions about the National Leaders Forum on Health & Safety or about any upcoming events, please contact us.

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