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ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting April 2015
Minutes of the ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting held on April 16, 2015 at the WCB Office,
#150 – 4311-12 Street, Calgary, Alberta
In Attendance:
Greg Irving, Chairman
Colin Steadman
Dennis Adamkewicz
Mark Kondro
Jenna Klynstra
Dwon Goshko
Pete Walton
Bob Dale
Shelley Peterson
Michael Johnstone
Jamie Simpson
Bob Roden
Matt Cooper
Robert Seguin
Kent Santo
Trevor Selymes
Paul Tamagi
Sureway Construction Group
Alberta Construction Safety Association
Alberta Transportation
Ames Construction Canada ULC (teleconference call)
ARHCA
Border Paving
Flatiron Constructors Canada Inc.
Hopkins Construction (Lacombe) Ltd.
Lafarge Canada Inc.
O’Hanlon Paving Ltd.
OHS, Partnerships in Injury Reduction, Alberta Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour
Proform Concrete Services Inc.
Standard General Inc.
Volker Stevin Canada
Wapiti Gravel Suppliers (teleconference call)
Volker Stevin Canada
Workers’ Compensation Board
Regrets:
Dan MacLennan
Gilbert Riggan
Rodge Rodrigue
Joe Mah
Peter Magnien
Helen Eddison
Paul Burkholder
Bill Sorensen
Bruce Martland
Brenda McKay
Howard Smith
Dan McKinley
Ian Stewart
Garry Hodge
Dennis Poitras
Brad Shook
Ellie Wood
Mandy Donaldson
Lauren Dyck
Rob Stark
David Doyle
Alberta Construction Safety Association
Alberta Highway Services Ltd.
Alberta Transportation
Alberta Transportation
Alberta Traffic Supply Ltd.
Carillion Canada Inc.
Carillion Canada Inc.
Carmacks Enterprises Ltd.
City of Calgary
City of Edmonton
City of Edmonton
E Construction Ltd.
E Construction Ltd.
Flatiron Constructors Canada Inc.
Graham Construction and Engineering Inc.
Kidco Construction Ltd.
Lafarge Canada Inc.
Lafarge Canada Inc.
Ledcor Group of Companies
Ledcor Group of Companies
Netook Construction Ltd.
Safety Committee Meeting Minutes
April 16, 2015
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ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting April 2015
Carolin Rousseau
Danae Saunders
Shane Jones
Cindi Schwartz
Park Paving Ltd.
Park Paving Ltd.
South Rock Ltd.
Workers’ Compensation Board
Call to Order
Chair Greg Irving called the meeting to order at 9:30 am.
Adoption of Agenda
Moved by Chair Greg Irving to adopt the agenda as presented.
Seconded by Jenna Klynstra
Motion carried.
Confirmation of Minutes
Moved by Chair Greg Irving to accept the minutes of the March 5, 2015 ARHCA Safety Committee meeting held
at the Alberta Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association in Edmonton, Alberta.
Seconded by Jenna Klynstra.
Motion carried.
Subcommittee and Liaison Reports
1. WCB Report – Paul Tamagi
a) Claim correspondence available through myWCB April 1. Anyone in the WCB Claims Admin Manager
Role in myWCB can sign up for this new feature.
Three things to know before signing up:
•
•
•
•
Who has access? The initial subscription is done on an operational level so all users in the WCB Claims
Administrator/Manager Role with the same account and industry are signed up at once with the initial
subscription.
Staying online. If you, or anyone else within your company, calls to request the delivery method be
changed to fax for a specific letter, that specific correspondence won’t be available electronically
through myWCB. The fastest way to receive information is online—you’ll always have an electronic copy
and won’t disrupt the delivery to the other recipients.
Making the save. Save your correspondence directly to your system—it will be available online for 90
days before it’s automatically deleted from myWCB.
The system is updated every hour so most correspondence you receive after that will be online. The
exception is correspondence with attachments and resends, which can’t be sent electronically and will
continue to be sent by mail or fax.
Note: any previous correspondence that has been sent by fax or mail won’t be available online.
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ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting April 2015
Want more information?
More detailed information can be found in the attached fact sheet. Any technical questions can be directed to
WCB’s eBusiness Support team at 780-498-7688 or toll-free at 1-866-922-9221.
http://www.wcb.ab.ca/pdfs/employers/EFS_Claims_correspondence.pdf
b) 24 Annual WCB Charity Golf Tournament with your help, we hope to exceed the $55,000 raise at the
2014 tournament! The benefiting charity is the Alberta Brain Injury Societies, which include the
Southern and Central Alberta Brain Injury Societies and the Brain Care Centre.
th
When:
Where:
Cost:
Why:
•
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
The Hampton’s Golf Club in Calgary
$250.00 per golfer
Raise money for the Alberta Brain Injury Societies to help them deliver valuable
resources to people experiencing brain injuries.
Golfer openings still available. Registering for this tournament not only helps raise money for this
important cause, but you also get to enjoy a round of golf with your friends and the chance to
win flights, vacations and more. We have also added a silent auction.
http://www.golfeventpro.com/events/24rd-annual-wcb-charity-golf-tournament/register
http://www.golfeventpro.com/events/24rd-annual-wcb-charity-golf-tournament/sponsorship
c) PIR 2014 Incentives will be mailed starting early May 2015…ACSA employers are forecast to earn $43M
or nearly 50% of the forecast $89M total
• To calculate and estimated value of your PIR 2014 incentive:
1.
Run the myWCB “premium summary” for your account
2.
Look at your latest PIR 2014 exec summary report which shows the % earned
3.
Multiply the % earned by the 2014 “Industry Base Premium” figure (4th column from
the left) in the “premium summary” report
d) The threshold for automatically transferring claims off the “Process Desk” to an adjudicator has been
increased from $1,000 to $1,500. Claims reported as no time loss that are not expected to incur time
loss and only expected to incur short term medical aid are managed on the “Process Desk” and are not
assigned to an adjudicator. Cost benefit analysis shows 96% of these claims remained no time loss after
automatic referral to an adjudicator.
•
•
If you have a no time loss claim and your worker is performing modified work and you are
encountering performance issues unrelated to the injury I recommend you phone the contact
centre 403 517 6000 and request the claim be assigned to an adjudicator.
No time loss claims with costs > $1000 will continue to impact experience rating. Over the past
15 years we are seeing that 80% (+/_ 2%) stay under this threshold and there is no plan to change
the threshold.
e) Some analysis was done at the request of the Industry Task Force (ITF) on frequency and severity of
workers over 65 Years
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ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting April 2015
•
•
•
LTC frequency has remained steady at approximately 500/year or about 2.7% of total LTC volume
Lost time claim duration is longer
Claim costs are about 4.7% of total; long term costs such as “Economic Loss Payments” are
proportionately less
2. ACSA Report – Colin Steadman
a) COR Department
• The Calgary office now has a full time COR support person (Martin Muyomba) and he is available
for consultation. Martin is doing TLC’s, audit reviews and manual reviews.
• Set-up of audits has gone from 16 weeks (November ’14) to a current 5 weeks, the goal being 2-3
days. Audit reviews have gone from 18 weeks (November ’14) to a current 9 weeks, the goal
being 2 weeks.
• Six new staff have been hired in the COR department. The hiring requirements and training has
changed for them as well. Reviewers will need to have an OH&S Certificate, attend & pass the
ATP course as well as conduct (shadow) one actual field audit per year. This training has begun.
• A recent survey (2092 responses = 48%) indicated the following:
1. 56% support revising the questions in Section 2 – Hazard Assessment.
2. 44% support raising the minimum of 50% indicators.
3. 70% supported introducing range scoring
Hence the ACSA audit protocol is going to be revisited.
• On-Site Audit Review (OSAR) found that 33% of all OSARs (all industries) had significant issues.
Due to the number of COR’s that the ACSA holds we participated in 50% of all OSARs. 87% of
ACSA consultant auditors had significant issues (the majority are comments & notes).
• The ACSA is working with the Alberta Mediation & Arbitration Society to create a more effective
discipline & appeal process.
b) Statistics
• Statistics overall for the ACSA was down 9.8% for 2014. With the exception of Red Deer (which
was down 0.6%) the south region was up 15.7%.
c) Courses
• Course development continues with Managing Worksite Investigations, Principles of Health &
Safety Management, SECOR and Temporary Traffic Control being overhauled.
• Learning Services is working on a new course which will assist employers in hiring safety
personnel (I call it the “Employer Education Initiative”).
d) Industry Levy
• We have reduced our industry levy from 1.7% to 1.5%.
e) NCSO Conference
• The 2015 NCSO Conference was a huge success with over 440 delegates, a record. $6700 was
raised for the Threads of Life through a jersey auction.
• The 2016 NCSO Conference will be held March 10 & 11 at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino and
registration is expected to begin in October 2015.
f) Calgary Renovation
• The Calgary branch will be undergoing renovations beginning in May, hopefully. A new student
lounge in the old CSTS lab and a new storage/materials area in the current student lounge.
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ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting April 2015
ACTION ITEM: Have Barb give a small presentation to update the committee on changes at ACSA
ACTION ITEM: Write a formal letter to Dan requesting to have a dedicated ACSA representative assigned to
the Safety Committee on a permanent basis.
3. Highway Maintenance Safety Sub-Committee (HMSSC) Report – Robert Seguin
a) No report since last meeting.
4. ITF – Michael Johnstone
a) Funded ratio is 136%, which is exceptionally high. There is an expected surplus distribution of 5oo
million dollars, with a maximum distribution of 40% of premiums. There is potential for this to run into
next year due to its magnitude.
b) The WCB scorecard is available to look at. It evaluates and judges that management of the entire WCB
organization.
c) Discussions have started on the timeframes for flagging employees working past the age of 65. It is
under question whether it would be valuable to start flagging now or in the future since employees are
staying employed longer than expected.
d) The ITF is investigating possibly applying for “Intervenor” status regarding several Appeals Commission
decisions that the WCB will be appealing to the Court of Queens Bench. This will allow the ITF to have a
say regarding these claims under appeal. The Roadbuilder ITF representatives will keep the committee
updated on this development.
e) Workplace health and safety gave a presentation on the departments levy. With current provincial
mandated cutbacks, the 2015 budget is expected to sit at 36 million. Aside from this year’s decline, the
overall budget has seen an increasing trend which is paid by employers and this is why the ITF is
interested in budget totals and distribution plans. A significant portion of funding is being devoted to
the new policy and development branch with other portions allocated to officer development and
growth which is up 25% since 2011 (now 145 officers) and towards the occupational disease branch.
5. Alberta Common Ground Alliance (ABCGA)- Mark Kondro and Pete Walton
a) The training and standards committee has completed both the 101 and 201 in class courses. Online
versions are expected to be in place by June of this year.
b) CCGA new best practices guidelines is still under review. Mark has requested input from Safety
Committee members regarding the ABCGA’s submission to the CCGA. This submission must be
submitted back to Mark by the end of next week. These submissions will then be consolidated and sent
to the CCGA.
a) Mark & Pete are still looking for Roadbuilder members to participate on the ABCGA subcommittees.
This is a good opportunity for Roadbuilder members to have input into the digging issues of the
province.
6. Partnerships – Jamie Simpson
a) Employer Review Statistics from July 1, 2011 – February 27, 2015
• Provincial – 1, 684 total referrals: Yes - 482; No – 1,134; Completed – 380
• Ind. 40604, 40602 – Total referrals: 169; Yes – 52; No – 108; Completed – 42
b) Top Action Elements
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ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting April 2015
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
• Management Leadership
32.5%
• Qualifications, Orientation, Training
23.0%
• Hazard identification and assessment 19.6%
• Hazard Control
16.0%
• Program Admin.
4.6%
• Inspections
3.0%
Proactive Employer Program (PEP)
• 30 points or more on the index, 3 or more stop work/stop use orders
a. 39 employers selected
b. 16 Non-COR holders – COR marketing
c. 23 COR Holders: 10 Action Plan required, 6 currently open Action Plans,, 7 Action Plans
completed within six months
Staffing ( Partnership Consultants)
• 1 in Lethbridge from OHS, 1 in Calgary from OHS – maternity coverage, 2 in Edmonton from GOA
PIR/ COR
• 10,500 COR holders, representing 50% of Alberta payroll ( 7 out of 10 ACSA workers are covered
by a COR)
• Loss Ratio: is 38.72% lower for COR holders vs Non-COR holders
• Fatality Rate: 42 COR holders, 101 for Non-COR holders
Administrative Penalties
• 4 levied (3 paid including one after appeal. one past due)
• 14 stages of approval
Ticketing
• 42 Peace Officers in Alberta
• 54 tickets issued, 20 paid, 16 dismissed, 12 warrants issued, 1 sentence assigned, 5 active
Code Review Schedule
• Consultation completed Jan. 31, 2015
• All comments being reviewed
• Recommended changes finalized by end of April 2015
• Legal drafting complete and ready for Government approval process by Sept./15
• Adopted into law by end of 2015
• Six-month transition period preceding “coming into force date”
ACTION ITEM: Have the Partnerships group provide an update on the auditing review process
ACTION ITEM: ARHCA needs to contact the OH&S Code representatives to get a copy of the finalized
recommendations going forward to the OH&S Council.
New Business
7. Silica
a) The Silica meeting set for April 15 with Minister McIver has been postponed until further notice due to
the election. There will be no updates on the code review until after the election.
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ARHCA Safety Committee Meeting April 2015
b) The Committee agreed that as an associated we need to be proactive in setting the silica standards. If
our industry does not set the standard another industry will for us. Gathering data and resources from
committee members will help develop a technical back for setting an industry standard for silica. This
subject is on the ASGA meeting agenda for Monday, April 20th. They are looking at the second stage of
the project.
c) The Alberta Sand and Gravel Association sent a letter to Minister McIver in early April that expressed
the value in completing a cost-benefit analysis and OH & S review on the current OEL of silica. See
attached: Silica OEL – Opportunity for Review.
8. ASGA Part 36
a) No new updates or meetings set with the Minister for Part 36 of the OH & S Code subsection.
9. Utility Locates
a) The ARHCA is trying to gain data on utility locates, delays, scheduling problems, and relocates. Data
collected will provide a better perspective of the scope and magnitude of the issue.
ACTION ITEM: Send ARHCA the details of your companies locate problems to [email protected]
10. Annual day of Mourning
a) 4th Annual Day of Mourning Ball hockey tournament in Edmonton will take place on Saturday April 25
from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Edmonton Sportsdome.
11. Meeting Dates & Locations
The following dates and locations are proposed, including revisions due to scheduling conflicts:
Thursday, June 18, 2015 – Golf in Central Alberta
Thursday, September 3, 2015 – Golf in Central Alberta
Thursday, October 15, 2015 – ACSA in Edmonton
Adjournment
Moved by to adjourn Jenna Klynstra.
Motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:01 pm.
Attachments
Silica OEL – Opportunity for Review & WCB Scorecard
Next Meeting
June 18, 2015
9:30 a.m.
Central Alberta Golf
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