I am not one to write letters to the editor or become politically involved in issues normally, but I have followed with concern, as many others in the community have, the turmoil surrounding our fire department and question if we have adequate protection in our community in the advent of fires and other emergency situations.
There is so much finger pointing with many firefighters quitting citing safety concerns, the town suggesting that the firefighters were just whining about nothing, and a very vocal group of our local citizens blaming the town for not listening to firefighters' concerns. This has made it very difficult for many of us to get to the root of what is actually going on.
After reading the last letter sent to the editor by Mr. Van Vliet, I gave a copy of the safety audit the town received to my father who just moved here from B.C. where he held the position of regional prevention manager for the Workers' Compensation Board for 20 years, and oversaw all enforcement activities for nearly half of that province until his recent retirement. Part of his and his staff’s job was to review and carry out safety audits as well.
The following is a summary of his assessment of the recent audit carried out for the town.
• The document is not a full safety audit, but rather a cursory review of the town management's position with regard to adherence to legislated Occupational Health and Safety responsibilities as an employer. He came to this conclusion as it was made very clear throughout the document by the auditor that only three management employees of the town were interviewed and no workers were interviewed. The document also indicated that the auditor only spent four and a half hours at the worksite, which would not give adequate time to do comprehensive interviews as well as review the worksite and equipment.
• I attended the council meeting when the audit was presented and clearly remember statements made by some of our elected officials indicating that the town did not do too badly on the audit. According to my father the town only had an overall score of 48 per cent on the audit and a pass is 80 per cent or higher. He also indicated that either elements were reviewed in the audit, and even if you receive over 80 per cent on your entire audit you still must score over 50 per cent on each of these elements. In this case, the town had three elements in which they scored less than 50 per cent and three elements the town barely passed by one to two per cent. So in his opinion the town totally failed this audit and needs to get immediate interim measures in place to address the safety issues raised while working on their long-term Health and Safety Program. My father also felt that the auditor was very generous to the town in the points he awarded given the template used was for a full audit and the auditor was trying to use it for a partial audit, so inconsistencies appear throughout the document. The points raised above are not a criticism of the auditor as my father did not know what parameters were given by the employer to the auditor.
The summary of what my father read is the following:
- Firefighters working for the Town of Didsbury are very justified in having safety concerns. According to the audit, the town does not have an effective Health and Safety program for its fire department to protect the workers.
- The Town of Didsbury, the mayor, town council and town management all run a very real risk of litigation, as the auditor also pointed out on page 9 of this report, if a serious incident occurs and the cause is traced back to the tack of and implementation of an effective Health and Safety program as has been pointed out to the town management. This litigation could take the form of persona! lawsuits, prosecution by Alberta OSHA which could result in fines, and prosecution under the Canadian Criminal Code (Westray Act, Bill C45) which would mean fines and/or jail sentences.
We are lucky to have volunteers in our community that are willing to place their health and safety on the line to protect us and our property. Are they asking too much of us to do everything in our power to ensure that their jobs have our support in making them as safe as possible? I think most reasonable people in this community agree that it is time to put the finger pointing aside on this subject and for the town to immediately move forward in a constructive manner addressing the very real concerns of our firefighters so that they have a safe workplace, we have a safe community and we are not squandering taxpayer dollars on unnecessary fines.
Cindy Crawford,
Didsbury
