Graham Byatt, assistant manager at Larsen Island. Image: Mowi Canada West

Team work makes the dream work

Mowi Canada West has shared a glimpse into their efforts to keep employees and sites safe and efficient. The company has put in place programs in which employees can contribute and share ideas that help make job sites safer.

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Graham Byatt, assistant manager at Larsen Island and Andrew Richford, site manager in Klemtu are in charge of making sure that all ideas are heard and implanted. They both work at sites northeast of Campbell River. They log the new ideas and make sure the Health and Safety procedures are followed.

“I’m responsible for ensuring the site is a safe place to work for all staff and addressing any safety concerns,” said Richford in the company blog. “The goal isn’t to get people in trouble or to be the safety police it’s to grow our area’s safety culture and try to assist the other managers in the area in creating a safe workplace.” 

Travel

“There was a concern with employees travelling up and down the highway between Campbell River to Telegraph Cove and Port Hardy, and a device called a  SPOT Tracker was introduced.  

“When an employee is travelling up the highway, they carry this device and if anything happens they can activate it and someone will be alerted and help will be sent to the closest location. This can also be auto activated if there is an accident,” said Byatt.

The team has goals to assess sites at least once a quarter, a general walk around of the site is conducted, monitoring of good housekeeping practices is reviewed and equipment logs are reviewed including fire and safety equipment checks. Doing routine checks ensures that issues can be identified and dealt with before a problem begins.

“For each inspection, a new DATS investigation is launched and a new task is created for anything that’s found,” said Richford. “This allows everyone to be fully in the loop on what was found, and what’s being done to correct it.” 

Health 

Byatt sits on the Health and Safety Committee. “When I go to a site there are certain administration things that I look for such as the Daily Activity Log and the communications board, fire extinguishers, AED’s and safety gear. I also check the clearances on heaters. I then go out on the system and do a basic system inspection like we would after a storm.” 

Byatt also inspects stanchions, plug boxes, davit posts, the compressor float, the feed shed and looks for areas that might require employees to wear hearing protection.

The team has come up with many great ideas. They created a ‘cage’ or box to go around the pulleys which would prevent anyone from getting their hands or clothing caught in the pulleys on the site.

Also, a system was set in which spill and escape response kits were sealed with breakaway tags like a fire extinguisher would have. This allows the team to quickly verify each month that the kits are completely intact without having to empty each one out and check the contents.

“Without question, safety is everybody’s responsibility, and Mowi Canada West has numerous programs in place where employees can contribute ideas to make job sites safer and more efficient.”