Safety

  • Performance: 30% lower medical incident rate (vs. 2016)
  • Safety goal: eliminate serious incidents and injuries
  • 2020 Safety Target: Reduce the highest frequency serious injuries (hands and finger incidents) by 50%

We believe safety is a Core Value and Business Priority, that all accidents are preventable, all employees must have ownership of safety and that safety is performance-based and must be managed.

We provide safety leadership, measure and evaluate leading indicators, proactively manage safety and continually improve, have effective Safety Management Systems for employees and contractors and meet or exceed compliance with health and safety regulatory requirements. For us, safety excellence is also operational excellence.

The Health and Safety Policy, in conjunction with our safety goal, sets out the overall objectives and principles for occupational, health and safety management within our safety system, identifying key responsibilities for management, operating site managers, employees and contractors.

2019 health and safety performance

We track common safety statistics, and the focus of our attention on the leading indicators of safety performance. These include near-miss incident recording and field level hazard & risk assessment activities that have a demonstrated correlation with safety improvement.

As a primary resource industry, many of the hazards and risks in manufacturing facilities cannot be eliminated. Hazards and risks must be mitigated or controlled by procedures and practices, which rely on human factors or fixed barriers.

Our approach is that all accidents are preventable, all employees must have ownership of safety and that safety is performance-based and must be managed. We actively update safety systems and programs to effectively manage and maintain safe workspaces and continuously improve performance. We use systems, communications, equipment safeguarding, training, and best-practice sharing to improve every location’s ability to monitor their risk tolerance,  identify hazards, mitigate hazards and learn from incidents.

Safety Culture Development & Risk Tolerance Reduction

Our goal is to eliminate serious incidents and injuries

An internal company safety team is tasked with ensuring all divisions have access to, use and implement company safety plans, practices, coordinate the appropriate safety training for all personnel and that safety improvements are implemented as new safety risks and hazard are identified, and safety remedies are circulated.

West Fraser’s safety audit protocol incorporates 26 elements and approximately 275 questions about safety equipment, planning, preparedness, risk assessment and hazard prevention.

  • Contractors and contract workers are required to be educated in and comply with all health safety rules imposed by West Fraser, the Contractor and local OH&S Regulations. Further, contractors must receive a safety indoctrination before they begin work at any West Fraser site.
  • West Fraser is a member of the BC Forest Safety Council (BCFSC), an industry-funded and directed Health and Safety Association (HSA) for BC Harvesting, Manufacturing and Wood Pellet sectors. West Fraser is an active participant in the Council’s Manufacturing Advisory Group (MAG), which helps support industry to achieve continuous improvement in safety performance across the industry. MAG's core goal is to achieve workplace environments free of injuries, incidents and near miss events. 
  • Our operations in B.C. are certified SAFE Companies by the BC Forest Safety Council as part of the Manufacturers Advisory Group (MAG) audit tool.
  • Our operations in Alberta are certified to the Partners in Injury Reduction (PIR) Program through Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Board and administered by the Alberta Forest Safety Association.