February 15, 2018
Partnerships Review

In 2017 the provincial government conducted their QA Audit on AMHSA’s COR-related policies, processes, and quality assurance reviews. The resulting report highlighted the strengths of our program and provided some opportunities for improvement. The following announcement of changes and reminders are being shared with auditors as a result of that audit.
Suggestions for Improvement

AMHSA’s guidelines for Suggestions for Improvement have been streamlined. In your Audit Tool worksheet:

  • Include actionable SFI for all questions with less than 80% positive indicators (was 85%).
  • Mark 1-2 KEY suggestions for inclusion in the Executive Summary (all suggestions used to transfer automatically to the Executive Summary).
 
Remember that suggestions need to be actionable – provide guidance on why the change should be made – and explain the benefit to the health and safety management system.
Revisions Deadline

As of January 1, 2018, the revisions deadline is 15 days (instead of the 20 days AMHSA previously provided).

In the past we allowed a maximum of 2 rounds of revisions, but now are allowing as many rounds of revisions as required to meet QA requirements within a maximum of 90 days.

If there are special circumstances and you require 20 days to submit a round of audit revisions, please send your request by email to your QA Analyst before the 15-day deadline has occurred. 
Findings/Justifications

Possible scores for questions marked N/A are automatically removed from the element total by the audit tool. When marking a question as N/A, remember to include why the question is not applicable in the justification notes.

If the organization uses contractors or has them on staff, don't mark contractor-related questions as not applicable.

Remember, your justifications should not include:

  • Direct reference to a specific employee
  • Your personal opinion
  • Restatement of the question in the affirmative as the only justification for the score awarded
  • Contradictory information
  • Boilerplated or templated notes
Interview Sampling

AMHSA has updated the overview section of the Int. Sampling worksheet with a yes/no box for auditors to confirm that the sample size is representative of the organization’s sites.

Ensure when you’re picking interviewees from each department to include selections from various sites, in addition to including permanent and temporary employees, and employees from various shifts and with varied experience levels (years of employment).
2018 Deadlines

Mark your calendars!
 
  • March 31 – Application to conduct action plan in lieu of COR Maintenance (internal) audit

  • June 1 - Request to participate in external peer audit process for the fall

  • December 1 – Submission of COR Maintenance and Certification audits for 2018
Annual PIR Communication

AMHSA will be sending the annual PIR information and status letters to participating CAOs at the end of February. This includes information about changes related to COR auditing, deadlines, external COR Certification audit options and COR maintenance options.

We ask that each CAO share the letter with their Safety Coordinator.

If you do not receive a copy, please contact Shannon Thomas at our Sherwood Park office. 
2018 COR Certification Audits

Approximately 30 of AMHSA’s municipal employers are due for COR Certification (external) audits this year. We offer both an external peer audit system and the opportunity to hire AMHSA-certified consultant auditors. This list of available consultants is available on our website.

To participate in the external peer audit system, please send an email to shannon@amhsa.net by Friday, June 1 st with the following information for fall audits:

  • Audit tool to be used (2010 excel, 2015 eCompliance, or 2016 excel)
  • Scope – number of employees and sites
  • Month you’d like the audit conducted
  • Names of certified auditors available to conduct an audit on another municipality

If you want to participate and require an audit in the spring or summer, please email your request as soon as possible so that we can accommodate the timeline. 
New Auditor Training

AMHSA has updated its Health and Safety Management Systems and Health and Safety Auditing courses to meet the new content Standards and to reflect the adoption of the 2016 Partnerships audit.

Limited spaces are still available in the following offerings:


  • March 12-13 (Sherwood Park)
  • April 3-4 (Calgary)
  • April 30-May 1 (Red Deer)


  • March 14-15 (Sherwood Park) - full
  • April 5-6 (Calgary) - full
  • May 2-3 (Red Deer)

If you have questions about prerequisites or equivalencies, please contact Shannon Thomas.

To register or to be added to a waiting list, contact Carla Smith at 1 800 267-9764.
Audit Refresher Training

Our Audit Refresher course has been updated to meet the new content Standard and to include training on the new Excel audit workbook (2016 Standard), and now includes an optional, free of charge, second day.

Spaces are available in the following offerings:

  • March 5-6 (Fort McMurray)
  • March 8-9 (Sherwood Park) - full
  • March 27-28 (Calgary) - full
  • June 5-6 (Sherwood Park)
  • June 12-13 (Calgary)
  • Sept. 4-5 (Sherwood Park)
  • Sept. 11-12 (Calgary)

To register or to be added to a waiting list, contact Carla Smith at 1 800 267-9764.
Audit Tools/Workbooks for 2018

There are three potential options for 2018 at this time – the original 2010 Excel audit tool, the 2015 eCompliance audit tool, and the new 2016 Excel Partnerships audit workbook.

AMHSA is currently working to make the 2016 tool available on eCompliance as well. An announcement will be made as soon as it has gone through testing and is ready for use – anticipated date is March 30th.

Auditors can only use the tools they’ve received training on, so if you have not attended a Refresher course since the spring of 2017, you would not yet be able to use the revised tool.

If you have questions about which tool(s) you are certified to use, please contact the Sherwood Park office.
eCompliance Audits (2015)

All auditors using the eCompliance tool may request the audit license key directly through eCompliance . The cost is $175 plus GST. 

Effective January 29, 2018, AMHSA is no longer subsidizing the cost of license keys for municipal employees using eCompliance.

When the audit report is ready to submit, remember to export the final report to PDF, and email it to AMHSA for quality assurance. Do not send the .eca file as your audit submission. 
Online Training
Online training is available 24/7 to all members and non-members. New courses include Asbestos Awareness, Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace, and H2S.

Click below for full listings!

Please note that prices do not include GST. For best results, please use Internet Explorer 8 (or newer) or Firefox as your browser and ensure that you have the current version of java installed.
Course Registration
To request or register for a course, contact AMHSA Corporate:

  Toll free: 1.877.537.9063
  Calgary and area: 587.952.2268
   Online: www.amhsa.net
  Email: safety@amhsa.net

For questions or comments, please visit our FAQ or email us at safety@amhsa.net.