Ensuring employee Health and Safety at the work place are top of mind in many industries. Business owners know the importance of providing a safe work place environment along with having good safety programs based on acceptable industry standards for businesses to adhere to and refer to should accidents occur. In addition, safer workplaces will be important in attracting personnel to work in the Saskatchewan livestock industry.
As the Saskatchewan beef industry does not have a livestock tailored provincial standard for employee health and safety, the LMS Board has prioritized this issue. Over the last several months, the LMS office and directors have made a concerted effort to research industry standards in other jurisdictions (namely British Columbia and Alberta) and to see how we can use their experience to implement a similar program in Saskatchewan.
During the summer LMS held a consultation with industry partners including SCA and SCFA regarding the proposed development of a provincial Health & Safety Program for the cattle industry. Reg Steward from Buffalo Creek Consulting of Williams Lake, BC, facilitated the workshop as he has taken the lead in developing similar successful programs in BC & Alberta. Based on discussion at the consultation and post dialogue, an outline of a program was created which enabled potential partners to take the information back to their boards for input with the hope they would work with LMS. We are hopeful that the other livestock industry associations will join us in supporting this initiative. LMS feels developing provincial wide safety awareness for the beef industry is an important program for the industry to take a lead on and will continue to explore how we can develop a health and safety program that promotes a safe environment to work in and owners with acceptable operating standards.
LMS continues to work on this initiative and will update our membership on developments.
