Safety in the workplace a focus at G’min-oo-maa-doz-imin

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY – Regional Chief Isadore Day emphasized the need for safety in the workplace during Nokiiwin Tribal Council’s G’min-oo-maa-doz-imin We Are Living Well workshop.

“I want to congratulate the Nokiiwin Tribal Council for this very important conference,” Day says. “Ultimately, stress is a killer; we know that hazardous substances are a killer. (Along with) unsafe practices, these are all things that affect an individual in the workplace. If this is the work you are doing to prevent those sort of anomalies in the workplace, then I think you are moving the yardsticks in terms of nation building.”

Day says an employee’s health and safety and psychological wellbeing in the workplace affects their quality of life.

“If there is a sense of personal wellbeing in that organization, your output is going to be a lot higher,” Day says. “People are going to be happier at the end of the day.”

Nokiiwin’s Day of Learning workshop was held July 15 at the Victoria Inn in Thunder Bay. It featured sessions on a Health and Safety Journey, the Internal Responsibility System, a Health and Safety Orientation and the Business Case for Health and Safety.

“It’s a good initiative — educating more of the First Nations on health and safety is important and definitely needed,” says Jason Thompson, co-owner of Superior Strategies and Akawe Energy Services and former Red Rock Indian Band councillor. “I know the importance of safety, of the worker going home safe at the end of the day. Nobody wants to go to work and get injured.”

Thompson says there is also a business case for health and safety.

“Hurting people costs money,” Thompson says. “You can’t operate a business if you’re hurting people.”

Thompson sees health and safety as an opportunity for revenue.

“Sure there are expenses involved with health and safety, but at the end of the day it is rewarding,” Thompson says. “Having the morale, having people feel safe and appreciate the work environment is important as well.”

Audrey Gilbeau, Nokiiwin’s executive director, says the workshop was held to focus on health and safety from the First Nations point of view. Nokiiwin represents six Northern Superior First Nation communities, including Fort William, Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek (Rocky Bay) and Pic Mobert.

“How do we instil that health and safety awareness in everybody, including right down to the students in the school,” Gilbeau says. “And how can we utilize the school environment to bring that health and safety message home.”

Gilbeau emphasized the importance of encouraging youth to be health and safety champions as they move into their own work and careers.

“With Nokiiwin, this will be our second year we have been delivering vulnerable or young worker training in the summertime, when some of the First Nations hire upwards of 50 students,” Gilbeau says. “The young people are working outdoors, they are working with machinery, whether it be lawnmowers, weed whackers or chainsaws. We provide them with an orientation on what their three rights are — the right to know, the right to participate and the right to refuse.”

Gilbeau says there have been “far too many instances where people go to work and are hurt or are killed.”

“That has led to this legislation that now can hold you criminally liable for someone being injured or dying at work,” Gilbeau says. “We’re hoping that through this initiative, that we actually increase and raise people’s awareness and that people start to think about health and safety.”

Information on Ontario’s Guide to the

Occupational Health and Safety Act is available online at http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/pdf/ohsa_guide.pdf.