Victoria, BC, was not the jobsite safety Shangri-La I was expecting

As a Toronto-area contractor safety advocate, I’ve always sort of envied those progressive WorkSafeBC safety videos. “Wow, they really know how to teach jobsite safety on the Pacific Coast,” I used to tell myself. “It must be a safety Shangri-La out there!”

Two weeks ago, in Victoria for the first time in my life, I decided to go visit some jobsites to see if this was really true.

My first Shangri-La moment occurred at the first location I visited: a commercial work site across from Swan’s restaurant downtown. Everyone there was working safe.

Next, walking alongside the Victoria harbour, I was suddenly accosted by a safety lady wielding a STOP baton in my face. A cement truck was just arriving to drop product for the ongoing seawall repair. The safety lady was making sure the pedestrians kept well back! Wow! I gave her a high five. B.C. was really delivering on construction safety, so far.

But then the warm fuzzy feeling ended abruptly as I took a look at my first renovation jobsite in Victoria. There were safety hazards and rules violations around every corner: guys on roofs not wearing fall arrest systems, one guy working on an open edge with at least a 15-foot drop to the ground behind him, unsecured ladders everywhere, some ladders being used as a work platforms. One guy was almost 30-feet up without any kind of safety gear.

The haphazard approach to safety is obviously a Canada-wide problem. Government agencies often do a bang up job enforcing safety on commercial and industrial jobs, but our own multi-billion dollar sector of the construction industry, home renovations, is no Safety Shangri-La at all! Yet all safety laws are identical, no matter what section of the industry you find yourself working in. Keep this in mind.

Finally I found the ultimate home renovation contractor!

I took a break and visited fisherman’s wharf in Victoria’s harbor. There you’ll see very colourful floating house boats tied up to the wharf and some terrific restaurants. Suddenly I heard the sound of a skill saw and gobbled down my chowder soup and headed toward the sound. Here, I found another BC home renovator who had done himself proud, safety-wise. His name was David, a self-employed renovator adding a second floor on a house boat. He had blocked off the wharf with pylons and tape, keeping the public out of harms way. He’d erected a scaffold to work from (not a ladder) even though he worked less that six feet from the d0ck’s surface. This was safer than using a ladder, as the boat moved and bobbed on the swell of the water. What a great guy David turned out to be. He’d been in the business for years. Hell, we need more like David is our industry Canada wide.

In fact WorkSafeBC needs to find this gem and use David in their safety videos. Thanks, David, for taking time out to chat with us and in allowing us to take this photo of you at work.

If you have questions on safety issues or need information on private coverage that beats WSIB and refunds 50% of your premiums for no claims,  contact us Toll free at 1 866 366 2930.

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