By Kevin J. Sabo
For the Advance
The County of Paintearth’s Health & Safety policies have been getting some work, which was approved during the most recent council meeting.
The policies were last reviewed and approved by council on September 15, 2017, and according to the Request for Decision submitted before council much of the legislation has changed requiring the policies to be updated to reflect the changes.
Some of the documents which have been updated include the Responsibility and Accountability Directive; the Violence and Harassment Policy; the Health and Safety Compliance Policy; the Hazard Identification, Assessment, and Control Directive; the Orientation & training Directive; and the Formal Workplace Inspections Directive.
“It has been found that some of the policies are outdated, and do not have the required elements needed to comply with the current Legislation and/or Audit recommendations,” said Safety Coordinator Tammy Hildreth in the Request for Decision presented to council.
All the documents presented to council during the meeting have been updated to bring them in line with the current format of County of Paintearth policies and to comply with current legislation surrounding health and safety.
While it was discovered during a policy review during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic that the policies were out of date, the County of Paintearth does review these policies every three years.
“It’s a culture of trying to move forward instead of backward,” said County of Paintearth Chief Administrative Officer Michael Simpson. “Reviewing the documents regularly is a best practice.”
“It sure is comprehensive,” said Div. 6 Coun. Tyrrill Hewitt, before moving to accept the changes. “It covers anything I can think of.”