GTSWCA has been historically active in the area of Occupational Health & Safety and in late 2007, the Health and Safety Program was revamped. This Updated 2007 version of the Health and Safety Program document is intended as a guide for a corporation in the Sewer and Watermain industry to increase the awareness of their Health and Safety responsibilities and act as a seed document for the development of their own individual Health and Safety Program.

This revision has attempted to provide both the theory of why a particular section is included and actual individual draft or sample policies, which when combined may establish an effective overall Health and Safety Program.

This updated version attempts to revise the previous Safety Program to a "WSIB friendly" document / system. This was done primarily because within Ontario, the WSIB may be one entity that could review and/or measure a company's safety program as part of a "WorkWell Audit".

Please note, once you have developed your program, whether it follows this Program or you have developed it entirely on your own, IT IS ONLY A PROGRAM, and DOES NOT MAKE YOUR COMPANY COMPLIANT to the OHSA or Construction Regulations; you still have to implement your program.

To implement a program into a practical health and safety culture and become compliant with the OHSA and its Regulations, your program must be put in place completely.
This should encompass a fully documented cyclical pattern of:

• Program development
• Program training
• Program implementation
• Program review and evaluation
• Program revisions and acknowledging successes

In other words, you actually have to do what you say you are going to do in the policy, and have the appropriate documentation to prove that you have done it.

For more information regarding the 2007 edition of the Health and Safety Manual, please contact the Association office.