Pipeline Spring 2015

C A N A D A’ S O I L A N D G A S S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E

PIPELINE

SPRING 2015

STAYING

ENGAGED Building pipelines through relationships

ON EVEN KEEL

Safeguarding young workers in tough times

A HELPING HAND

Finding the glove that fits

MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Safety within a tab

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| CONTENTS

PIPELINE Vol. 3, No. 1 SPRING 2015

DEPARTMENTS

4 Lightning Strikes Twice 6 8 EDITORIAL

IN THE NEWS

BY THE NUMBERS

FEATURES

10 Making Peace

ABORIGINAL ENGAGEMENT The granting of aboriginal title to a contested, resource-rich land in British Columbia by Canada’s Supreme Court sets a precedence that will give First Nations a greater say over development projects.

16 In the Bud

YOUNG WORKERS The recent plunge in oil prices has triggered layoffs and cutbacks in the oil and gas sector. What workplacesafety repercussions will this have on the industry’s young workers?

10

PRODUCTS

22 26

22 Lending a Hand HAND PROTECTION

Oil and gas workers need to protect their prized digits from hazards that include burns, punctures, exposure to chemicals and vibration from operating heavy machinery. Various factors have to be considered when looking for the glove that fits.

26 Safety Goes Mobile MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Mobile applications with workplacesafety functions are becoming increasingly common and can help ensure workers’ well-being — even when working underground.

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EDITORIAL |

LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE

F

or the second time in less than a month, a Canadian National (CN) crude-oil train derailed and caught fire near Gogama, Ontario on March 7. The first incident took place on February 14, when an eastbound CN crude-oil unit train derailed and caught fire near the same community.

While the two incidents are not of the same magnitude as the one that brought Lac-Mégantic to her knees, they are a sobering reminder of the dangers of transporting highly flammable materials by rail. Contributing factors to oil-train derailments include aging tank cars, the exponential increase in shipment of oil via rail and self-regulation of the industry.

Canadian regulators are turning up the heat. Transport Canada recently announced more stringent requirements for tank cars transporting flammable liquids — identified as one of the key risks to the transportation system in the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s (TSB) 2014 watchlist. For years, the TSB has been pointing out the vulnerability of Class-111 tank cars and calling for tougher standards to reduce the likelihood of product release during accidents.

The National Energy Board points to the rapid growth in oil-by-rail exports, which has more than doubled from just under 80,000 barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2012 to more than 170,000 barrels per day in the final quarter of 2014.

The pressure on rail capacity is likely to increase, as Canadian oil production is projected to grow by an annual average of four per cent, or 175,000 barrels per day, from now until 2030, according to forecasts released last June by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

An accident is often years in the making. The federal government’s national transportation policy permits the market largely to self-regulate. Amendments to

the Railway Safety Act in 1999 gave railway companies the authority to implement Safety Management Systems, which led to a reduction in spot audits by inspectors. The outcome, concludes a 2007 report by Canada Safety Council, is “a deregulation of safety.”

While oil-train derailments have reinforced the call for building pipelines, which some argue is a safer mode for transporting petroleum crude oil, this is a red herring that detracts from the safety issues in rail transportation. First, opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Northern Gateway Project is not likely to abate anytime soon. Even if the green light is given to build these pipelines — such as the Northern Gateway Project, which obtained federal approval last June, subject to 209 conditions — it will take years before the pipelines are operational.

Second, the claim that pipelines are a safer way to transport oil is, at best, premature. The International Energy Agency’s eight-year analysis of oil spills found that the risk of a spill is six times higher for rail, but a pipeline accident spills three times as much oil as rail.

The question, rather, is how do we make oil-by-rail shipments safer? The 1979 derailment in Mississauga, Ontario, which caused a chlorine leak that led to the evacuation of 220,000 people, could offer some learning points. The incident resulted in many safety changes, including the transportation of chlorine in tanks specifically designed to carry it.

While we may not be able to arrest the rising tide of increasing oil production, tightening safety standards and regulatory oversight are well within our means.

Bitter medicine for sure, but Lac-Mégantic is a poignant reminder of what can happen if we take the easy way out. And the next time when an oil train derails, it could be in your very own backyard.

Jean Lian Editor jlian@ohscanada.com 4 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

PIPELINE Vol. 3, No. 1 Spring 2015 JEAN LIAN jlian@ohscanada.com

EDITOR

EDITOR (CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY NEWS) CONTRIBUTING ASSISTANT EDITOR (OHS CANADA MAGAZINE) ASSOCIATE EDITOR HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES

JEFF COTTRILL jcottrill@ohscanada.com CARMELLE WOLFSON cwolfson@ohscanada.com WILLIAM M. GLENN MARK RYAN

ART DIRECTOR PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER MARKETING SPECIALIST CIRCULATION MANAGER

PHYLLIS WRIGHT GARY WHITE DIMITRY EPELBAUM BARBARA ADELT

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER (OHS CANADA MAGAZINE) PUBLISHER

PRESIDENT, ANNEX-NEWCOM LP

SHEILA HEMSLEY shemsley@ohscanada.com PETER BOXER pboxer@ohscanada.com ALEX PAPANOU

badelt@bizinfogroup.ca

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

DAVID IRETON, Safety Professional, Brampton, Ont. ALLAN JOHNSON, Director of Construction, Hospitality, Oil and Gas, Workers’ Compensation Board of B.C., Vancouver, B.C. JANE LEMKE, Program Manager, OHN Certification Program, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ont. DON MITCHELL, Safety Consultant, Mississauga, Ont. MICHELE PARENT, National Manager, Risk Management and Health and Wellness, Standard Life, Montreal, Que. TERRY RYAN, Workers’ Compensation and Safety Consultant, TRC Group Inc., Mississauga, Ont. DON SAYERS, Principal Consultant, Don Sayers & Associates, Hanwell, N.B. DAVID SHANE, National Director, Health and Safety, Canada Post Corporation, Ottawa, Ont. HENRY SKJERVEN, President, The Skjerven Cattle Company Ltd., Wynyard, Sask.

PETER STRAHLENDORF, Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Health, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ont. JONATHAN TYSON, Association of Canadian Ergonomists/Association canadienne d’ergonomie, North Bay, Ont.

PIPELINE is the magazine for people who make decisions about health and safety in

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Date of issue: SPRING 2015.

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IN THE NEWS |

>> A LBERTA GETS GLOWING REPORT ON PIPELINE-SAFETY AUDIT CALGARY — The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has well-functioning pipeline regulation systems and is performing its essential function of overseeing pipeline safety and reliability in Alberta, concludes an audit on pipeline safety by the province’s Auditor General.

“I am pleased that the Auditor General has expressed confidence in the Alberta Energy Regulator’s oversight of pipeline safety in Alberta,” Jim Ellis, president and chief executive officer of AER in Calgary, says in a statement issued on March 11.

The audit also made six recommendations for improvement, focusing on surveillance and enforcement activities, which the AER has accepted. The recommendations are as follows: • Use its risk-management activities to make informed decisions on allocating resources and determine the nature and extent of activities required to oversee

ADDITIONAL OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON LINE 9

pipeline operations; • Complete a skills-gap analysis and formalize a training program for its core pipeline staff; • Improve measures to assess pipeline regulatory and industry performance; • Expand its analysis of incident-contributing factors beyond primary causes and share lessons learned with both industry and operators; • Determine what data it needs from pipeline operators; and • Develop an approach to assess integrity and safety-and-loss-management systems cost effectively.

The regulator has begun implementing changes to pipeline regulation as a result of the audit process and its findings, including improvements in surveillance and enforcement, establishing performance measures and targets and enhanced training for AER staff, the statement adds.

CALGARY — The National Energy Board (NEB) has approved two of Enbridge’s condition filings regarding the Line 9B reversal project and the Line 9 capacity-expansion project (Line 9), while imposing additional obligations for the lifecycle of the project.

In a statement issued on February 6, the NEB says Enbridge’s previous submissions on valve placement and watercourse-crossing management plans are insufficient. However, based on additional information provided by Enbridge, the NEB has determined that the company has adequately demonstrated that its methodology for the number and placement of valves is appropriate.

Seventeen new valves have been installed, with a total of 62 valves along the pipeline.

Enbridge is required to do the following within the next 12 months: provide data, location and analysis (including a risk/benefit analysis) of an additional group of valves; analyze all water crossings and identify whether additional valves are needed; and update the intelligent valve-placement assessment that takes the additional data into consideration.

The obligations are on top of several post-construction conditions that Enbridge was already required to meet, including the requirement for ongoing consultation and continued emergency-management planning.

>> FIRMS TO CUT BACK ON EXPENDITURES TORONTO — Global consulting company Mercer has found that nearly half of oil and gas companies in North America plan to cut back on capital expenditures as a result of the recent dramatic decline in oil prices.

Mercer surveyed 154 oil and gas companies in Canada, the United States and Mexico between December 11 and January 16 about their reactions and human-resource strategies.

According to a company statement issued on February 2, the study reveals that while 25 per cent of respondents indicate that it is “too early to tell” what effect the slowdown will have on business strategies, 44 per cent say they will cut back on capital expenditures as a result of the decline in oil prices. A total of 38 per cent will reduce selling, general and administrative operating expenses, while 23 per cent will reduce core operating expenses.

BETTER PROTECTION FOR OFFSHORE WORKERS HALIFAX — Offshore oil and gas workers in Nova Scotia are now covered under one set of occupational health and safety rules.

Amendments to the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation (Nova Scotia) Act came into effect on December 31.

Among other changes, the amendments include the following: add a new oh&s section to the Act; clarify 6 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

the roles and responsibilities of governments, regulators, employers and employees; and assign authority for oh&s officers to the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board. Mirror amendments were adopted federally in the Offshore Health and Safety Act and in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Nova Scotia’s offshore is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Atlantic Canada and represents huge potential

for our province,” says a joint statement from the provincial Department of Energy and Department of Labour and Advanced Education.

Amendments apply to all offshore petroleum activities in the province, support a safety culture that recognizes shared responsibilities in the workplace and provide joint management of oh&s by federal and provincial governments, the statement adds.

| IN THE NEWS

LIVE-IN CAREGIVERS CRUCIAL TO OILPATCH: STUDY EDMONTON — Live-in caregivers in northern Alberta’s oilsands region help ease work-life stresses for families, but do so at great personal and financial costs, according to a study released in February.

Led by University of Alberta sociologist Sara Dorow, the study, Live-in Caregivers in Fort McMurray: a Socioeconomic Footprint, says that live-in caregivers — foreign nationals living in Canadian homes and employed to provide child or adult care — face many challenges, including unpaid overtime, underpayment and illegal or poor working conditions.

The online survey interviewed 56 temporary foreign workers living and working in dwelling units in and around Fort McMurray and yielded qualitative information from individual interviews and focus groups with caregivers conducted between 2008 and 2014.

In particular, 20 per cent of caregivers surveyed reported that they were not paid or were occasionally paid for overtime hours and worked an average of 10.4 overtime hours a

week. Eighteen per cent said they received less than Alberta’s prevailing gross hourly wage, and illegal or poor working conditions was the second most important reason cited for changing employers while working in Fort McMurray.

“Residents of Fort McMurray work the longest hours in the country, often on rotational shifts,” says Dorow, the report’s lead author and associate professor of sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “Live-in caregivers help to make the oilsands work regime sustainable by absorbing some of its stresses. At the same time, they experience stresses of their own, including the uncertainties of both the oilsands economy and the foreign-worker policies coming out of Ottawa.”

Residents of Fort McMurray clock in 50 hours or more a week and account for 32 per cent of the population, compared to only 17 per cent at the national level. On a weekly basis, live-in caregivers work 53.7 hours on average, the study notes.

>> NEW FUEL DIRECTIVE ISSUED CALGARY — The European Union’s (EU) new fuel-quality directive (FQD) will treat Canada’s oilsands on a level playing field with other sources of oil around the world, creating new export opportunities for energy and allowing Canada to compete more freely in the global market.

“This is an important signal for Canada, as it means our oil will not face discrimination in Europe,” Tim McMillan, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers in Calgary, said on February 6.

The EU’s original FQD proposal singled out Canadian oilsands crude as more carbon-dioxide intensive than conventional oil. Late last year, the FQD was revised to encourage transparent report-

ing from all countries. The EU’s deadline for comments on the current version of the FQD passed on February 6 without any proposed amendments.

“Canada has transparent industry-performance reporting in place, which is not the case for many countries that supply oil to the European Union,” McMillan argued, noting that Alberta has had a carbon-dioxide-reduction policy in place since 2007.

Oilsands crude has a carbon footprint similar to other heavy oils around the world and to conventional oils produced with associated flaring of natural gas. The oil and gas sector has reduced oilsands greenhouse-gas emissions per barrel by about 28 per cent since 1990.

>> OIL-PRICE PLUNGE SPURS JOB LOSSES CALGARY — Up to 23,000 jobs are threatened due to depressed oil prices, the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) says in a drillingactivity forecast issued on January 22.

The forecast, reflecting significant changes in commodity prices since last summer, says the low price of oil and natural gas will adversely affect the number of active drilling rigs in service, leading to an industry-wide slowdown and job losses.

The association, which represents

Canada’s drilling and service-rig industry, estimates that the number of active drilling rigs in service will see a 41 per cent decline from an average of 370 per day in 2014 to 203 in 2015. Fleet utilization is also expected to drop from 46 per cent in 2014 to 26 per cent this year.

“The new reality of $55 oil means that the entire industry will hurt for a period, and drillers and service-rig contractors are not immune to that,” CAODC president Mark Scholz says.

REGULATION DEFINES LONG-TERM ROLE FOR PIPELINES VICTORIA — British Columbia has established a regulation to ensure that pipelines built to support liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities will not be permitted to transport oil or diluted bitumen.

Prior to this commitment, concerns were expressed during environmental assessments and by First Nations about long-term pipeline use, British Columbia’s Ministry of Natural Gas Development notes in a statement issued on January 6. The new regulation will be applied under the Oil and Gas Activities Act and prohibits the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission from permitting any conversion of a natural gas pipeline supplying an LNG facility.

The following six proposed pipelines are subject to the regulation: Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project (for LNG Canada); Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission Project (for Prince Rupert LNG); Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project (for Pacific Northwest LNG); Pacific Trail Pipelines Project (for Kitimat LNG); Pacific Northern Gas Looping Project (for Douglas Channel LNG); and Eagle Mountain-Woodfibre Gas Project (for Woodfibre LNG).

PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 7

BY THE NUMBERS |

Tougher oil-tank standards in the works

Transport Canada (TC) is introducing a new tank-car standard for transporting flammable liquids in the wake of a litany of oil-train derailments. The proposed TC117 standard follows calls from the Transportation Safety Board and safety officials across the border to establish more stringent requirements for tank cars transporting flammable liquids, after TC published a final rule to build flammable-liquid tank cars to a higher standard on July 2, 2014, following the Lac-Mégantic incident.

Once the new standard comes into force, the industry will have to manufacture tank cars that meet its requirements, some of which are as follows: • Tank cars are to be jacketed and thermally protected with thicker steel; • They must have full head shields; • Tank cars must be equipped with top-fitting protection to protect pressurerelease valves from damage; and • Manufacturers must install new bottom-outlet valves to withstand derailments and prevent leakage in the event of an accident.

A risk-based approach for implementing a new flammable-liquids service tank car would be driven by the type of tank car and the flammable liquid being transported, TC says in a statement released on March 11. The plan is to include braking requirements into operating rules, such as the Key Trains/Key Routes Rules, rather than as part of tank-car standards. Consultations with Canadian industry and technical discussions with safety officials down south to achieve harmonized braking requirements in Canada and the United States will continue.

Once the proposed requirements are adopted in the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations, subject to Governor in Council approval, industry would retrofit all TC-111 tank cars that transport flammable liquids, such as petroleum crude oil, according to the implementation timeline below:

173,000

Barrels of Canadian crude oil transported across the border by rail per day in the last quarter of 2014. Due to the plunge in oil prices, this is roughly five per cent less than the 182,000 barrels transported a day in the third quarter of last year.

Source: National Energy Board

17,000

Barrels of petroleum product spilled at Murphy Oil Company Ltd’s Seal heavy-oil site in northern Alberta. The Arkansas-based company found condensate near the surface in three areas on March 1.

Source: Murphy Oil Company Ltd

CANADIAN IMPLEMENTATION DATES

FLAMMABLE LIQUID / PACKING GROUP(S)

TANK CAR TYPE REMOVED FROM SERVICE

May 1, 2017

Crude Oil

DOT-111 Non-Jacketed

May 1, 2020

Ethanol

DOT-111 Non-Jacketed

Dec. 1, 2021

All Crude (PG I, II, III) and Ethanol

DOT-111 Jacketed

July 1, 2023

Crude Oil and Ethanol

Non-Jacketed CPC 1232

May 1, 2025

Crude Oil and Ethanol and all remaining Flammable Liquids (PG I, II, III)

Jacketed CPC 1232 in Crude Oil service and all remaining DOT-111 Jacketed and Non-Jacketed and CPC 1232 tank cars

There are currently about 147,000 TC-111 tank cars in North American flammable-liquids service, of which about 80,000 were built before 2011. It is estimated that an additional 7,500 TP14877/CPC1232 jacketed tank cars will be constructed for crude-oil service in 2015. By the end of this year, approximately 115,000 of these tank cars will be used for transporting crude oil and ethanol.

˚ 0 36 8 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

1,000

Number of construction workers, employed by a contractor at Husky Energy Inc.’s Sunrise oilsands project, laid off on March 11.

Source: Financial Post

13

Percentage of Canada’s crude-oil production that comes from offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.

Source: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers

Rig explosion claims four A ball of flames that engulfed an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico on April 1 has killed four workers and injured at least 16. State-run oil company Pemex says there was no significant oil spill following the blast and that its emergency-response plan was immediately put into action.

About 300 workers were evacuated and transferred to other platforms in the area, a company statement reports. The investigation continues, although it appears that something mechanical may have caused the explosion. A survivor of the blaze reported seeing workers jump into the sea out of desperation and panic.

Source: The Associated Press

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FEATURE | ABORIGINAL ENGAGEMENT

PEACE

By William M. Glenn

It all comes down to land. Who has title to it? Who has the right to use it? What will it cost to protect it for future generations? A 2014 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada granting Aboriginal title to a large piece of contested, resource-rich land in British Columbia has shifted the power balance in favour of First Nations by giving them greater say over development projects that would include pipelines.

10 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

F

ABORIGINAL ENGAGEMENT | FEATURE

or almost 25 years, lawyers have been arguing over the fate of the remote, largely unspoiled valley lands in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of west-central British Columbia. The Tsilhqot’in Nation’s Chief Joe Alphonse calls it “the most beautiful place in the world.”

The lands claimed by the Tsilhqot’in spread west from the Fraser River across the high Chilcotin Plateau to the snow-capped Coast Mountain Range. Deep valleys have been cut into the gently rolling plateau. Deer, sheep, elk and grizzly are common, while the lakes and streams teem with salmon, whitefish and trout. Stands of pine, spruce and Douglas fir cover the land. Beneath the surface, there are deposits of gold, copper, tungsten and molybdenum — and maybe oil and gas.

The troubles began more than 30 years ago. In 1983, British Columbia granted a commercial logging licence on land that the Tsilhqot’in considered to be part of their traditional territory. The Nation objected and sought a declaration prohibiting commercial logging on the land. Talks reached an impasse, and there were roadblocks, protests and temporary injunctions.

Eventually, the Nation’s original land claim was amended to include the lands at issue.

Chief Roger William of the Xeni Gwet’in, one of the six bands that comprise the Tsilhqot’in Nation, has spent much of the last 25 years in meetings, negotiations and courtrooms fighting to protect and lay claim to the traditional lands of his people. “There were a number of attempts at agreement — we got close several times — but in the end, and as a last resort, we went for legal action,” Chief William says. “They were going to log it whether we liked it or not, so in 1998, we filed our action for Aboriginal title.”

The legal wrangling occupied the British Columbia Supreme Court for five years. The issues were argued again in the British Columbia Court of Appeal in 2010 and were eventually dumped onto the laps of the eight Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC).

On June 26, 2014, the SCC — using a wider, more inclusive definition of Aboriginal occupation — unanimously granted the Tsilhqot’in Nation title to some 1,700 square kilometres of central British Columbia.

While it marked the first time that a court had granted Aboriginal title to a specific piece of land in Canada, the SCC did much more than settle a complex land claim:

• They ruled that British Columbia had breached its “duty to consult” the Nation and to accommodate their interests when it issued logging licences on the Tsilhqot’in’s traditional lands in the 1980s and 1990s.

A boriginal title confers on the group that holds it “ the exclusive right to decide how the land is used and the right to benefit from those uses.”

• The Court spelled out in law the “culturally sensitive” criteria to be used when determining Aboriginal title, tossing aside the restrictive “postage-stamp” approach favoured by Ottawa and British Columbia that would limit title to specific settlement sites; • They affirmed the Crown’s “fiduciary duty” to a First Nation holding title and the narrow conditions under which a project can be pushed through over a Nation’s objections; and

Yay or Nay What does the SCC decision mean in practical terms?

According to the Court, Aboriginal title confers on the group that holds it “the exclusive right to decide how the land is used and the right to benefit from those uses, subject to the restriction that the uses must be consistent with … the enjoyment of the land by future generations.” Essentially, a First Nation holding

Following the decision, both parties returned to the bargaining table to map out a new, cooperative plan for resource development — and revenue sharing — in the years ahead. The province, the Xeni Gwet’in and the Tsilhqot’in signed a Letter of Understanding in September 2014, setting the stage for long-term negotiations “to explore new and innovative approaches to Crown-First Nations reconciliation,” according to a statement from the ministry.

To date, the parties have developed some common understanding, exchanged information and put resources in place for ongoing negotiations. The government has also provided some “capacity funding” for the Tsilhqot’in to help the communities participate in the reconciliation process more fully. “We are currently focusing our discussions on resource and revenue-sharing agreements and ways to enhance the meaningful participation of First Nations in decisionmaking processes,” Edward Hill, spokesperson for the province’s Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, says from Victoria.

“These discussions have been on hold for 20 years while we wrestled over Aboriginal title in the courts,” Chief William says. “Now is the time to sit down with the province, operators and developers and start working together. We are not against mining or lumbering, but any development has to be done with regards to our rights, to our culture and to the environment.”

And if things bog down again? “We can always go back to court,” he suggests.

PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 11

FEATURE | ABORIGINAL ENGAGEMENT National Energy Board Stresses Aboriginal Involvement While a company can spend years planning an inter-provincial pipeline or powerline and consulting with the local communities that may be affected along the route, the National Energy Board (NEB) in Ottawa does not get involved with a specific project until the proponent files a project description or an application with the Board.

At that point, the NEB will review which Aboriginal groups the proponent has consulted, the concerns that were raised and how those issues were addressed. The Board can follow up on any unresolved problems either by requesting additional information from the proponent, questioning them during the hearing or, if necessary, appending conditions to any approval that may be issued.

“However, we encourage Aboriginal groups to participate in the hearing process, because it is important that they bring any outstanding concerns forward so the Board can address them directly,” says Margaret McQuiston, technical specialist with some 14 years’ experience in Aboriginal relations with the NEB. A quasi-judicial body, the NEB can consider only information that has been placed on its public record when making a decision. A group can either apply to submit a formal letter of comment or participate as a full intervenor in the hearing.

Most Aboriginal groups choose to participate as intervenors, she says.

“We also try to accommodate any particular Aboriginal ceremonies or cultural protocols when possible,” McQuiston says. For example, the NEB has incorporated pipe ceremonies, rather than the traditional oath, to affirm the evidence provided by Elders. The Board will also provide translators, locate a hearing close to intervenors and adjust their timing, to the extent possible, in order to make a hearing as accessible as possible.

The NEB offers participant funding — up to a maximum of $80,000 for groups and $12,000 for individuals — to those deemed eligible and granted intervenor status. Since 2010, more than $7 million has been allocated by an independent committee to intervenors. “Based on past hearings, up to 80 per cent of the available participant funding has gone to various Aboriginal groups,” McQuiston adds.

Aboriginal title to a big chunk of its traditional territory is in a position to veto any development project.

“If the answer is ‘No,’ you should think seriously about packing up and going back home. Otherwise, you are going to lose a load of your shareholders’ money on a project that is never moving forward,” says Drew Mildon, managing partner with Woodland and Company in Victoria, British Columbia.

“There is a pretty big cultural gap between those who hold a view of the world as a resource to be exploited and those who have a more direct connection with the land, who actually live on it and depend on it for survival,” Mildon explains, adding that First Nations have a sense of self that is inclusive of those lands. When it comes to some “big footprint” projects — strip mines, clear-cut logging and perhaps pipelines — “some things just aren’t negotiable.”

According to the SCC, once title is established, incursions are permitted only with the consent of the Aboriginal group or if they are justified “by a compel12 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

ling and substantial public purpose.” It must also be consistent with the Crown’s fiduciary duty, essentially, to operate in the best interests of the First Nation.

“On lands where Aboriginal title has been established, the Crown has no interest outside its fiduciary duty to the community,” Mildon says. “Infringement on that title is allowed, at least theoretically, but it is going to be almost impossible to do so.”

But Mildon is positive about the future. “The old way of doing business with First Nations is dead. From now on, if you are interested in a project, you will have to go and ask for their approval. That is the only way to find out if there is a way to move forward together.”

Duty to Consult Many First Nations interpreted the case to mean that, from now on, they could exercise a veto over resource development anywhere in their entire traditional territories. “But the Supreme Court reasserted that consent applies only after title has been determined,” clarifies Kevin O’Callaghan, a partner with law firm Fasken Martineau in Vancouver, which represented business and industry associations in the SCC case.

There is still “a distinct legal line” painted between lands with proven Aboriginal title and those that are considered traditional territories, but have yet to be granted title, O’Callaghan explains. If Aboriginal title has yet to be conferred, the old rules still apply.

According to the SCC, “prior to establishment of title, the Crown is required to consult in good faith with any Aboriginal groups asserting title to the land about proposed uses of the land and, if appropriate, accommodate the interests of such claimant groups.”

O’Callaghan points out that the duty to consult is determined by three conditions: the province and/or the federal government must have knowledge that there is a potential claim to the title of the lands in question; some project or action is being proposed for those lands; and the activity could affect the rights of the potential title holder.

“The duty to consult can exist across a spectrum — from simple notice to involvement in decision making and accommodation — depending on the strength of the claim and the potentially adverse effects of the proposed activity,” O’Callaghan adds.

After clarifying the legal responsibilities, there are two key practical components to undertaking consultation. First, one has to ensure that sufficient information is being communicated to the First Nation, including the full details of the project and all its potential impacts. “This information has to be understandable, not geared to experts and engineers, so that the First Nation representatives can be confident they fully understand both the risks and the benefits,” O’Callaghan says.

Second, if one is seeking to come to an agreement with a First Nation, the interests and concerns of that

ABORIGINAL ENGAGEMENT | FEATURE Nation have to be determined. “Each First Nation community is unique, bringing a different history, different biases and different expectations to the table,” O’Callaghan advises. “You have to identify those areas where a project can provide tangible benefits to the community and satisfy its members’ needs and expectations.”

Too Complex About a decade ago, members of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) saw a need to develop a cross-industry “Aboriginal Consultation Framework” to guide their consultation activities.

The Framework — approved by the Association in 2007 — is built on eight overarching principles, supplemented by more specific guidelines based on its members’ experience and best practices: aboriginal rights must be respected; consultation activities can create mutually beneficial relationships; the Crown is ultimately responsible for consultation, although some aspects of consultation may be delegated to industry; consultation must be meaningful and requires a genuine attempt to address interests and concerns; consultation must be undertaken in a timely manner and as early in the decision or planning process as possible; information provided to the community must be comprehensive and understandable; impacts must be identified and minimized through appropriate mitigation plans; and the nature and scope of consultation will vary with the nature of the proposed activity and the effect on Aboriginal activities.

Even though both sides may agree with the basic principles, the Framework cannot cover all situations and every contentious issue that may arise. “Our members have a pretty good idea of how to work productively with First Nations and how to resolve economic development, environmental and social issues,” says Philippe Reicher, vice-president of external relations for CEPA in Calgary. “However, we are in the business of building pipelines. Questions about Aboriginal title and rights are just too big and complex for us to solve alone.“ Reicher suggests that the Crown has a more prominent role to play in larger projects that affect multiple Aboriginal communities and different landowners, as well as projects located on greenfield sites, rather than those on previously developed brownfield locations.

“They can’t wait for negotiations to break down,” Reicher suggests. All three parties — the private sector, First Nations and the federal and provincial governments — need to get involved “right from the get-go.”

Cumulative impacts are another “very important issue that many stakeholders are raising these days,” Reicher adds. For example, the levels of greenhouse gases emitted by a single operation may be insignificant, but when added to those from an entire region or industrial sector, they may represent an unacceptable contribution to global warming.

“There currently is no integrated regulatory approach available to deal with cumulative environmental effects,” Reicher points out. “They probably need to be looked at from an overall land-use-planning perspective. Again, it is not possible for a single proponent to resolve them.”

So what works? “It really boils down to an ability to build some lasting trust between a project proponent and a First Nations community,” Reicher says. “It is a matter of being transparent and honest right from the start. That can’t happen overnight.”

Sharing Benefits Suncor Energy has been honing its working relationship with First Nations communities since it first became involved in the Alberta oilsands back in 1967.

“With a new project, we might be out in the community meeting on a weekly basis. For established operations, we maintain dialogue through our various Aboriginal-relations programs and community projects,” Suncor spokesperson Tracey Wolsey reports. To date, Suncor has established relationships with more than 150 Aboriginal groups across Canada.

In addition to its oilsands extraction and upgrading operations near Fort McMurray, Suncor also explores, develops and produces oil and gas reserves in Western Canada and along the East Coast, operates refineries in Edmonton, Sarnia, Montreal and Colorado and markets refined products through a chain of some 1,450 PetroCanada stations.

“We heard quite clearly from First Nations that they want to share the benefits, and one of the best ways is through the business opportunities that development provides,” Wolsey says. “We are proactive through our procurement, contract and capability development programs.” Suncor spent more than $431 million with Aboriginal businesses in 2013 and almost $2.5 billion since 1999.

Suncor has a “supply chain” group that works with local First Nations firms. The company uses tools to track the amount of business it is doing with First Nations suppliers and service firms and to determine how Suncor is helping to grow their companies. It has also established an Aboriginal Relations Steering Committee at the vice-presidential level, offering strategic direction and providing reports to the Board of Directors. A working group under the committee handles the details of its business development, community relations and education and recruitment programs.

“When Suncor first began operations in the oilsands back in the ’60s, there were no requirements for building relationships with First Nations communities or our other neighbours. Today, there are laws, regulations and policies covering consultation,” Wolsey says.

“The depth and breadth of our policies, processes and practices are necessary for a company like ours to build a productive relationship with First Nations.”

PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 13

FEATURE | ABORIGINAL ENGAGEMENT Consultation Guidelines from the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association Step One: Engage at an early stage.

Notify Aboriginal communities and engage in discussion as early as possible, before a decision is made to proceed with a particular project.

Step Two: Determine appropriate consultation methods.

Based on the scope of the proposed activity and input from the affected Aboriginal community(ies), determine appropriate consultation methods.

Methods could range from simple information sharing to the negotiation of protocol agreements.

Step Three: Provide information about proposed projects to affected communities.

Provide Aboriginal communities with information about projects that might affect them. Information may include the following: a description of the timing, nature and scale of the proposed activities; maps; environmental reports; and related employment and contracting opportunities.

Step Four: Aboriginal community to participate in consultation activities.

Work with Aboriginal communities and the Crown to facilitate the provision of resources to Aboriginal communities to participate in consultation processes, as required.

Step Five: Identify effects on Aboriginal communities.

Use studies and other tools to identify effects. Possible tools include, but are not limited to, traditional-use studies, environmental studies, heritage inventories, wildlife inventories, fisheries studies and past experience.

Source: CEPA Consultation Framework: Principles, Objectives and Guidelines

Consent, Not Dissent Obtaining consent does not always hinge on who holds title; consideration must also be given to Aboriginal rights. A 2007 decision by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, upheld by the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the Tsilhqot’in’s right to hunt, fish, trap and capture horses throughout the Claim Area, “will resonate for years ahead,” lawyer Drew Mildon says.

“While not legally binding outside the province, it is already being argued in courtrooms across Canada.”

In order to exercise that right to hunt, fish and trap, it is a biological necessity to preserve sufficient forest and wild lands to produce a harvestable, sustainable surplus of game, Mildon argues. “When you drill or cut access roads or log, you are going to affect the diversity and abundance of species.”

For years, First Nations had been fighting a rearguard action, doing whatever they could to protect their lands. In the future, they will likely adopt a more aggressive, economically proactive stance, asking the courts to quantify their recoverable damages based on the environmental damage done to the natural resource base. Constraints on a First Nation’s Aboriginal rights to hunt and fish over large areas can be readily converted to a commercial value.

Overriding these treaty rights by approving logging or mining projects on traditional lands could constitute a “massive infringement and create billions of dollars in potential damages for governments and, in turn, the taxpayer,” Mildon cautions. “These damages are retroactive and could go back 60 years.”

As such, it is in any resource company’s commercial interest to come to an agreement with a First Nations, Inuit or Métis community that claims rights or title to lands the company wants to develop, advises Ben Bradshaw, associate professor of geography with the University of Guelph in Ontario. An impact-benefit agreement (IBA) creates a formal relationship between 14 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

those who will develop and manage the project and those who will experience the impacts most directly.

“An IBA is essentially two agreements in one,” Bradshaw explains. First, it covers the management of the potential impacts of a project, such as risks that may lie outside those covered by the proponent’s operating approvals. Second, it contractualizes the benefits to a community, including the provision of training and employment opportunities, revenues and profit sharing and preferential contracting for services. Ideally, the IBA will cover “what proportion of the total value of the asset a community expects over the lifetime of the operation,” he says.

Negotiating an IBA can take time and a considerable amount of finesse. “You must widely canvas a community to determine the residents’ concerns,” Bradshaw says. “It is also incumbent on the community to invest in and draw upon its governance structures, in order to clarify its expectations in a clear and timely manner.”

Increasingly in Canada, an IBA or some other manifestation of implied consent is absolutely necessary in cases in which an Aboriginal group holds or claims title to the property being developed. And while an IBA may not be a legal obligation for a project that will affect traditional lands to which Aboriginal title has not been granted, “it is certainly becoming a cultural necessity,” Bradshaw notes.

Building Relationships Sonja Franklin, spokesperson for Canadian oil company Cenovus, says long-term community agreements are a cornerstone of the company’s relationship with its Aboriginal neighbours. “To date, we have signed seven such agreements with Aboriginal communities.” These multi-decade agreements typically span 40 years — the expected lifetime of a project. Each is unique and reflects a community’s particular needs, concerns and the potential impacts of the undertaking.

Cenovus operates two large oilsands projects at Foster Creek and Christina Lake in Alberta, with several others at various stages of development. The company also operates a number of conventional oilproducing properties in Alberta and Saskatchewan, natural-gas plays in southeast Alberta and oil refineries in Illinois and Texas.

Agreements set accountabilities and cover formal consultation on a project, ongoing engagement and the resolution of any issues that may arise. “Through long-term community agreements and local contracting and hiring practices, we work to ensure that local communities are sharing in the benefits of oil and gas development in their areas,” Franklin says.

Cenovus focuses on hiring locally whenever possible, and contracts many Aboriginal or band-owned businesses. “Since Cenovus was formed in 2009, we have spent more than $1 billion on goods and services

ABORIGINAL ENGAGEMENT | FEATURE supplied by Aboriginal businesses, including $395 million in 2013 alone,” Franklin adds.

The company has created the Aboriginal Employment Bridging Internship Program to help Aboriginal workers near its operations work towards a career in the oil and gas industry. These internships give workers experience in such trades as instrumentation, power engineering and field operations. It also offers 10 scholarships in its operating areas for Aboriginal students pursuing a post-secondary, fulltime degree, diploma or trade certificate.

ment projects. “We have found that more companies are seeking to engage in a meaningful way these days,” Abouchar notes. “However, consultation can’t be a superficial ‘box-ticking’ exercise. If you can come to some mutually satisfying agreement, it gives both sides greater security.”

First Nations are also re-examining their treaties and consultation protocols in light of the recent rulings. “We see more First Nations expressing an interest in becoming full partners in a planned development and holding some of kind equity stake in the project,” she says.

Impact across Canada Although the 2014 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada was not “earth-shattering” in a legal sense, it was “certainly the next chapter in a series of important judicial rulings on Aboriginal title, rights and the duty to consult that we have followed over the last few years,” says Julie Abouchar, partner with Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers in Toronto. She says the decision provides a road map for Aboriginal title claims, but warns that it “will likely create some uncertainty and maybe even turmoil as it is applied across the country.”

A number of First Nations in the Maritimes (where the Crown signed peace and friendship treaties) and across Ontario and the Prairies (where a series of numbered treaties are in effect) are certainly re-calculating the legal odds of asserting Aboriginal title over their traditional territories based on the criteria set out in the SCC decision, Abouchar adds.

For example, the Taykwa Tagamou Nation in Northern Ontario has launched a lawsuit concerning Treaty 9, covering great swathes of mineral-rich land, based on discrepancies between the treaty they signed in 1905 and the oral promises recorded in the official diary kept by one of the government representatives at the time. If successful, their consent could be required before any mining is permitted.

In addition, land claims over large areas of British Columbia and parts of the Northwest Territories and Yukon are still unsettled. The SCC decision will certainly be cited in their ongoing land-claim actions.

Even in Ontario, where the Algonquin have asserted title and Aboriginal rights to large areas of the Ottawa and Mattawa River watersheds, the decision could have an impact.

As a result, both developers and government regulators should take a cautious approach to disputed Aboriginal title when initiating projects or issuing permits. “Where there is a potential that title may be granted at some point in the future, the Supreme Court of Canada suggested that seeking consent might be the best way forward,” Abouchar says.

“Otherwise, any permit or approval issued could be revoked if title is eventually proved.”

However, Abouchar does not believe that the SCC decision will put a chill on future resource-develop-

“ These legal battles are all about giving us

hope.”

Hand in Hand Chief Joe Alphonse has been fighting for the Tsilhqot’in homeland since the days of the first roadblocks. “It has been a long, hard journey, with lots of political and financial struggle,” he says, “but we don’t want to live on reservations, to live in poverty and live in shame any longer. We want to live on our own lands, and we want full access to our resources, so that we can live independent. These legal battles are all about giving us hope.”

To those who accuse the Tsilhqot’in of being antibusiness and uncooperative, he points to the Nation’s work with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans restoring the salmon fishery in Chilko and Quesnel Lakes. “Today, that sockeye run is one of the largest, healthiest runs in the world. We started with maybe 300 fish a year back in 1990 and are now up to 1.5 million,” Chief Alphonse says. “It shows the success you can have by working cooperatively with us.”

Chief Alphonse’s message to industry is cooperation.

“Don’t be fearful. We want to work with you,” he says.

As the First Nation government lives and works right on the resources that companies want to develop, “it is much easier to get access to us and it is much easier to work with us,” he says. But he points out that interested parties have to be prepared to pay a fair price and to take the necessary environmental precautions.

“Our lands are so well managed, they look untouched. Then, you look across Canada and see so much environmental damage, so many endangered species and so many extinctions. This is not wise land management,” Chief Alphonse says. “Give First Nations people back their voice, restore their role in resource management and watch Canada flourish.”

William M. Glenn is a writer in Toronto. Follow us on Twitter @PipelineOHS. PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 15

FEATURE | YOUNG WORKERS

IN THE

BUD

By Donalee Moulton

Canada’s well-paying oil and gas sector has attract-

ed many green hands. But the recent collapse in oil prices has turned up the heat on the industry, put-

ting in motion a series of coping strategies from job

cuts to production clawbacks. Can cheap oil also put a dent on young-worker safety?

16 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

YOUNG WORKERS | FEATURE

y any measure, the oil and gas industry is a dangerous place in which to work.

Long shifts, working with combustible materials, operating heavy machinery, exposure to toxic gases in confined spaces and working in remote locations are some of the risk factors.

For oil and gas workers aged between 15 and 24, their inexperience serves only to exacerbate the risk.

And that inexperience can be injurious — even deadly — for workers of any age. In 2014 alone, there were six reported deaths at, or near, one Suncor Energy Inc. operations in Alberta, including one worker who sustained fatal injuries in an incident involving heavy mining equipment.

“This industry attracts a lot of workers, largely because of the pay scale and the work style,” says Paul Barnes, Atlantic Canada and Arctic manager with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) in St. John’s. “There are no recruiting issues. A lot of technical-trade graduates get picked up right away.”

Indeed, attracting and retaining new workers remains crucial for Canada’s oil and gas sector, which must hire between 125,000 and 150,000 new workers over the next decade to replace losses due to turnover and retirement-related attrition, the Petroleum Human Resources Council in Calgary reported in 2013.

As young and inexperienced workers come on board to fill those vacancies, safety can be a concern, as young employees tend to have a much higher injury rate than older workers. According to WorkSafeBC’s statistical overview of the sector, which includes mining, 23 per cent of young workers in British Columbia were injured between 2009 and 2013, compared with only five per cent of workers over 55 years of age.

But the oil and gas industry is not unique in this regard. Recent examples include a 15-year-old construction worker who was killed last July after becoming entangled in a conveyor at a worksite near Wintering Hills, Alberta. Christopher Lawrence, an employee of Calgary-based Arjon Construction Ltd., was working at a gravel-crushing site between the towns of Drumheller and Bassano when the incident occurred. In the same month, an 18-year-old mechanic died after being crushed by a van at an auto-repair shop in Sherbrooke, Quebec. It was reported that the young man had just finished his studies and had recently started working at the garage.

Generally, young workers are at a higher risk of injury than those of any other age group. WorkSafeBC finds that between 2005 and 2009, 28 workers under the age of 25 on average were hurt on the job every day in the province. Each week, 41 young workers sustained serious, life-altering injuries. The effect on the system: 1.2 million days lost and $283 million in workers’ compensation claims. In 2010, 2.3 out of every 100 young people working full-time in the province were injured.

Joel Carr, the national representative for health, safety and the environment with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union in Toronto, points out that age is not really the issue. “What we are really talking about is inexperience,” he says.

A 2012 report prepared by Art Deane, SafeThink training manager with HDC Human Development Consultants Ltd. in Edmonton, notes that more than 50 per cent of young workers injured on the job were hurt within the first six months of their employment.

In 2006, 97 young workers between 15 and 29 died in workplaces across Canada.

Young people do not have the hands-on experience of older, more mature workers, nor do they possess the insight and balanced response that usually comes with age, although the latter may be more a function of physiological development than inexperience. In his report, Some Canadian Workplace Injury and Fatality Facts, Deane references neuroscience research that discovered that the part of the brain involved with making sound judgements and controlling emotions is the last to develop in young people.

is not really the . “What we are really talking about is ” PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 17

FEATURE | YOUNG WORKERS An Encouraging Trend While the oil and gas sector is a hazardous profession, the industry has been lauded for its emphasis on safety. “Our experience with the offshore sector is they don’t do anything unless it can be done safely, which is a factor in preventing workplace injuries,” says Sarah Reeves, spokesperson for the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia in Halifax.

Volodymyr Paslavskyi, president of the Young Professionals and Skilled Workers Association in Toronto, agrees. “I think Canadian companies would rather stop hiring new labour rather than cut safety corners,” he says.

In its 2014 progress report, the CAPP notes that since 2009, there has been an 11 per cent decline in injury frequency in Canada. The improvement, CAPP says, is even more noteworthy when put into context: it occurred at a time of considerable industry growth and a 49 per cent overall increase in the hours employees and contractors worked over the last five years.

That positive trend, the report adds, is counterbalanced by two factors: an increase in industry fatalities in 2013, including a doubling of fatalities from four to eight, and a levelling-off in recent years of what the industry calls total recordable injury frequency.

Improvements have since plateaued.

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

While the safety of young workers is legislated in many provinces and, to some extent, federally, occupational injury and fatality involving this group of workers remains a concern. In October 2006, the Government of Canada provided a report on relevant young-worker legislation, entitled Minimum Age for Employment in Canada.

In 2011, The Center for Research in Human Development at Laurentian University in Montreal released a report, Current Health and Safety Policies Protecting Young Workers in Canada, to give an update on the federal and provincial or territorial legislation applicable to young workers in Canada. It identifies numerous laws in place across the country that require companies to meet certain standards: • The federal legislation that applies to young workers is limited to a select number of acts and regulations. The greatest contributor to young-worker policy comes from the Canada Labour Code and its regulations, which prohibit children under the age of 17 from working in restricted occupations or at certain times.

• The majority of young-worker policies are specific to the province or territory that originates them and, therefore, reflect the individuality of that jurisdiction. However, a select number of policies are strikingly consistent across the nation and have been coined panCanadian legislation.

• The young-worker policies that stand united across Canada are those that prohibit the employment of young people still required to be in school from handling or serving alcohol in licenced premises and from work that is dangerous to their health, safety, well-being or development.

18 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

Slips, trips, falls and hazards associated with working around heavy machinery are among the most common hazards for oil and gas workers, reports Brookes Merritt, spokesperson for Alberta Human Services in Edmonton. “Falls from height are among the most commonly occurring, preventable injuries across all industry sectors,” he notes.

In British Columbia, 38 per cent of serious-injury claims in the oil and gas sector from 2009 to 2013 were attributed to the worker being struck by an object, 14 per cent were the result of falling from an elevation and another 14 per cent were caused by the worker being caught in something like a piece of equipment.

Prepping for Danger Two aspects of working in the oil and gas sector are particularly dangerous: handling hazardous materials and exposure to toxic gases. Hazardous materials like drilling mud pose a significant risk. Also known as drilling fluid, it is a heavy, sticky mixture used in oil and gas drilling operations to help carry rock cuttings to the surface, as well as lubricate and cool the drill bit.

Barnes says the mixture has to be prepared before use, and “a lot of hazardous chemicals are mixed in.”

Exposure to toxic gases is also a concern, as hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) or sour gas — a colourless, flammable, toxic gas that smells like rotten eggs — occurs naturally in crude petroleum and natural gas.

Toxic at very low concentrations, H2S causes one to lose the sense of smell quickly by paralyzing the olfactory nerve. The gas is heavier than air and may accumulate in low-lying areas.

“A lot of thought goes into detecting that [gas] and possible leakage,” Barnes says.

In view of the numerous occupational hazards, part of the training that many oil and gas workers receive can be classified into two categories: basic and sitespecific. Basic training helps workers put into practice appropriate safety measures for common dangers, while the latter ensures that they are trained for specific sites and the tools of the trade in that workplace, which “alerts them to the hazards with a particular set of equipment,” says Cameron MacGillivray, Calgarybased president and chief executive officer of Enform, the safety association for Canada’s upstream oil and gas industry.

Organizations like Enform offer a list of courses ranging from artificial lift systems, bear awareness and chainsaw competency to detection and control of flammable substances. Last year, MacGillivray says, Enform issued 340,000 training certificates to workers who have successfully completed these programs.

“We train for process safety,” MacGillivray says. He adds that training needs to be upgraded constantly, because more worker practices and administrative and engineering controls are created as the complexity

YOUNG WORKERS | FEATURE of the oil and gas sector increases.

The association also shares learning by disseminating safety alerts when accidents occur. “We shared 25 of those alerts last year with 10,000 contacts in the industry,” MacGillivray reports.

Mentor Matters Education is essential, but training needs to go beyond the classroom. Mentoring is also necessary, Carr says. “People are setting out and working with little or no exposure, to someone who has been doing it for some time.”

He notes that many oil and gas employees come from farming, in which they worked long hours outdoors with heavy equipment. But new immigrants joining the industry often do not have this grounding.

“You need an experienced person to inculcate newer and younger workers,” Carr advises.

Paslavskyi points out that one of the major hazards for young workers in the industry is ignoring safety procedures and not using common sense. In some cases, he observes, that danger comes from the situations into which they are thrust.

“Some older, skilled workers do not want to do dirty jobs themselves, so they ask newbies to do them instead. This is where accidents may happen if protocol is not followed and proper instruction is not given,” Paslavskyi says.

Mentors would clearly help here by giving young workers a sense of what they should be doing and the confidence to say “no” when a job does not reflect their training and experience. At present, mentoring programs seem to be put in place unevenly across the country and more a company initiative than an industry one. However, there is increasing interest in what the industry calls supervisory competence.

“There is a lot of emphasis on supervisory competency. We don’t define it as mentoring, but to be a competent supervisor, you have to guide young people,” MacGillivray says.

Enform is encouraging companies to create what they call green-hand programs (young workers in the industry are often called green hands) that will ensure an opportunity for supervisors and co-workers to mentor and coach newer workers in their daily tasks.

As this is easier to execute when “green” workers are visible, programs often require young and inexperienced employees to wear green hard hats or paste green-hand stickers on their hard hats.

According to a report prepared by Enform, identifying green hands should prevent co-workers from making potentially dangerous assumptions about the workers’ experience or skills. For example, green hands should not be expected to do their tasks as efficiently as an experienced worker, know the site-specific practices and procedures, be familiar with compa-

ny-specific controls for keeping the workplace safe, or know how to manage hazards.

The most effective mentoring and training provides more than just knowledge about how to mix drilling mud or operate a crane; it requires an understanding of the company and the worksite. “There are a lot of contractors in the oil and gas field. You can get skilled people who have tunnel vision. Systems are complex. You need to know how the [site] works and the procedures work,” Carr argues.

Learn from Mistakes The complexity of the systems in which oil and gas workers often find themselves is reflected in the requirement for contingency plans that regulators expect industry players to have in place. The new Drilling and Production Guidelines, released by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board in 2011, encompass more than 25 types of issues companies must address in their contingency plans. This includes ice management, well control, person overboard and preventing emergencies.

Having such plans in place, along with ongoing training programs and mentorship activities, enables companies to lay the foundation for a safety culture.

According to CAPP’s 2014 progress report, this is a best practice that needs to be better addressed. “Safety should be a part of company culture, and the health and safety of the workers should always be top of mind,” Reeves says.

Creating that culture means looking outside company walls. For example, Reeves notes that when a workplace injury occurs, the workers’ compensation board collaborates with the employer and worker to address the situation. It is also an opportunity to learn PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 19

FEATURE | YOUNG WORKERS what went wrong and how to avoid similar injuries in the future.

Enform’s safety alerts work on the same principles.

If a company experiences a serious injury or near miss, it is encouraged to anonymously summarize the incident, so that the learning points can be shared with the entire industry. A safety alert can be issued about equipment, processes or practices.

One recent alert involved an incident that occurred when a crew was conducting well-kill operations on an oil well. A worker was monitoring the return flow to the service rig trough from on top of the rig tank.

When the returns became gassier, the return flow was opened to the degasser section of the rig tank, and the trough flow was pinched in slightly. The rig manager proceeded to the top of the rig-tank stairs, where his personal gas monitor immediately began to sound the lower-explosive-limit alarm. The rig manager looked up and saw both the rig tank and the worker on the rig tank being engulfed in flames.

The worker on top of the rig tank jumped over the handrail to the ground and suffered a broken hand from the landing. The flash fire led to minor burns to the worker’s face, chest, back and thighs, and extensive burns to the forearms that required skin grafting surgery and 18 days in the hospital.

As a result of the incident, the company identified corrective and preventive actions that could be taken, which included implementing a new administrative control designed to keep personnel out of a hot zone.

“We expect to be of importance to operators, of economic changes.”

Safety as Usual Unfortunately, such accidents are commonplace in the oil and gas industry, which has demonstrated improvements in its accident record. Now, concerns about safety are being raised in a market in which plummeting oil prices have become the norm. Last June, the price of crude oil was roughly US$115 per 20 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

barrel. Eight months later, it had dropped by more than half to US$49 per barrel.

Such drastic declines should not affect safety, says Colleen Ménard, deputy registrar of the CanadaNova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board in Halifax.

“We expect worker safety to be of paramount importance to operators, regardless of economic changes.”

The same zero-tolerance attitude applies in Alberta. “The government’s view is that whether business is busy or slow should have no bearing on how any employer prioritizes health and safety training and enforcement. It quite simply is expected that all employers in Alberta keep the health and safety of their workforce and workplace as their top priority,” Merritt stresses.

Those expectations are likely being met.

MacGillivray thinks that concerns over younger, cheaper workers might be preferred over older, more expensive workers in tough times — including during major layoffs in the sector, such as when Houstonbased Halliburton Company announced up to 6,200 job cuts in February as a result of decreased drilling — are unwarranted.

“When there is dramatic pickup in the industry, there is dramatic pickup in young and inexperienced workers. When times are tough, companies tend to retain skilled workers. They are more efficient,” MacGillivray explains.

That approach mirrors what Paslavskyi gathers from his members. “They tell us that straight-out-ofschool newbies are more likely to be laid off due to cutbacks than experienced workers.” That said, in a pressure-cooker environment, young and less-experienced workers may take unnecessary and unacceptable risks in order to hang on to a job or impress their bosses, he suggests.

Overall, many experts believe the oil and gas sector is not likely to compromise on its employees’ safety, as workplace accidents or fatalities can have an adverse impact on reputation and revenue — outcomes that are simply too serious to overlook — not to mention that regulators are keeping a close eye on activities.

“The consequences are so acute,” Carr says. “An incident can lead to an individual injury, or it can lead to a catastrophic event.”

For Paslavksyi, safety must be the first priority in the oil and gas industry, in which accidents near rigs happen often. He believes that it is acceptable for training and safety programs to cut a little into profits, because people want to work for a safe company.

“Safety has commercial value, which is one of the factors that guarantee profitability in the long run,” he says.

Donalee Moulton is a writer in Halifax. Follow us on Twitter @PipelineOHS.

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PRODUCTS | HAND PROTECTION

LENDING A

I

HAND

n the oil and gas sector, particularly jobs involving drilling, transportation and construction, workers’ hands are vulnerable to injury.

“Injuries to the hands are the number one cause of work-related incidents,” says Terry Smith, national sales and marketing manager with Showa Group in Coaticook, Quebec. “The most hours that people lose in a year are because of hand injuries.”

Industries that require hand protection for employees include the automotive sector, bottling, aerospace and sheet-metal manufacturing. In the oil and gas industry, workers may need protection from arc flashes, burns, machinery and chemicals, to name a few hazards. Manufacturers also make gloves that resist punctures, liquids, hard impacts and the effects of vibration, as well as high-visibility work gloves for darker environments or work at night.

22 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

Often, workers also need back-of-thehand impact protection, because they are working with pumps and valves, says Jason Kokoszka, associate director for mechanical protection with Ansell Healthcare LLC in Iselin, New Jersey.

The company has a proprietary dipping process that creates an impermeable barrier, adds Chancelor Wyatt, associate director of oil and gas business development (Americas) with Ansell. When it comes to Ansell’s grip technology, “we look at doing our dipping process on a knitted glove such that you create a pattern on the palm and also sew it on the backside,” Wyatt says. “That allows you to improve your grip in oily conditions. You can maintain your comfort [and not have] your hand exposed to the oily substance while you work through a 12-hour shift.”

The material from which gloves are made depends on the hazards against

By Jeff Cottrill

which they are designed to protect. Cutresistant gloves, for example, often contain Kevlar, stainless steel or DSM Dyneema. Chemical-resistant gloves are usually made of latex, natural or synthetic rubber or plastics, while gloves that protect hands from cold weather are made of wool or waterproof materials.

Anti-vibration gloves, which shield hands from carpal tunnel syndrome by absorbing the shock effects of jackhammers, chainsaws or other vibrating equipment, come in leather, nitrile or Kevlar.

FLEX AND PROTECT While reliable protection is the main function of safety gloves, comfort and flexibility are also important, since workers need to be able to use their hands to do their jobs effectively. In the past, safety gloves tended to be thicker and bulkier and lacked dexterity. Although this helped

HAND PROTECTION | PRODUCTS

“ ANYTIME YOU TAKE THE GLOVES OFF, YOU ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO AN INJURY.” with protection, it also made the gloves uncomfortable to wear.

“So what individuals would do is, they would take the gloves off,” Kokoszka says.

“Anytime you take the gloves off, you are more susceptible to an injury. You might forget to put the gloves back on, and then you could get a laceration.”

Today, many glove manufacturers use a knitting process in which varying stitch designs around stress areas help lessen hand fatigue and enhance flexibility, making the gloves practical and safe.

Manufacturing workers who operate machinery, for example, might prefer gloves that are thinner and do not affect manual dexterity.

The type and strength of protection in gloves may vary from job to job, but comfort is a universal need, notes Rafael Manrique, Ansell’s associate director for single-use gloves and chemical protection. “It goes across industries,” Manrique says, adding that recent technologies like Aqua-Dry — a moisture-management technology — help make safety gloves less of a burden to wear. “When you have, for example, a glove that is able to absorb perspiration, it makes, ultimately, the wearing of the glove much more comfortable to the end user.”

The one-size-fits-all approach does not apply to gloves. “There is such a myriad of different work environments out there that you can’t just have one glove that will do it all,” says Eric Lehtinen, president of Impacto Protective Products Inc., in Belleville, Ontario. “You have to use a variety of sewing techniques, a variety of materials on the palm of the glove, on the back of the hand, to make sure that you are giving the adequate amount of protection and the adequate amount of dexterity.”

Style and appearance can indirectly influence the effectiveness of a glove, Lehtinen adds. “People have discovered that if workers can like wearing the glove, they like how it looks, then it is easier to get them to wear the safety equipment that the company needs.” Workers are also less likely to lose safety gloves that they have taken a liking to, he suggests.

Another vital consideration is fit. An

ill-fitting glove not only creates discomfort, but can also result in hand fatigue, which adds to potential job hazards.

Superior Glove Works Limited, a safety-glove-manufacturing company based in Acton, Ontario, offers on its website a simple, downloadable hand-measuring chart that allows a worker to determine the proper glove size via hand width.

There is also a chart for finding the right sizes of safety sleeves for workers who often find themselves dipping their arms into hazardous substances.

But the most important factor for choosing a brand or type of safety glove remains the glove’s ability to protect from the specific hazards of the job. “There are more and more certifications out there — whether it be for anti-puncture, anticut and things like that — with differing levels of protection,” Lehtinen notes.

He adds that a buyer should put the onus on the manufacturer to ensure that the product meets the relevant standards.

“That is something that all reputable glove and personal-protective-equipment manufacturers are more than willing and able to do.”

THE BIG FIVE According to information from Superior Glove, cut-resistant gloves protect against three kinds of injuries: abrasive cuts from rubbing against material parts with sharp or jagged edges; slicing cuts caused by the slipping motion of a sharp edge, like that of a knife; and impact cuts from getting hit by falling metal or glass.

Frank MacDonald, the company’s vice-president of sales, explains that cutresistant gloves can be classified into five levels of strength in cut protection, with five being the highest. “Steel mills, for instance, they need a minimum 2,500gram cut protection, which would be cut number four,” MacDonald says. Sheet metal plants also need strong cut protection, up to level four or five.

Julie McFater, Superior Glove’s marketing and communications manager, adds that the level of cut resistance is determined by how the yarns are woven together in production. “We do a lot of

research into that,” McFater says, adding that the company tries to combine different yarns and fibres to make combinations that stay lightweight and comfortable, yet still protect the worker.

Tactile sensitivity is another trait that employers should consider when selecting cut-resistant gloves, as well as price per hour of protection, she adds.

Superior Glove specializes in cut-resistant gloves made of Kevlar. “Most people are familiar with Kevlar,” MacDonald says. “When you put Kevlar out there, they think bullet-proof vests and just body armour in general, helmets. The material is inherently cut-resistant.”

When choosing heat-resistant gloves, an employer should first establish the type of heat hazards from which employees need protection. Considerations include whether the heat is moist or dry, if thermal or atmospheric exposure is involved, if an open flame or a spark is present and, if so, what the air temperature is when the flame or spark is lit.

Certain gloves use an outer layer of silicone-coated Kevlar to allow workers to touch hot surfaces without burning or melting the gloves, while other kinds of multi-layer protection can guard against extreme heat hazards in the steel industry and other types of jobs.

Similarly, chemical-resistant gloves come in different types to protect a worker’s hands from various chemicals. It is best to clarify with the manufacturer or seller what the job’s chemical hazards are and determine whether employees need latex material for food handling, neoprene or nitrile for oils and fuels, butyl for gases or water vapours or a silicone coating for handling liquid nitrogen, information from Superior Glove’s website notes.

HIGH TURNAROUND Unlike other types of personal protective equipment, safety gloves tend to be replaced frequently. “If people take care of the gloves, they can last a long time, but there are many factors,” Smith says. “Some people have hard hands, some people are going to be rough on them, some people may be doing 1,000 pieces a day of whatPIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 23

PRODUCTS | HAND PROTECTION

“ THE NUMBER ONE FRUSTRATION THAT THE INDUSTRY HAS IS GRIP.” ever they are working on.”

Because of their apparent disposability, employers often consider price a primary factor when deciding what kind of gloves to supply. But Smith recommends keeping quality as the top priority. Showa tests all of its gloves to make sure that they can last for as long as eight hours without any chemicals seeping through.

“When we sell a glove and they look at our information and use our sales team, they know that they are protected with the gloves that we are offering them. And if we are unable to provide a glove to protect them, we will tell them,” he says.

Lehtinen recommends prioritizing quality over price, but disposability cannot be ignored. “In some conditions where there is exposure to chemicals or particularly hard wearing in garments,” he says, “disposable safety gear is a necessity.”

24 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

ON GUARD Nathan Peterson, marketing and sales representative with Glove Guard LP in Highlands, Texas, has observed a current trend in employers’ buying habits. “They are buying their workers the really expensive brand, mainly because they want to increase safety,” he says.

As a result, employers have to make sure that workers don’t lose the gloves, “because the more that they are having to replace them, the more their cost goes up.” That is why Glove Guard has pioneered clips that keep safety gloves hooked onto workers’ belts, overalls or other items of clothing. The clips have been sold to companies in industries across the spectrum, most commonly oil and gas, construction, manufacturing and even air travel and food services.

Another reason why some companies

choose higher-quality gloves with less disposability is concern for the environment. “I think companies are trying to get away from gloves that are just going to end up in a landfill,” Lehtinen suggests. “They are looking for gloves that can, perhaps, be laundered over the years or will certainly just last in a variety of conditions.”

Since the costs of glove replacement can pile up quickly, it helps if workers know how to take care of their gloves.

Apart from the hand-measuring chart, Superior Glove also offers laundering guides that can be downloaded from its website. The proper way to launder gloves depends on the glove’s material, as many of the fabrics have strict limits.

“If you put bleach in with a Kevlar glove, it will come out looking like orange juice,” MacDonald says. “Bleach is Kevlar’s enemy.” But with a high-performance

HAND PROTECTION | PRODUCTS polyethylene, “we can bleach that to use it with solvents, and it will withstand that breakdown.” Dyneema gloves can also handle bleach, but not temperatures higher than 144 degrees Celsius. As such, users need to wash them in cold water and dry them in low or no heat.

Proban gloves, which are made of a chemical called cythioate, cannot be cleaned with soap, as that increases their flammability, but oxygen-based bleach in a temperature lower than 24 degrees Celsius is fine. Leather requires drycleaning, while nylon needs warm water for washing and low-to-no heat for drying, and wool must be washed gently in cold water with a mild detergent, notes instructions from Superior Glove.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario recommends following the supplier’s instructions on cleaning and maintaining safety gloves. Additionally, one should always avoid wearing gloves with metal parts near electrical equipment and inspect them for tears and other defects prior to each use.

GETTING A GRIP Technology is evolving, and safety gloves have benefitted from it. Not only have they become more comfortable to wear and flexible over the years, but they can also grip objects and surfaces better now.

“We have actually developed a glove that has a built-in grip technology from a single-use disposable glove that can be utilized in an environment where you are dealing with a wet or slightly oily area,” Manrique says.

“The number one frustration that the industry has is grip, being that you are always exposed to that oily environment,” Wyatt says of the oil and gas industry.

He notes that Ansell leverages technology so that workers can be productive, but also have comfort, prevent the hands from becoming saturated and still have dexterity and durability to be able to do the work all day without taking the gloves off. “It is one thing to say we can deliver grip or we deliver durability — a lot of companies can do that as a one-off. But to deliver what you call an optimized combination of those is really the key.”

The thinness of a glove can be a double-edged sword. “In certain industries

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT — HAND PROTECTION For arc-flash protection in industries such as oil and gas, Showa Group in Coaticook, Quebec offers the Showa 240 glove. Featuring a cut-level-4 rating and an arc-flash-level-2 rating, the Showa 240 is constructed from Kevlar-engineered fibre and has a neoprene coating on it, says Terry Smith, national sales and marketing manager with Showa. “It is forged with flame-resistant materials,” Smith explains. “It is the ultimate armour for arc-flash protection in high-risk industries.” A product sheet from Showa Group says the glove features 13-gauge, Kevlar, modacrylic and fiberglass liners. It can be used in a variety of oil and gas applications, including petrochemicals, the utility sector and fracking.

With regard to upstream workers who need protection against extreme oil and impact, Ansell offers the ActivArmr 97-120 glove, which features outstanding mud-oil grip, plus cut and impact resistances to shield hands in extreme conditions, reduce fatigue and increase productivity. “Specialized oil-impermeable technology keeps hands clean and dry for all-day comfort that helps get the job done,” says a product information sheet, adding that the gloves are ideal for tasks, such as the handling and connection of pipes, reworking tools, running cables, disassembly or assembly of motors or tools and washing or cleaning tools.

“This product is a medium-impact, hybrid product,” says Chancelor Wyatt, associate director of oil and gas business development (Americas) with Ansell. “It is a knitted product that has impact protection, but also has high visibility.”

— oil and gas is one — if the glove is too thin, they will think it is not going to provide you protection,” Wyatt suggests.

“It is not the thinness, it is the actual make-up. That is the message that needs to be put out there.”

Showa Group has been active in pioneering new technological developments.

In October 2012, the company came out with the world’s first nitrile biodegradable disposable glove. It currently makes four types of biodegradable safety gloves, including two types of chemical-resistant ones that resemble dishwashing gloves.

These products, while being disposable, cause less damage to the environment when they are thrown away.

Despite this breakthrough, Showa emphasizes selling the value of the gloves over their disposability. “Our glove may be a little more expensive,” Smith concedes, “but you are going to get a lot more life out of it. So in the long run, you are going to save.”

Superior Glove is working on creating newer dipped products for gloves to

enhance their protective ability, MacDonald reports. The company hopes to develop its line of puncture-resistant gloves further, primarily for the forestry sector. Kevlar, leather, nitrile and Dyneema are materials it commonly uses for puncture resistance.

Flame resistance is another developing innovation that Ansell has adopted for safety gloves for use in industries in which fire, hydrocarbon flashes or electric arcs are a possibility, including oil and gas. “If your clothes are flame-resistant, but your gloves are not, what is the point? Because your hands are going to get burned,” Kokoszka cautions. The company also specializes in insulated gloves for work in cold weather, such as in the oilsands.

“Different industries have different applications,” he says. “Workers need to be not only productive and efficient, but also be protected.”

Jeff Cottrill is editor of Canadian Occupational Health & Safety News.

Follow us on Twitter@PipelineOHS. PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 25

PRODUCTS | MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Safety Goes

Mobile T

By Jean Lian

oday, there is an app for everything. Apps with workplace safety functions — from those that provide occupational health and safety information and identify hazardous materials to those that calculate fall clearances — are no exception. But are apps simply a fad, or are they becoming must-haves in the toolboxes of safety professionals and workers alike?

“Apps are definitely a big part of today’s safety environment,” says Jonathan Brun, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nimonik, a company offering safety and environmental mobile tools in Montreal. “If you work in an environment like the gas-production industry or pipelines, you can buy cases for Android or iPad and iPhones that make the devices intrinsically safe,” he says in reference to the use of electronic devices in workplaces where flammable explosive materials may be present.

Safety apps certainly have a role to play in the oil and gas industry, which involves working in remote or mobile locations. “We have a lot of clients, for exam-

26 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

ple, in construction [and] oil and gas,” says Matthew Ross, media manager with ProntoForms Corporation in Kanata, Ontario. The company owns the mobileform solution ProntoForms, an app that is used by 3,000 business customers to receive dispatched forms from the office, collect vital work data in the field and submit complete, media-rich forms from anywhere in real time.

The bring-your-own-device-to-work trend and more companies using cloud services are also driving the use of apps. “It is our largest growth space right now,” Ross says about safety apps. As employees get more comfortable with using their own devices for work, he advises companies that are going to employ different solutions to ensure that they work on a bunch of devices.

Stay Safe Offline For Brun, one of the biggest advantages of a mobile app is that it can be used offline. “Mobile apps are quite useful when you are working in an environment

MOBILE APPLICATIONS | PRODUCTS that does not have a strong Internet connection and where people need to move around, visit different parts of a plant,” he says, adding that Nimonik’s clients include mining operations, mills, warehouses, logistic companies and industries with operations in remote locations.

Nimonik offers the Monik Audit, a free app primarily used for safety inspections. It is available from the Apple app store, and an Android version will become available in March. Formerly known as the EHSQ Reporter, the Monik Audit has been in the market for about four years and has incorporated updates and new features over time.

“If a company or person wants to conduct a workplace-safety inspection, they can use one of our checklists — we have 1,500 checklists in there based on industrial standards, laws and regulations,” Brun explains. An inspector or a site supervisor can refer to the standards in the Monik Audit to determine if a workplace is compliant with regulatory requirements, issue a report or action item and manage the entire inspection process. “That is a big part of our business — helping companies do inspections on mobile devices.”

Likewise, ProntoForms can be used anywhere — even by workers like oil and gas well drillers or miners who work underground where there is no connection. “It does not matter what type of environment you are working in,” Ross says. “You can collect data in the field wherever you are, you can text your signatures, including photo and barcodes.” As the app works offline, the collated information or completed forms can be saved and sent when the user gets the network connection back.

The ProntoForms app, which costs approximately $20 per user (depending on the carrier), works on any smartphone or tablet with Windows, Blackberry, Android and IOS. “We run on a subscriber budget,” Ross says. Additional charges may apply if a client requests for specific integration or form-building.

Users can either build their forms from scratch or use one of the templates provided.

He adds that the ProntoForms app is a “hugely popular tool”, because there are many forms to fill out when conducting safety inspections and writing action reports. “It has been quite successful in eliminating the time to process critical and crucial data related to health and safety,” Ross says. “People can’t afford to fill up forms on paper anymore.”

A Tab Away Given the plethora of regulatory requirements surrounding workplace health and safety, “having a safety app at your fingertips is incredibly convenient and usually results in the user using it more,” suggests Warren Bailey, director of marketing with Danatec Educational Services Ltd. in Calgary.

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT — LONE-WORKER DEVICES

For oil and gas workers who work alone in remote locations, BlacklineGPS offers the Loner Mobile application that is available for Android, BlackBerry 10 and iPhone. This employee-safety-monitoring app uses a smartphone’s data connection and internal location technology to convey the safety status of employees to monitoring personnel, similar to Blackline’s dedicated safety-monitoring solutions, Loner® SMD and Loner® IS. Also available to enhance the capability of Loner Mobile is Blackline’s Loner field device unit accessory, which provides employees with a safety-monitoring component with which to interact.

For example, the transportation and oil and gas industries lend themselves readily to the use of safety apps. “These industries are higher risk and have to conform to regulatory laws,” Bailey says. “If it was a physical book or something, it might be harder to pull up in times of need.”

Danatec, which specializes in workplace-safety and compliance-based training, provides a wide range of educational and compliance training tools, such as self-teach training programs, online training, handbooks, apps for iPhone/iPad, reference materials, regulations and a variety of technical custom training solutions. It also offers two apps — the Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) Handbook app and the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) Handbook app — which are digitized versions of the TDG and WHMIS handbooks.

“Even though the handbooks are quite small, a lot of truckers put them in their glove compartments or what have you,” Bailey suggests. On the other hand, “lots of people have their phones on them 24/7.”

In the past, Bailey says, iPhones were not robust enough to handle these apps. But in the last few years, “there has been an incredible increase in the competition of apps out there,” he says. The initial uptake of the TDG and WHMIS Handbook apps, which have been around for more than two years, was a bit slow.

PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 27

PRODUCTS | MOBILE APPLICATIONS “But every month, we see an increase in sales. The more people get technology on their hands, the more phones people have on them, the more we see people buying [the apps],” Bailey says. Users of the TDG and/ or WHMIS Handbook apps include those from transportation, oil and gas and sectors involving loneworker operations.

There is even an app to help those who are tasked with purchasing safety equipment. For example, 3M’s Safety app, launched in 2014, provides access to more

than 2,400 3M personal-safety products. Jason Grouette, business manager of the personal safety division with 3M Canada in London, Ontario, says the app helps distributors, end users and safety managers choose the appropriate products to suit their needs.

Unlike other safety apps that provide an extensive list of products that users have to plough through to figure out what the best options are, 3M’s Safety app compiles a list of products and accessories that meet a user’s needs in any safety category. The search is refined by having the user answer some questions. The responses that the reader provides will narrow down the options from what could be in the hundreds to a manageable handful.

“We provide the information, but we make that information active by asking the user questions that allow them to select the appropriate product for them,” Grouette says of the app, which is free and built for the Canadian market. “We are very pleased with the uptake in the growth of the subscriber base. It has exceeded our expectations to date.”

Streamlining Information While many workplace-safety apps provide information, others help manage information and the incident-reporting process.

“Apps really help customers to manage the data that drive safety,” says Mark Jaine, chief executive officer with Intelex Technologies, a software-solutions provider in Toronto. “That also allows them, more importantly, to aggregate data and better understand their process in the organization, so that they can make positive changes to policies and procedures.”

Intelex’s web-based Safety Incident Reporting software provides a comprehensive and user-friendly tool to record, track and report all types of safety incidents, near-misses and dangerous conditions. “When a customer has an incident, they can follow up on it immediately and track preventive actions,” Jaine says. “On a long-term basis, they can try to analyze common causes of incidents.”

According to information from the company website, the app offers safetyincident-reporting forms, fields and workflow that can be easily configured to fit an organization’s incident-management process and make the reporting of safety incidents fast and easy. The app assigns to employees follow-up corrective and preventive action tasks related to reported

28 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

MOBILE APPLICATIONS | PRODUCTS safety incidents and near-misses, while automated email notifications and reminders drive employee accountability and task completion.

As well, real-time-performance dashboards and reports make it easy to benchmark safety-incident data and view a firm’s incident-performance metrics at a glance. Users can also fill out mandatory employer injury-reporting forms and print them, or electronically submit the forms to the respective regulatory bodies directly.

The Safety Incident Reporting app, which has been around since 1992, has a scaled-pricing model.

Depending on the level of sophistication required, the app’s capability ranges from providing the basic function of capturing and managing incidents to delivering more sophisticated functions, such as conducting deeper root-cause analysis and event reporting. “Our software and pricing is really built to scale from the smallest organization with 100 employees or less, to large, global Fortune-500 companies,” Jaine explains.

Ross points out that speed is one of the key advantages that safety apps offer. He cites the ProntoForms app as an example. “As opposed to the old way, they used to fill up forms, take it to office and [the forms] sit on somebody’s desks, and somebody will have to transcribe it, and it will take several days before the forms are properly processed. Now, it takes approximately an hour, and everything is done.”

to be wary of its quality,” Bailey concurs. “A lot of times, there are in-app purchases, which will eventually make the app not free.” As well, there may be a hidden agenda behind a free app. “They may be promoting something, they may be pushing you to an online service,” he adds, “or it may be very limited information [provided].”

Jaine contends that while customers are, by and large, cost-conscious, they are unlikely to be penny wise, pound foolish by compromising on quality. “I think people understand the necessity of having sophistication of a product, so they will spend money on it to make sure they get the right solution.”

‘‘

Free It Is Not While safety apps come in a range of prices, many of them are free. What does the price — or the lack thereof — say about the quality of an app?

Brun advises that companies looking at deploying these solutions need to think hard about what is most important to have on a mobile device, given the type of business that they are in. “Often, companies will be tempted to use the lower-cost or the free apps as a cost-saving tool.”

He cautions that some of these free apps may not be supported by a company, the data contained in or transmitted via the app may not be secured, the app may not be serviced or it may no longer work a few years down the road. “Companies that are looking to do safety on a mobile device should take a close look not only at the app itself, but the company behind the app and make sure that the company is there to offer support and training and has a high data-security system in place.”

Brun adds that an app that is not being updated regularly and is connected to the Internet can quickly become a liability. “Some people still think they can buy an app that uses Internet and not upgrade it for a while. That is really not a safe practice.” He recommends buyers to always check how frequently the provider is updating the app.

“If you are getting something free, you always have

ven though the E handbooks are quite small, a lot of truckers put them in their glove compartments or what have you,” Bailey suggests. On the other hand, “lots of people have their phones on them 24/7.

Location Matters Workplace safety in various industries is governed by complex regulatory frameworks and the applicable standards. There are also jurisdictional differences in legislation. For apps that serve primarily as information providers, such as those relating to safety legislation, consideration should be given to whether the provider is based in Canada or the United States.

Brun says many of the larger companies down south offer Canadian regulatory information on health and safety and the environment without necessarily understanding the regulatory framework in Canada. “In the United States, a lot of companies will copy and paste things from the government and do not necessarily understand them. On paper, they offer a regulatory service, but in reality, all they are doing are reprinting government communications, which is not value-adding to it.” The same could apply to Canadian providers, he adds.

’’

PIPELINE SPRING 2015 | 29

PRODUCTS | MOBILE APPLICATIONS

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT – HANDBOOK APPS In Canada, oil and gas products are transported through two major means: pipelines and trucks. According to a 2012 document, Transportation of Dangerous Goods in the Oilpatch from the government of Alberta, the province produces approximately 150,000 m3 of petroleum crude oil each day. Of these amounts, it is estimated that at least 10 per cent of the crude, which includes gas condensates, were transported by road daily.

While pipeline operations are regulated under the Pipeline Act, road traffic comes under the jurisdiction of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) Act and Regulations, which are applicable at any time dangerous goods are being transported.

Given the importance of having easy access to the TDG Act, Danatec

‘‘

Educational Services Ltd. offers the TDG Handbook app and the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System Handbook apps — both available from Apple’s iTunes store at $7.99 each.

Content in the apps, which work on Android, is clearly written, easy to understand and allows users to hyperlink to important websites and access relevant contact information. The TDG Handbook app includes a handy class guide, placarding guide and checklist for quick reference to TDG requirements.

Employees can use the app during a TDG training program and refer to it afterward for details about classification, shipping documents, labels, placards, containers, special situations or reporting an emergency. There is also a section on requirements for trans-border shipments and a glossary of TDG terms.

As well, the country in which the data is being hosted could become a relevant factor in the event of a workplace incident. “If the data is sitting on United States-based servers, there is a bunch of legal implications in terms of who can access it, subpoenas and things like that,” Brun cautions.

“It is very important that the information you are looking at has been tailored for your geography,” Grouette advises. “With our app, we are very careful to make sure that it does meet the needs of the users in our marketplace,” he says of the 3M Safety app.

The best place to start when selecting apps is to identify the business or safety problem that needs to be addressed and determine what needs to be achieved. ”Most of our clients come from the compliance perspective, so they have got regulatory requirements, they want to be in compliance,” says Elie Mouzon,

eople can’t afford to P fill up forms on paper anymore.

30 | SPRING 2015 PIPELINE

Warren Bailey, director of marketing with Danatec Educational Services Ltd. in Calgary, says the app would be updated whenever regulatory changes are made.

vice-president of environment, health, safety and quality solutions with Intelex.

As a company matures, its safety needs might have changed and it could start looking at more proactive apps that offer safety and job-hazard analysis. “So they will start reinforcing their training-management process, and maybe, they are going to buy apps around that.” As such, changing regulations and a company’s evolving safety needs determine when apps outgrow their usefulness, Mouzon adds.

Involving end users in the selection process is also key. Brun encourages companies to try out a bunch of different solutions from the app store, gain a better understanding of the apps through webinars and product demonstrations and obtain references from the app providers to see if there are other clients in a similar industry using the app. All these will help determine if the app is a good product.

That said, apps cannot replace stand-alone devices when it comes to the detection of dangerous gases like hydrogen sulphide that occurs naturally in crude petroleum and natural gas.

“I don’t think you would trust a phone app for that, plus it would not have the technology in it for certain things like that,” Bailey says.

Jean Lian is the editor of Pipeline Magazine. Follow us on Twitter@PipelineOHS.

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As professionals who use our equipment, you are the true field experts helping to drive our innovation and product development. With your input, 3M introduces a new line of harnesses: the 3M™ Economy Harness. It is an economical harness that delivers superior fit, comfort, adjustability and

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3M is a trademark and The Power to Protect Your World is a service mark of 3M. Used under license in Canada. © 3M, 2015. All rights reserved. 1503-00746 E BA-15-19977