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City of Iqaluit fails safety standards

City lacking in worker training, investigating accidents

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

City councillors in Iqaluit don't always get to see what the city pays for.

Nunatsiaq News has learned that council approved funding this summer for an audit of the municipality's hot-button issue of health and safety. As it turns out, until now, only city administrators would see that the city had failed to meet safety standards set by the Workers' Compensation Board.

Past council members, who were grappling with public backlash over pedestrians being killed by city vehicles, never saw the city's first occupational health and safety audit, done in early July. The audit showed where the municipality was failing to follow health and safety procedures, and how it could improve.

The audit gave the city a failing grade in three areas, including training workers, investigating accidents, and providing adequate hazard control, such as monitoring whether workers are exposed to dangerous chemicals. In light of the poor grades, the auditor recommended the city immediately begin formal training of the safe operation and inspection of all equipment, particularly city vehicles.

The auditor, a Toronto consultant who specializes in health and safety audits, also urged the city to begin training employees immediately on how to investigate all accidents, whether minor or fatal.

While the auditor said in an interview that he found workers who had the training to investigate workplace and work-related accidents, he said a communication breakdown between personnel and management led administration to believe they had no one qualified to do so.

Until last month, city officials said they didn't have someone trained to investigate accidents. Consequently, the city did not review, or at least did not document, what safety procedures may have been violated in the three fatal accidents involving municipal vehicles over the past three years.

City administration said the audit has prompted several improvements, including a training session in October on accident investigation.

Administration said it also funded an air-brakes and level-three driving course and test. The city's health and safety committee, a group of municipal administrators, staff and public works foremen, are also working on an orientation package for new employees. The audit had criticized the city for having no formal orientation up until July.

Lack of documentation was one of the city's largest faults in the audit. Nearly every low score is followed by comments about the need to write down what safety procedures are being followed. The report notes that workplace inspections are informal, and not documented; the city is missing documentation on equipment procedures; there is no written proof of training; and there is no measure of how effective the training is.

The audit also points out that supervisors were not writing down regular equipment inspections, and that they lacked training in safety issues.

Moreover, the report indicated that some workers were not familiar with the city's safety policy. According to their former director, public works employees have yet to receive a form clarifying their overall responsibilities in health and safety.

As for bad marks given for the absence of documentation in public works, former director Jim Grittner said he was to blame.

Grittner said a lot of safety procedures, including documentation, changed after the fatal accident in April when four-year-old Sheila Mathewsie was hit and killed by a sewage truck.

"Drivers weren't challenged every day [to turn in their vehicle inspection reports]," said Grittner, who was fired this month. "Now they're being challenged. Now you're not supposed to be driving until it's handed in."

Since the accident, Grittner said mechanics must tune up tires and brakes on every city vehicle, every week.

Grittner encouraged the city to take its poor showing in the audit as further reason to hire a full-time health and safety officer.

"In this world of safety and lawsuits, you have to have one," he said.

Despite the city's obvious shortcomings, the report's author said the public shouldn't be overly concerned about the results.

Tim Favery, a health and safety consultant with Dillon Consulting, said he was concerned that his work would be misinterpreted.

"If someone wasn't clear on what the intent of an audit tool like this is, they could interpret it as 'the city is ... unsafe, is the worst place to work, it's breaking the law,'" Favery said. "Now if I was to go back and do the same audit, it could have totally different scores because the city may have done things."

One former councillor suggested the audit should have been made public sooner to help the city improve its safety record.

Former councillor Keith Irving warned the incoming council that it should be vigilant in ensuring that it gets to see any reports it approves.

"For council to make decisions about public safety, [they] need to know where problems are," he said. "For me, to hear about this after we leave is a major concern."

Administration said it decided not to share the audit with the past council because of the timing of the election.

Chief Administrative Officer Ian Fremantle said work still remained to be done on the audit's recommendations, and couldn't be fully implementing until current restructuring was finished. This refers, in part, to the firing of former public works director Jim Grittner, and future hiring of someone to oversee safety issues within the city.

"In actual fact, administration has formalized a plan on how to put [the audit recommendations] in place," Fremantle said. "There are still some issues to be dealt with and when all the restructuring has been done, I'll be happy to talk about it."

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