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Roy O’Rourke was recently appointed as executive vice-president and general manager of the Construction Safety Association of Ontario. The following is an interview provided by the CSAO.
Roy O’Rourke was recently appointed as executive vice-president and general manager of the Construction Safety Association of Ontario. The following is an interview provided by the CSAO.
Q. How has the labour-management network changed over the years?
Roy O’Rourke: It has grown dramatically since I was a labour-management co-ordinator in the 80s. There were only 12 regional committees back then. There were no trade committees, other than an informal electrical committee.
At that time, the regional committees drove the network’s agenda. Right now the provincial committee drives the agenda. That’s one thing I’d like to see return —the regional and trade committees bringing their concerns to the provincial committee, instead of the provincial directing matters their way for review.
Committees would also host regional seminars fairly frequently back then. This tradition has almost vanished from the network. It was common for Sarnia, Windsor, Ottawa, or any committee to sponsor an evening on fall protection, or an evening on stress in the workplace. They’d get a speaker and a large number of people would show up. Each committee must have done something like that once or twice a year. Those events gave the committees a high profile in their regions. I think the committees have lost that profile somewhat.
Q. What direction will you set as general manager?
O’Rourke: I’d like CSAO to be more attuned to the residential sector’s needs. In the past, our products and programs have been geared towards the ICI sector. I mean, those same principles of construction health and safety are still valid in homebuilding, but we need to provide examples and scenarios that a homebuilder can relate to. There are differences, and CSAO has to address those differences while continuing to support the work being done in other sectors.
In general, CSAO needs to be more responsive to changing circumstances. One way to be more effective in bringing down the numbers of injuries, illnesses, and deaths is for CSAO to take its cue from the most serious problems on jobsites. If falls are the major killer, then we need to focus our training and other programs on falls. Maybe the next year it will be something else. Well, then we focus on that. As the facts change, CSAO needs to change and be more responsive.
I think CSAO should be more aggressive. I mean, we produce high-quality materials that are second to none. However, it does seem to take a long time to get new products such as videos, manuals, and training programs out to the industry. I would like to see our development processes move more quickly.
So I’d like to see CSAO pilot more of its work earlier — to get the information in the hands of the industry sooner — understanding that there will be changes and updates and evolution as time goes on.
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