Workplace Safety North opens registration for Health and Safety Excellence program

NORTH BAY, ONT. — As an approved provider of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s (WSIB) Health and Safety Excellence program, Workplace Safety North (WSN) is now inviting organizations to apply.

Registration for the program, which guides and rewards businesses for the activities undertaken to help keep workers and the public safe, is open until Feb. 18. The program helps businesses develop their own workplace health and safety programs, network, all with the potential for earning a WSIB premium rebate, states a release.

When asked how the excellence program affected the workplace, Ryan Mackett, communications manager with the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority in Thunder Bay, said the program has had a positive impact and health and safety culture has become top of mind for everybody.

“We’re fairly collaborative in how we develop or decide which policies we need, so it’s really brought health and safety to the forefront,” he said in a release. “We’ve gone almost a complete 180 as an organization. Before, safety was hardly talked about, now, it’s what we lead with. Everybody needs to buy in and take part in our health safety program. That’s a mandatory condition of employment here now.”