Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 06/00) - A series of activities during North American Health Occupational Health and Safety Week earlier this year has paid off for staff at Inuvik Gas Ltd.

Last week David Clark, director of prevention services with the Workers' Compensation Board, was in town to present the company with the Employer Recognition Award. During a presentation at the Finto Inn, Clark said this award is new this year.

"We recognize small employers with less than 20 employees, 20-49 employees, and larger employers," Clark said. "We have six awards, three in Nunavut and three in the Northwest Territories. Inuvik Gas was the winner in the under 20."

Clark praised the commitment to safety shown by staff during health and safety week, which was held in May.

"That's one thing about being a regulator, you can never legislate anyone's commitment when it comes to operating safely," Clark said.

"I always talk about where do you want to pay for your injuries. You pay for them up front and you pay for them out back, and most companies tend to pay for them at the back end."

After the presentation, Lyle Neis, general manager of Inuvik Gas Ltd., described some of the things staff did during health and safety week.

"We started off with an employee safety meeting on Monday morning to sort of kick off the week. Every day we had a safety meeting that one of the staff would chair," Neis said.

"We had CPR and safety training. We had a work emergency exercise, where we tested our own system, how we respond to things," he explained.

"We also had an open house at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex, (to) which we invited Gas and Electrical Services. They had some displays, they would talk about electrical and gas safety, and then our own efforts as well," Neis said.

"There were some questionnaires and some brief and fun exams. At the very end of the week we put together the package of answers to the questions, and our own safety statements, what we do for our own safety program.

"We sent that off to the Workers' Compensation Board."