Yellowknife (Jun 30/06) - Dogged by questions over workplace safety, City Hall is launching a "safety audit" of all departments under its purview, beginning early next month.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem believes the city provides a safe work environment but he said questions raised by former union local president Norm Smith during a council meeting last March need to be addressed.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem says questions raised by former union local president Norm Smith during a council meeting last March need to be addressed.

"There were questions raised by the union president. We were unable to substantiate them but that creates a perception among some people that there may be something there," said Van Tighem.

Smith represented city workers through the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) but no longer works for the city according to the mayor. He presented a litany of examples to council as evidence city employees were not safe.

His concerns included: a lack of training for workers at the dump and public works garage; long working hours of up to 80 hours over two weeks for workers at the Multiplex; unreported accidents; and a workforce stretched too thin.

According to figures obtained by Yellowknifer, city workers are four times more likely to be injured on the job compared to several Alberta communities, such as Cold Lake, Grande Prairie and St. Albert.

Van Tighem said an Edmonton-based company was hired to conduct the audit, which he expects will take a couple weeks to complete.

He said the firm will look at city policies and procedures on safety, investigate work sites and make recommendations.

While Van Tighem said he wants to address the perception problem, he was unsure whether the audit will be made public.

He said it was possible city employees and anyone else who does business with City Hall may see big changes at work if the company comes up with major recommendations.

"To me it has to extend beyond city employees because there are contractors who work for the city, there are people who do volunteer work for the city, and so on," said Van Tighem.

"It's suppose to set a regimen to expand the safety consciousness of all of that."

He added that the city recently joined the Alberta Municipal Health and Safety Association, a group that offers courses and educational material for workplace safety. There are several such groups found across Canada.

City councillor Blake Lyons, who was highly critical of Smith's presentation before council, wonders why the union's concerns were not raised earlier if the city's safety problems were so serious.

"I had the minutes of the previous (city occupational health and safety committee) meetings and there was no mention of these things," said Lyons.

"(The union) signed off on those, and there were no problems reported then."

The union's complaints fell on the heels of a dozen safety orders and charges filed against the city and fire department chief Mick Beauchamp and deputy (now acting chief) Darcy Hernblad in deaths of firefighters Lt. Cyril Fyfe and Kevin Olson, who were killed in a small shed fire, March 17, 2005.

Neither Smith nor anyone else with PSAC could be reached for comment.