Community leaders are coming together to continue to make Nova Scotia the safest place to work in the country.

As part of the workplace safety strategy, the province and the Workers’ Compensation Board are encouraging community leaders to commit to making workplaces safer.

“We need to work together, as community leaders, if we want to really improve our workplace safety,” said Labour and Advanced Education Minister Kelly Regan. “Some great work has been done to date, but we know encouraging leaders to get involved in safety is how we can start to see significant changes.”

Ms. Regan joined Workers’ Compensation Board CEO Stuart MacLean and board of directors chair Elaine Sibson, to host about 170 public and private sector leaders at a Leadership Matters conference in Halifax, today, Nov. 7, to discuss how community leaders can get more involved.

“Safety champions must emerge from all sectors around the province if we want to be the safest place to work in Canada,” said Mr. MacLean. “Having these pivotal leaders on board will help make the difference our province needs.”

Many businesses across the province have leaders who are already proving the value of safety champions in the workplace.

“At all times, the safety of our employees is a top priority,” said Robert Patzelt, senior vice president, corporate development with Scotia Investments Limited. “We’ve learned that when leadership at all levels keeps workplace safety top of mind, you move from control through compliance to a shared commitment that sticks and results in better safe work practices.”

One of the strategy’s four goals is to have visible leadership commitment to workplace safety. Nova Scotians are making this happen by rewarding workers and employers for safe work practices, and creating more opportunities for workers and employers to lead safety excellence.

For a copy of the new strategy, visit http://novascotia.ca/lae/documents/WorkplaceSafetyStrategy.pdf .

Source: Release