Changes to Alberta’s occupational health and safety (OH&S) system that are scheduled to come into effect on June 1, 2018 will see regulators placing more emphasis on worker and supervisor competency
A champion of competency development for non-regulated occupations in the oil patch since the mid-1990s – specifically in the areas of well testing, snubbing and transportation – the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) is urging more organizations to adopt industry-wide competency standards.
“With public scrutiny on the energy sector at unprecedented levels, it is essential that we showcase responsible energy development,” says outgoing PSAC President & CEO Mark Salkeld. “Reflecting these current realities, interest from our member companies to pursue national standards for worker and supervisor competencies is on the rise,” he adds.
“Our members are telling us that they want these standards and want us to support a program that unquestionably improves safety, efficiency, and productivity,” Salkeld reports, “while going a long way to ensure all workers go home safely at the end of every shift.”
The Petroleum Competency Program (PCP) provides occupational competency standards for key industry positions leading to a Designated Occupation, equal in status to a Journeyman certificate in a trade. Competencies are determined through skill assessment on the job and through interviews.
Competence is defined in Alberta’s OHS legislation as “adequately qualified, suitably trained and with sufficient experience to safely perform work without supervision, or with only a minimal degree of supervision.”
While all companies hire qualified personnel and most train their people from within – effectively having their own set of standards at a local level – the question remains: Would that be enough to pass regulatory scrutiny should a worksite incident occur?
“We train our workers, but how do we know they actually understood what we told them and can perform under the most arduous of circumstances,” Salkeld asks. “And are those company training standards consistent with what regulators are looking for?”
Following any incident, investigators will ask for documents to prove that the worker was competent at the task they were performing,
“At that point, producers in the oil patch begin scrambling with their service companies to find evidence that proves the worker was assessed as competent, and that the assessor has documents to prove they are competent assessors,” Salkeld says.
Alternatively, the PCP, modelled after a similar standard in the United Kingdom, showcases the robust competency program for non-regulated occupations and demonstrates a consistency that the provincial and federal governments – as well as the public – want to see.
Industry competency standards leading to designated occupations puts everyone on the same page – with no surprises attached — and helps companies identify where any gaps in competence may lie.
“The program comes with a price tag that might seem unattractive, especially during these challenging times in the oil patch, but it would take just one event to ramp up the costs of doing business for the industry,” explains incoming PSAC President Tom Whalen.
“While the Government of Alberta is supporting our competency efforts behind the scenes and making compliance voluntary, one serious incident could mean more mandatory regulatory checks and balances – along with audits and documentation requirements – which would add yet another layer of cost and time to an already hard-pressed industry,” Whalen says.
“Yes, it’s difficult when the industry is in a low, but at a time when we are really under the microscope, that’s the time to be proactive. At the end of the day, it’s really just good business sense to create competency standards right across the board.”
PSAC looks forward to hearing from the industry on this important initiative.
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