Ontario Construction News staff writer
This month the Ontario Road Builders’ Association (ORBA) will present three webinars covering health and safety, paperless technologies and the greater construction sectors approach to getting Ontario’s economy moving again.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ORBA first launched its weekly webinar series, COVID-19 and The Road Building Industry, on May 1. The complimentary series is aimed at providing expertise from health and safety, technology, human resources, legal and financial sectors to assist the industry as it maneuvers through the rapidly changing business landscape in the midst of the pandemic.
“We are here to provide our members and industry stakeholders with the resources and expertise they need to continue to steer through the unprecedented challenges they are facing, and will continue to face, post COVID-19,” said ORBA Chief Executive Officer Bryan Hocking. “Health and safety are our top priority as an association and industry. Therefore, we are starting off the month of June with a second webinar focusing on occupational health and safety.”
Continuing with themes from the first webinar of the series, Occupational Health and Safety – What Inspectors are looking for and how to prepare, the fifth webinar in the series, Occupational Health & Safety – The Next Level, will take place on Friday, June 5 from noon to 1:00 p.m.
Highlights from this webinar will include:
- IHSA COVID-19 site consultation results and trends.
- COVID Response – How are companies managing training?
- Job Hazard Analysis – Best practices for improving safety communication to your crew.
- Internal Traffic Protection Plans – Safety “inside the barrels.”
- Policy for “safe return to work for an employee who has tested positive.”
- Thermal Screening
Expert panel will feature:
Stewart Day, health and safety director, Mobilinx; Paul Devoe, manager, regional operations North and West, IHSA; John Savoia, senior manager, health and safety, Powell Group of Companies; John Serafini, manager, health and safety, Dufferin Construction Company/Demix Construction, a division of CRH Canada Group Inc.; and Jason Warren, HSE director, Dragados Canada.
The sixth webinar, How to prepare for the Electronic Logging Device Mandate and Navigating Paperless Operations and Technologies, will take place on June 12, from noon to 1:00 p.m.. This webinar will expand on how COVID-19 has affected the job site and discuss available tools and technologies to help navigate new safety measures required for work.
Highlights from this webinar will include:
- How can companies prepare for the Electronic Logging Device federal mandate and what are the available resources to help?
- How can job sites minimize exposure to, and help prevent the spread of COVID-19?
- What kind of tools support going paperless?
- What resources are available to make the transition to paperless operations?
- In the long run, how will the construction industry change?
- How to ensure safe handling of paper tickets.
Expert panel will feature: Bob Ferrall, vice-president of sales and operations, Descartes; Noah Dology, CEO and founder, Tread Inc.
The final webinar of the series will be Getting Ontario’s Economy Moving – The Greater Construction Sector’s Approach and will take place on June 26, from noon to 1:00 p.m. This webinar will provide insight from a diverse representation of the construction sector to provide insight into how the industry has maneuvered through this time to keep Ontario moving and their outlook and approach as Ontario’s economy begins to reopen.
Expert panel will feature: Rocky Coco, president, Coco Group; Michael Rugeroni, vice-president of sales-road and minerals, Brandt Tractor Ltd.; David Smith, senior vice-president and jead of Canadian surety, The Guarantee Company of North America; Chris Campbell, Americas Asphalt technical advisor, Imperial Oil.
“The COVID-19 and The Road Building Industry webinar series is a fantastic resource,” Hocking said. “We are pleased to offer a free webinar library archive that is available on our website.” “ORBA also plans to offer webinars beyond this current series and we are looking forward to providing those details soon.”
For more information on ORBA’s COVID-19 and The Road Building Industry Webinar Series visit: https://orba.org/weekly-webinar-series-covid-19-the-road-building-industry.