Pipeline Summer 2014

C A N A D A’ S O I L A N D G A S S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E

PIPELINE

SUMMER 2014

WINDSOF CHANGE Remote work camps continue their evolution

JOB BOOM

Northern Gateway approval to spur demand for skilled trades

HELPING HAND

Distributors provide the personal touch to manufacturers, end users

ON ALERT

Small changes can help keep workers wide awake

| CONTENTS

PIPELINE Vol. 2, No. 3 SUMMER 2014

DEPARTMENTS

4 A New Outlook EDITORIAL

6 9

IN THE NEWS

BY THE NUMBERS

FEATURES

10 Home Away From Home REMOTE WORK CAMPS

Remote work camps have come a long way. Although today’s camps are much more technologically advanced, there is still a growing trend to improve, as a way of attracting and keeping employees.

16 Northern Gateway NORTHERN GATEWAY

Pipeline Approved

After much debate and controversy, the federal government has approved Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline. While concerns remain, proponents say the project will create thousands of jobs.

PRODUCTS

18 The Missing Link

10

10

DISTRIBUTORS

The search for the right personal protective equipment can be a daunting one. Distributors can often provide assistance, not only to manufacturers, but to end users.

SHOWS

24 28

PETROLEUM SAFETY CONFERENCE GLOBAL PETROLEUM SHOW

28

24 PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 3

EDITORIAL |

A NEW OUTLOOK

W

elcome to the Summer 2014 issue of Pipeline Magazine, a publication dedicated to occupational health and safety in Canada’s oil and gas industry. This issue will take a look at the Northern Gateway pipeline approval, remote work camps and distributors of personal protective equipment.

We’ll also look at two recent oil and gas shows: the Petroleum Safety Conference and the Global Petroleum Show.

My first introduction to remote work camps was not a pleasant one.

A few years ago, I wrote a feature article for OHS Canada Magazine, which focused on a group of 55 tree planters who had alleged horrible mistreatment at a work camp in Golden, B.C. Besides being forced to sleep in wet, insect-infested shipping containers, the African workers said they were subjected to racial taunts and slurs and even had their wages withheld.

This May, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal agreed that they were grossly mistreated, even saying that the bathroom facilities at the camp, in which toilet paper was not provided to workers, were comparable to “conditions on the slave ships.” The tribunal awarded $10,000 to each worker, plus $1,000 for every month the company employed them. The total amount, including one award to a white worker who was sexually harassed, was close to $700,000.

This case has been dragging on since the workers were discovered in July 2010.

Months later, the Ministry of Labour’s Employment Standards Branch ordered the employer, Khaira Enterprises Ltd., to pay about $229,000 for violations. To date, the government has collected about $130,000. It has also been reported that the company has filed for bankruptcy.

This is a common complaint that I hear when I interview people about such cases — it’s hard to prosecute these negligent employers; they simply close up shop and set up another company under a different name. When the government succeeds in prosecuting, it’s even harder to collect money. Indeed, these workers had

Jason Contant Editor jcontant@ohscanada.com 4 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

not received any money when I wrote my story months after their discovery, and the B.C. Federation of Labour says that they have yet to see a dime.

So I must admit I was shocked when I read my freelance writer’s article on remote camps in the oil and gas industry (“Home Away From Home,” featured on page 10 of this edition of Pipeline Magazine). I knew that the Khaira case was the exception, rather than the rule, but my sense was that these camps still largely consisted of plain trailers and little in the way of amenities.

I had no idea that remote camps featured golf simulators, yoga rooms, Wi-Fi, large screen TVs and five-star chefs. In the Khaira case, I remember that the workers complained about inadequate and unappealing food, a far cry from many remote work camps in the oil and gas sector.

It’s understandable that good food can make or break the remote camp experience, especially considering the long, physically demanding jobs that these workers do. And now, some camps even feature healthy food programs to inform workers about what constitutes a healthy diet.

And unlike the atrocious bathroom conditions at the Khaira camp, many remote camps in the oil and gas sector now have private bathrooms.

Considering the rotational work and separation periods from friends and family, it’s no surprise that it can be a challenge to attract — and keep — workers. But after my horrible introduction to remote work camps, it’s refreshing to see camp providers putting considerable effort into the comfort of workers.

PIPELINE Vol. 2, No. 3 SUMMER 2014 EDITOR JASON CONTANT

jcontant@ohscanada.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JEAN LIAN (OHS CANADA MAGAZINE) jlian@ohscanada.com CONTRIBUTING ASSISTANT EDITOR CARMELLE WOLFSON (OHS CANADA MAGAZINE) cwolfson@ohscanada.com JEFF COTTRILL EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

jcottrill@ohscanada.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR WILLIAM M. GLENN Hazardous substances MARK RYAN

ART DIRECTOR PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER MARKETING SPECIALIST CIRCULATION MANAGER

PHYLLIS WRIGHT GARY WHITE DIMITRY EPELBAUM BARBARA ADELT

badelt@bizinfogroup.ca ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER (OHS CANADA MAGAZINE) PUBLISHER

PRESIDENT, BUSINESS INFORMATION GROUP

SHEILA HEMSLEY shemsley@ohscanada.com PETER BOXER pboxer@ohscanada.com BRUCE CREIGHTON

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

DAVID IRETON, Safety Professional, Brampton, Ont. ALLAN JOHNSON, Director of Construction, Hospitality, Oil and Gas, Workers’ Compensation Board of B.C., Vancouver, B.C. JANE LEMKE, Program Manager, OHN Certification Program, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ont. DON MITCHELL, Safety Consultant, Mississauga, Ont. MICHELE PARENT, National Manager, Risk Management and Health and Wellness, Standard Life, Montreal, Que. TERRY RYAN, Workers’ Compensation and Safety Consultant, TRC Group Inc., Mississauga, Ont. DON SAYERS, Principal Consultant, Don Sayers & Associates, Hanwell, N.B. DAVID SHANE, National Director, Health and Safety, Canada Post Corporation, Ottawa, Ont. HENRY SKJERVEN, President, The Skjerven Cattle Company Ltd., Wynyard, Sask.

PETER STRAHLENDORF, Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Health, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ont. JONATHAN TYSON, Association of Canadian Ergonomists/Association canadienne d’ergonomie, North Bay, Ont.

PIPELINE is the magazine for people who make decisions about health and safety in

Canada’s oil and gas industry. It is designed to keep workers, managers and safety professionals informed on issues in the sector, up to date on new developments and in touch with current thinking in the oh&s community.

WEBSITE: http://www.pipelinemagazine.ca INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS contained in this publication have been compiled from sources believed to be reliable and to be representative of the best current opinion on the subject. No warranty, guarantee, nor representation is made

by Business Information Group as to the absolute correctness or sufficiency of any representation contained in this publication.

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Date of issue: SUMMER 2014.

IN THE NEWS |

>> FEDS ENHANCE PIPELINE SAFETY SYSTEM On May 14, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Greg Rickford, joined federal Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt in announcing new measures to enhance the country’s pipeline safety system.

THE MEASURES INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

• Introducing absolute liability for all National Energy Board (NEB)-regulated pipelines, meaning companies will be liable for costs and damages irrespective of fault ($1 billion for major oil pipelines; companies continue to have unlimited liability when at fault or negligent); • Developing a strategy with industry and Aboriginal communities to increase participation in pipeline safety operations, including planning, monitoring, incident response and related employment and business opportunities; •P roviding the NEB the authority to order reimbursement of any cleanup costs incurred by governments, communities or individuals; • G iving the NEB the ability to provide guidance on the use of the best available technologies used in federally regulated pipeline projects, including materials, construction methods and emergency

FIRST-EVER ENERGY COUNCIL MEETING Canada’s largest private sector union, Unifor, held its first-ever Energy Council meeting on May 28 in Montreal.

In attendance were 110 delegates from 100 bargaining units, representing more than 14,000 members in the energy sector, Unifor says in a press release.

During the meeting, energy sector director Brian Campbell reported on the need for more organization in the energy sector. He reported that there are several issues facing the industry, but that rail and pipeline transportation tends to grab the most headlines. Campbell also said Unifor is against raw bitumen being transported out of the country for processing, which is costing thousands of jobs in Canada.

6 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

response techniques; and •P roviding the NEB the authority and resources to assume control of incident response if a company is unable or unwilling to do so (in exceptional circumstances).

“These new measures enhance Canada’s already world-class pipeline safety system and built on the principles of incident prevention, preparedness and liability,” Rickford said in a statement.

Alberta Premier Dave Hancock applauds the announcement, saying that pipelines are a safe, efficient and reliable way to move oil and gas products. “These actions build on the principles of prevention, liability and preparedness and also recognize that meaningful Aboriginal participation in pipeline safety discussions is imperative,” Hancock says in a press release.

“The future of our energy industry rests with our reputation to act on initiatives to protect our environment and consider the important role of Aboriginal participation,” he said.

Currently, 99.999 per cent of oil and petroleum product transported on federally regulated pipelines is carried out safely, the federal government statement noted.

>> OFFICER INJURED IN ANTI-PIPELINE PROTEST An officer with the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) was sent to hospital after he was struck by a car.

Early in the afternoon of June 8, the motorcycle officer was escorting an antipipeline demonstration through Vancouver when the vehicle struck him at Cypress and Cornwall Streets, the VPD says in a press release.

The officer was struck by a driver who made a U-turn into his path.

The VPD reports that the collision knocked the officer off his motorcycle, resulting in several injuries. He was taken to hospital with a knee fracture, which required surgery.

The driver remained at the scene and is cooperating with the investigation, the press release says.

SUNCOR SEES FOURTH FATALITY OF 2014 A worker fatality at Suncor Energy in is the fourth death at the company’s Fort McMurray, Alta. worksite since the beginning of the year.

On June 2, a 37-year-old employee of North American Construction Group (NACG) was performing maintenance work on a dozer at Suncor’s Steep Bank Millennium mine, near Fort McMurray, when he was struck in the head by a sump pan, says Brookes Merritt, public affairs officer with Alberta’s Ministry of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour. The employee was taken to Northern Lights Regional Health Centre, where he was later pronounced deceased.

NACG says in a statement that the company’s emergency response personnel responded to the incident at about 10 a.m. and found the severely injured worker. The company is working with the appropriate authorities and will complete a full investigation into the cause of the incident, NACG says in a media statement.

The company, which provides heavy construction and mining services in Canada and maintains one of the largest independently owned equipment fleets in the oilpatch, says that the worker was an out-ofprovince employee, but declines to release his name.

The fatality is the latest in a series of deaths at the Suncor facility near Fort McMurray. On May 7, 36-yearold instrumentation technician Lorna Weafer was attacked and fatally wounded by a black bear on her way back from a washroom break. Her coworkers tried to scare the bear off, and although the animal did retreat occasionally, it kept returning.

On April 20, another instrumentation tech, Shane Daye, 27, was electrocuted while performing voltage testing.

On Jan. 19, 40-year-old Jerry Cooper was discovered deceased in a pool of sand and water after going to check on a pipeline leak.

| IN THE NEWS

>> OILSANDS SECTOR TO SEE ABOUT 100,000 JOBS BY 2023 Nearly 100,000 jobs in the oilsands construction, maintenance and operations fields will be generated over the next decade in Canada, a new report suggests.

The Oil Sands Construction, Maintenance and Operations Labour Demand Outlook to 2023 report, released on May 28, says that the oilsands sector will generate about 72,810 direct construction and operations jobs this year, with 46,260 of these jobs within aggregated oilsands construction (which includes new and sustaining construction, maintenance and operations).

The remaining 26,550 jobs will be direct oilsands operations jobs, supporting insitu, mining and upgrading production.

According to the report, workforce demands for oilsands construction and operations will reach 98,380 by 2023,

not accounting for age-related attrition and turnover.

“Occupations facing the greatest job increases due to industry activity in oilsands operations are power engineers, heavy equipment operators and petroleum engineers,” says a statement from the Petroleum Human Resources Council, a division of Enform. “More than 10,000 new jobs are projected for in-situ operations, a 91 per cent increase over 2014 employment levels.”

The report says that over the next decade, employment within oilsands operations is expected to grow by 15,330 new jobs, for total employment of about 41,880. Construction jobs are expected to dip slightly after 2019 by 6,170 jobs, if no additional oilsands expansion proj-

ects are announced. As workers retire, attrition has the potential to drive a significant number of job openings over the next decade, as Alberta could lose 37,500 skilled construction workers and 6,400 in oilsands operations due to retirements over the next decade, the statement adds.

“Alberta, already facing a tight labour market with an unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent, is increasingly competing for key trades and occupations as other resource, infrastructure and engineering projects across the country get underway,” the statement says, pointing to boilermakers, carpenters, electricians and labourers as specific construction occupations under pressure.

The report can be read online at www. careersinoilandgas.com.

PROGRAM HELPS CONNECT STUDENTS TO ENERGY SECTOR The province of Nova Scotia has teamed up with local energy sector companies to help students gain valuable experience in the industry.

“Programs that connect employers and students in the energy sector encourage innovation and growth in our province,” Nova Scotia Energy Minister Andrew Younger says in a press release. “Employers benefit from a cost-effective way to recruit new talent, while students gain valuable skills and work experience to help set them up for success in the highly skilled energy sector workforce.”

The energy department’s training program for students provides small- to medium-sized energy sector businesses with a 50 per cent wage subsidy up to $7.50 per hour for students and recent graduates in Nova Scotia, the release says.

Wage subsidies are available to businesses involved in the onshore or offshore energy sector or renewable energy resources for the summer session, from May 5 to Aug. 29.

“Thanks to this program, we gained an opportunity to work with an enthusiastic, hard-working student,” says Andrea Creemer, production engineer at Halifax-based Corridor Resources. “We were so impressed with the calibre of our co-op student that we plan to re-hire him for another work term, based on the value he added to our program.”

Since 2002, 358 students and 118 companies have participated in this program. Between 2010 and 2013, employers retained 32 per cent of students.

For more information, visit http://novascotia.ca/energy/ careers-training/energy-training-program.asp.

>> STUDY PROBES DRILLING EFFECTS ON GROUNDWATER A hydrogeological characterization study conducted by Quebec’s Centre Eau Terre Environnement has found that the drilling activities of Quebec oil exploration company Pétrolia have not affected the quality of water samples in the city of Gaspé.

The study, conducted by independent experts to examine the risk of groundwater quality degradation as linked to oil and gas exploration and extraction, also confirms that the risk of drinking water contamination is low and can be mitigated by standard measures, Pétrolia says

in a media statement. To mitigate the environmental risk, the company installed observation wells in the bedrock aquifer to carefully monitor the condition of the groundwater layer and also installed a watertight membrane under a drilling site, known as Haldimand 4, to limit the risk of liquid escaping to the surface.

Pétrolia will also ensure careful management of its drilling fluid transport, transfer and storage operations, the statement notes, adding that a toxicological

study last year found that none of the products used in drilling fluids at Haldimand 4 posed a toxicity risk.

“The proposed Haldimand 4 well is a conventional well for the extraction of conventional oil, performed with standard equipment and without hydraulic fracking,” says Alexandre Gagnon, executive vice-president of Pétrolia.

The company says that the project could represent about $800 million in revenue, including nearly $200 million in royalties for the Quebec government.

PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 7

IN THE NEWS |

>> GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES TO DEVELOP FRACKING REGS The government of the Northwest Territories has announced that it will begin developing regulations that will set out filing requirements for projects involving hydraulic fracturing.

David Ramsey, the Minister of Justice and Industry, Tourism and Investment, said on June 2 that the government had worked on the issue since 2012 and had already undertaken research into environmental best practices used by industry and regulators in other jurisdictions.

The government will also consult with MLAs, the public, Aboriginal communities, industry, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders.

“This is an important issue, and we are putting together a plan for how we will proceed. Developing a made-in-theNorth regulatory system that promotes responsible, sustainable management of our natural resources and protection of the land and environment is an ongoing process,” Ramsey says.

The regulations, to be developed under the Oil and Gas Operations Act, will provide clarity to decision makers, industry and the public about filing requirements, ensuring that proponents understand NWT expectations before they prepare their applications.

The process of fracking has spurred worker safety concerns, particularly around the risk of exposure to silica. “We are all aware of the proposed hydraulic fracturing activities in the Canol Shale

and the often heated and polarized debate around the use of hydraulic fracturing as a technique to extract petroleum from certain kinds of rock formations,” Ramsay says, noting that the Canol Shale holds an estimated two to three billion barrels of oil.

He says that the government will provide more details on how it will proceed with the development of regulations and timelines for consultation in late June.

The announcement came around the same time that Yukon’s Select Committee Regarding the Risks and Benefits of Hydraulic Fracturing said that it would travel to 12 communities in the territory from June 23 to 26 to hold public hearings, with the mandate of developing a science-based understanding of hydraulic fracturing.

Dr. Brendan Hanley, Yukon’s chief medical officer of health, says that some of the industrial chemicals used in the fracking process are carcinogenic, but the “real risk due to exposure is unknown.” Frac sand also contains water, silica sand and chemicals, which poses the risk of silicosis, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“As a jurisdiction, we have time only if we use it properly and we must take the time to consider the various pros and cons of developing shale gas here, including the health effects, before a company or a project is on our doorstep,” Dr. Hanley says.

>> CAPP RECOGNIZES RESPONSIBLE ENERGY The Calgary-based Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) recently presented the 2014 Responsible Canadian Energy awards to five oil and natural gas companies for innovative health and safety, environmental and social projects that demonstrate leadership in responsible resource development.

CAPP presented the awards on May 21 to Talisman (health and safety award), Japan Canada Oil Sands (social award), Devon (environment award), Suncor (president’s award, which recognizes a 8 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

company with outstanding activities in any or all of the above categories) and Laricina (chair’s award, which recognizes projects by smaller CAPP member companies).

An advisory group, which consisted of representatives from the safety, environment, labour, aboriginal, academic, private, finance and investment sectors, selected the recipients from a record 34 submissions.

For more information, visit www. capp.ca/rce/.

NEB RELEASES EXPECTATIONS FOR IMPROVING SAFETY CULTURE The National Energy Board (NEB), along with two offshore petroleum boards, has released a paper outlining the NEB’s expectations of regulated companies to build and sustain a strong safety culture.

Released on June 2, Advancing Safety in the Oil and Gas Industry: Statement on Safety Culture is a joint statement and safety culture framework between the NEB, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board and the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board.

The NEB says in a press statement that the safety culture framework is divided into four negative dimensions that act as threats to organizational safety (production pressure, complacency, normalization of deviance and tolerance of inadequate systems and resources) and four positive dimensions that act as cultural defences against those threats (committed safety leadership, vigilance, empowerment and accountability and resiliency). “Being able to recognize both positive and negative dimensions of safety culture better equips an organization to prevent potential incidents,” the NEB says.

“The NEB already has the tools and regulations in place to enforce safety in Canada’s energy sector,” Gaétan Caron, chair and CEO of the NEB, says in the statement. “With the release of the safety culture framework, we are asking industry to go even further in order to develop organizational cultures where safety is a core value.”

In addition to the framework, the NEB recently amended its National Energy Board Onshore Pipeline Regulations to require companies to have management systems in place that support the development and maintenance of a healthy safety culture.

To view the statement or for more information, visit http://www.neb-one. gc.ca.

| BY THE NUMBERS

CRYSTAL CLEAR

Crystalline silica dust particles — used as a proppant for hydraulic fracturing in oilfield applications — are small enough to be inhaled into the lungs and can cause a number of health problems, including silicosis, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema, as well as pulmonary tuberculosis, Work Safe Alberta reported in a recent safety bulletin.

The bulletin, released on April 22, says that preventing exposure to crystalline silica is the best way to protect health. Other options, in order of preference, include the following: • Using less hazardous substitutes (such as aluminum oxide; coal, copper or nickel slag; olivine or staurolite as a substitute for silica in abrasive blasting); • Engineering controls (such as installing local ventilation hoods, dust control additives, enclosures around the work process or automated processes); • Administrative controls (such as using good hygiene practices and signage to warn workers of the hazards); and • Personal protective equipment (such as respirators).

In a 2012 hazard alert, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the United States revealed the results of a study on air samples at 11 fracking sites in five states. Of the 116 air samples from sites in Arkansas, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas, “many air samples showed silica levels for workers in and around the dust generation points above defined occupational exposure limits.

Of the 116 samples collected:

$300 billion

The estimated amount that the Northern Gateway project will add to Canada’s GDP (gross domestic product) over 30 years.

Source: Enbridge

6.4 million

The number of barrels per day that Canadian crude oil production is expected to grow to by 2030.

Source: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)

1,700

The number of Aboriginal employees in permanent operations jobs in the oilsands industry.

Source: CAPP

79% showed silica exposures greater than the NIOSH recommended exposure limit (REL) of 0.05 milligrams per cubic metre;

47% showed silica exposure levels greater than the calculated Occupational Safety and Health Administration permissible exposure limit (PEL);

31% of all samples showed silica exposures 10 or more times the REL, with one sample more than 100 times the REL; and

9% of all samples showed silica exposures 10 or more times the PEL, with one sample more than 25 times the PEL.

˚ 0 36

40

The approximate number of premiers, former federal cabinet ministers and business leaders who had called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to approve the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.

Source: The Globe and Mail

Pipeline burst kills six At least six workers, including two managers, were killed and 29 more injured in an explosion and pipeline leak on June 12 at the government-run Steel Authority of India’s Bhilai steel plant in Chhattisgarh. A plant spokesperson tells the Associated Press that 20 workers were hospitalized, six of them with serious injuries, in the explosion and subsequent methane and carbon monoxide leak. The Telegraph in Calcutta reports that for the previous year, plant authorities had been requesting the replacement of the aging pipeline. The plant itself dates back to 1959.

Source: The Associated Press

PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 9

FEATURE | REMOTE WORK CAMPS

Away Home

From Home

By Danny Kucharsky

R

emote camps for workers in Canada’s oil and gas sector used to be spartan, dorm-like affairs where facilities were shared and most of the food was fried, not fresh. But today’s remote camps can feature golf simulators, yoga rooms, running tracks, squash courts, Wi-Fi, large screen TVs, cell phone service, five-star chefs and much more. Or, like days gone by, they can consist of plain old trailers with shared bathrooms and little in the way of amenities.

Indeed, the accommodations that house remote or mobile workers in Canada’s booming energy sector run the 10 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

gamut from hotel-like to basic. However, there is a growing trend to improve these camps as a way to recruit and retain employees. “Part of our value proposition is that [employers] get a well-rested employee to work every day,” says Kirk Duffee, senior vice-president of operations at Clean Harbors in Acheson, Alta., which provides remote camp lodging services.

Workers used to live in remote camps with several people in a single room, but that has mostly changed, Duffee says.

“The new generation, they want their own bathroom and they want their own stuff.

The whole industry has changed to be able to accommodate that,” he explains.

REMOTE WORK CAMPS | FEATURE

As a result, Clean Harbors now primarily builds single-occupancy rooms with private bathrooms, gyms and recreational facilities, satellite Internet, theatres and game rooms. “We’re selling quality of life now to folks coming up to the oilsands and other remote areas,” Duffee says. For example, the company’s new Ruth Lake Lodge in the Fort McMurray, Alta. area “has everything you would need in a little town, all packaged up in a single facility,” he says. “That’s the direction it’s going, because you can get closer to the work, but you get all the amenities of a very highclass facility.”

The facility houses 600 to 800 people, all in single rooms that vary in size from 130 to 200 square feet. There are three classes of facilities: Jack and Jill (two separate bedrooms and shared bathroom), executive (similar to a small hotel room) and VIP (akin to a fair-sized hotel room).

The market “has really blown by” the old dormitory standard, agrees Craig Alloway, vice-president of sales, North America, with ATCO Structures & Logistics in Calgary. As little as five years ago, recreation on a remote site consisted

of a smoking trailer and a trailer with an exercise bike and a TV. TOTAL PACKAGE On any given day, there are tens of thousands of workers in Canada’s remote oil and gas camps. A 2012 census found that in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alta. alone, which surrounds Fort McMurray and the Athabasca oilsands, there were 40,000 mobile employees working at about 100 projects. However, that number is likely low, as the census was based on low season numbers.

It’s a challenge for employers to attract these thousands of workers to remote camps, particularly if they are not accustomed to being away from home and family, says Carla Campbell-Ott, executive director of the Petroleum Human Resources Council in Calgary. “Workers either tire of the work camps and rotational work… or they find out that other camp providers provide better camps,” she says. For these workers, it’s not salary alone but total compensation — including accommodations — that makes the difference.

That means the quality of the camp can PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 11

FEATURE | REMOTE WORK CAMPS

have a bearing on attracting and retaining workers. “We have heard that employees will leave one employer and go to another one if all things are equal and the camp is better.” Alloway agrees, saying that “often, you’ll talk to customers and they’ll make the same statement — how they want their project to be the project of choice for tradespeople. It’s a very aggressive marketplace for labour.”

However, camps at drilling or construction sites in the oil and gas industry usually cannot offer the same conveniences now offered at several permanent oilsands camps, because they tend to be mobile, Campbell-Ott notes. “It doesn’t make sense to invest in them because they have to move them.” She says drilling sites generally have higher worker turnover than oilsands sites, but many factors may explain this, aside from camp amenities, 12 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

such as the harder physical labour that is involved in drilling.

HOME SWEET HOME As much as possible, the philosophy is to give workers “a place to live when they’re not at home that is as close as equal to their home,” says Kevin Read, CEO of Nomodic Modular Structures, a remote camp builder in Calgary. “We try to make it better, but obviously, you can’t replace home. [Still] we get a lot of comments from people saying it’s actually better than their house.”

Read says the bedrooms in the structures he builds have large windows to bring in light, which can even help reduce seasonal affective disorder. Each bedroom has a 32-inch TV and queen-sized bed with pillow-top mattress. “It’s basically like a downtown condo.” In the common

areas of Clean Harbor’s newer facilities, there are 10-foot ceilings instead of eightfoot ones, skylights to make them seem more airy and less prison-like and as few pillars as possible, Duffee adds. “The feedback was that the old system felt like prisons,” he explains.

Despite these luxuries, workers can still have difficulty adapting to the remote work atmosphere. No matter what the amenities are like, the common denominator of a remote camp is that it is far away from home, families, friends or social networks. So says Angela Angel, program manager at Habitat Health Impact Consulting in Calgary, who conducted in-depth interviews of 16 remote workers a few years ago as part of her social research.

“There are definitely across the board social and health stressors,” she says, including the unexplored transition period that workers experience between their on-the-job lives and their back-to-home lives. After weeks on the job, the men — and they’re mostly men — face the stress of “putting work thoughts on hold and probably coming home to a long, ‘honey to do’ list.”

Greg Thibault, manager of public health protection at Northern Health in Prince George, B.C., adds that workers who are in camps for two or three weeks straight have difficulty volunteering or doing other regular activities back home.

“Soccer doesn’t stop when you go to camp,” Thibault says. “The connectedness to the community can be affected, and that can determine whether an individual wants to work in a camp or not.”

The lifestyle and working existence at remote camps is very different than the usual 9 to 5, says Katherine Power, vicepresident of communication at Burlington,

REMOTE WORK CAMPS | FEATURE Ont.-based Sodexo Canada, which manages remote camps. She was recently at a hydro camp in northern Manitoba, close to Hudson’s Bay, “and there is no concept of what day of the week it is, because you’re there for 21 days straight. It doesn’t matter if it’s Sunday or Monday or Wednesday. You’re working all of them, so it doesn’t matter.”

Angel says one worker she interviewed compared being in a remote camp to being in jail, only with pay. “A lot of the workers talked about feeling patronized by security guards after a 12-hour work day. Workers talked about how they felt very limited in these spaces.”

Having to swipe cards to come in and out and all of the “you cannot x, y, z” rules led to a very disciplined, structured and regulated environment, she says.

There was a feeling that they were not able to carry out normal lives, missed the normal activities they might do at home and could not even go outside the work camp fences because of security regulations.

Asks Angel: “Posting 50 rules in the hallway — you cannot do this, you cannot do that, what sort of environment is that creating? It affects workers and morale.

There is a need to have rules, but there are ways to better communicate them.”

WIRED IN Another completely separate, but “massive,” issue at remote worker camps relates to power and water. While some of the less remote camps are on the grid for gas or other utilities, others are run with propane onsite. Fresh water sewage can be trucked in and out. The same goes for wastewater and sewage, unless there are in-ground septic tanks. “We can go from being totally self-sustainable to being totally wired into a community’s services, water, power and gas,” Alloway says.

Thibault notes there is always room for improvement at remote camps, but compared to some of the camps that existed years ago and stories he’s heard, employers have recognized that healthier workers benefit them. This has translated into better housing conditions.

He gives the example of remote camps that, years ago, did not have access to phones or other means of communication.

Now, virtually every camp has set up some

THE MONEY TRAP

Angela Angel, program manager at Habitat Health Impact Consulting in Calgary, conducted in-depth interviews of 16 remote workers a few years ago as part of her social research. She says that the “Fort McMoney” concept — the immense opportunity to make a lot of money at the camps — came up frequently as a theme and a potential risk. Some workers with strong goals and supportive family members back home can thrive and channel their money into concrete goals. But others who take jobs at camps as a way to escape their lives or do not have solid plans can become caught in the money trap.

Because they are making so much money, workers may overextend themselves on things like credit, mortgages or new trucks. “Pretty soon, they were feeling trapped, even though there were making a lot and should feel further ahead.”

As well, Angel notes that if workers are solely focused on money, they lose a sense of self and the time or ability to do things they once loved doing.

“A lot of men wake up one day and realize they’ve drifted so far away from their partner or infidelities have happened.” It’s the double-edged sword that comes along with the high pay.

Angel speaks of the “shaking of the pop bottle” concept, in which the pressures of the boom to produce and make money result in many men putting their health on hold and eventually reaching the breaking point. This occurs partly because of how men are socialized to suck things up and to work hard and play hard, she suggests, while some of it has to do with the frontier masculinity within the oil sector.

Because of existing myths and stereotypes, not much research has been conducted on the health of energy sector workers, she says. For example, it is little known that only seven per cent of the men in these work camps have less than a high school degree, Angel says. “They’re not who we think they are.”

However, the scarcity of research is changing because of the huge priority energy companies are placing on safety, says Angel, who is currently developing a mobile worker wellness assessment tool.

form of tower for cell phone coverage and Wi-Fi, so that workers can stay connected to their families. “You maybe don’t get to tuck in the kids at night, but you can at least talk to them and find out how their day went if you choose to,” Thibault says.

“Workers want to stay connected to their families, to their communities.”

HEALTHY COMPETITION Competition for workers is part of what’s driving the increase in camp standards, Thibault says, adding that he has seen posters from a major oil and gas employer touting its private washrooms for all its workers.

The need for employees to keep their workers healthy and safe is another factor that is driving improvements at camps. “If I have an injury while I’m at work, it’s push-

ing the employer’s premiums up, it’s lost productivity days,” Thibault says.

Safety standards at remote camps tend to be better in the energy sector than in others because the industry is “far more sensitive to safety issues,” suggests Jacob Healy, director of health, safety and claims management at Sodexo. Campbell-Ott agrees, adding that safety is one of the top priorities in the oil and gas industry, so nothing happens without a safety plan or a safety officer.

Prevention is paramount because replacing an injured employee can take up to a couple of days to a week, Healy says.

Prevention starts with orientation training and continues with inspection programs, ranging from pre-task hazard assessments to daily safety meetings to monthly inspections.

PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 13

FEATURE | REMOTE WORK CAMPS

Oil and gas companies “tend to have very rigid programs that they expect contractors like us to participate in,” Healy says. Although the industry is considered safe, “when something goes wrong, it tends to go tragically wrong,” he says.

As English is a second language for many of Sodexo’s kitchen or janitorial workers — many of whom are Filipinos or Africans — the company is increasingly using pictograms in its instructions on how to identify hazards and how to perform tasks at camps safely.

According to Healy, the most common injuries his workers suffer are musculoskeletal injuries typical of a housekeeping workforce, as well as cuts among kitchen workers and slips and falls, depending on the season. However, heated hallways or corridors that join the living quarters to the common areas are now common in the larger, more permanent camps and are also cropping up in temporary accommodations. When workers no longer have to 14 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

go outside in the ice and snow, the risk of slips and falls is minimized.

Healy says Sodexo is often trying to attract workers from as far away as Toronto and Vancouver, “who don’t really appreciate what they’re getting into. We want people to work, we want people to stay because we do invest a lot of money in their safety, orientation and training and getting them to understand the reality” of camp life, Healy says.

Knowledge is power for remote camp workers, agrees Megan Maclure, principal of Grassroots Consulting in Vancouver, who teaches a course explaining what workers can expect to face in the camps.

“Still, it’s not something you can really explain — you have to have that experience yourself. It’s a different world,” says Maclure, who also matches candidates with remote camp employers and has worked in catering services at camps for about 20 years. “Some people are in this

REMOTE WORK CAMPS | FEATURE

WET OR DRY?

for a long time, while others find the remoteness and the lifestyle too difficult to maintain.”

The need for good food is one of the largest drivers in remote camps, Alloway says. Not only do people want food choices, there’s a safety element attached to food, he says, noting that workers who do not get proper nutrition are more susceptible to illness.

Some camps now have healthy food programs that try to inform workers about what constitutes a healthy diet, says Thibault. While nobody is saying, “sorry, you took two sausages too many,” there is information in the dining room about what constitutes a balanced meal.

Food “is kind of the thing that people look forward to at the end of the day,” Maclure says. “If the food isn’t good, they’re going to have a really bad experience.” PL Danny Kucharsky is a writer in Montreal.

Follow us on Twitter @PipelineOHS

One of the decisions that owners of remote camps face is whether their sites should be wet or dry — that is, whether or not they should allow alcohol on the premises. Not surprisingly, there are a wide variety of opinions on the topic.

“Some owners understand that these are adult working people and if they want to have a beer watching hockey at the end of the day, [they should] afford them that privilege,” says Craig Alloway, vice-president of sales, North America, at ATCO Structures & Logistics in Calgary.

ATCO will work with camp owners to provide either option. “Often, it comes down to how it can affect safety for their employees,” he says.

At the other end of the spectrum is Kirk Duffee, senior vice-president of operations at Clean Harbors, who says his camps have been dry “forever.”

However, the company is now running a pilot project after a customer requested that the rules be amended to allow employees to drink a beer in their rooms if they do not leave them. “A lot of camps do that,” he notes.

Duffee believes tough no alcohol, no drugs rules are helpful in reducing the possibility of abuse. “You’re just not allowed onsite with drugs or alcohol.

And we send dogs in (to search the rooms) and they’re generally pretty good at finding it.”

But Greg Thibault, manager of public health protection with Northern Health in Prince George, B.C., notes that even if a camp is dry in theory, it doesn’t always work out that way.

Some dry camps are monitored and stay dry, but others have less supervision and workers will bring in alcohol. “We’ve heard anecdotally that workers, knowing that the camp is dry, will be on a binge the day prior to going to camp and show up to camp not in the best condition.”

Thibault says the majority of camps are dry and that those that are wet require supervision and monitoring to ensure heavy drinking does not become an issue. When it comes to drinking, “it’s not everybody in the camp.

It’s typically those few individuals that are the exception that are potentially causing an issue.”

PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 15

FEATURE I NORTHERN GATEWAY

NORTHERN GATEWAY PIPELINE

APPROVED THE PROJECT IS EXPECTED TO CREATE UP TO 3,000 CONSTRUCTION JOBS

By Jason Contant

T

he federal government’s recent approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline from Alta. to B.C. will create thousands of new jobs, but not just for those two provinces, says the CEO of a mobile workforce supplier.

Hunter Reid, CEO of TDT Crews Inc. — a construction company with offices in Stoney Creek, Ont. and Edmonton that specializes in supplying crews of Canadian workers to regions across the country — says that the major project will create a “huge demand” for skilled trades, especially from Ontario’s large, skilled construction workforce. “There’s no question that labour mobility will be critical,” he says, adding that the project will create as many as 3,000 construction jobs.

On June 17, the federal government approved Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline project, subject to 209 legally enforceable conditions previously recommended by the National Energy Board’s Joint

The panel concluded that the environmental risks could be effectively mitigated and that the project was in the public’s best interest.

16 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

Review Panel, an independent tribunal. Among the recommendations in its December 2013 report were: the development of a pipeline environmental effects monitoring program; the submission of a quality management plan; preparation and implementation of a caribou habitat restoration plan; and specific fracture toughness testing.

In general, the panel — which heard from more than 1,450 participants in 21 communities in Alta. and B.C., reviewed more than 175,000 pages of evidence and received 9,000 letters of comment — concluded that the environmental risks could generally be effectively mitigated and the construction and operation of the project, in compliance with the panel’s conditions, was in the public’s best interest.

In addition, the panel included in its conditions a requirement that Northern Gateway comply with all of the more than 400 voluntary commitments made by Northern Gateway Pipelines Limited Partnership during the review process, including making the pipeline walls 20 per cent thicker than current standards in sensitive areas and deployment of additional radar to monitor marine traffic. “In its report, the panel found that the proponent’s voluntary commitments exceeded those typically proposed for pipeline projects, including the marine regulatory requirements related to navigation, safety, and oil spill preparedness and planning,” says a backgrounder from Natural Resources Canada.

NORTHERN GATEWAY | FEATURE Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Greg Rickford, said in a statement on June 17 that the government had accepted the review panel’s conditions and “today constitutes another step in the process.

Consultations with Aboriginal communities are required under many of the 209 conditions that have been established and as part of the process for regulatory authorizations and permits. The proponent clearly has more work to do in order to fulfill the public commitment it has made to engage with Aboriginal groups and local communities along the route,” he adds.

Rickford notes that he recently met with First Nations leaders to discuss new ways to engage with and involve them in energy infrastructure development.

The meeting resulted in the creation of the Major Projects Management Office West, a “single window” for the government of Canada to coordinate activities with B.C. First Nations and industry in B.C. and Alta.

“A key function of this office will be to facilitate meaningful engagement and ongoing dialogue with key partners such as industry, First Nations and the government of British Columbia and to address the unique elements of energy exports in B.C.,” Rickford

our future, but only if we do it right,” she says.

Bob Blakely is the chief operating officer of Canada’s Building Trades Unions in Ottawa, which represents more than half a million Canadian construction workers in 14 different international unions who work in more than 60 different trades and occupations. He welcomes the federal government’s decision, saying that the project has been through the most rigorous environmental review of its kind in Canadian history and would provide well-paying jobs. “We live here, and we aren’t going to ruin the environment for the sake of a couple of paycheques,” says Blakely. “It’s good for working people, it’s good for communities.”

Alberta Premier Dave Hancock calls the pipeline proposal “a step forward,” saying in a statement that it would “create and support more jobs and generate increased revenue to help pay for vital public services, like quality healthcare and education for all Canadians.”

The Northern Gateway project has attracted controversy, particularly from Aboriginal communities, some of whom have threatened legal action. “First Nations will immediately go to court to vigorously pursue all lawful means to stop the Enbridge project,” says a news

“Time and again, people have told us Northern Gateway is important to our future, but only if we do it right.”

says, adding that the office will strive to involve First Nations in areas such as employment and business opportunities and tanker and pipeline safety systems.

Janet Holder, the leader of the Northern Gateway project, says that she is pleased with the decision to approve the project and that Enbridge and its funding partners will continue to build trust with Aboriginal communities along the proposed route. “We have signed 26 equity partnerships with these communities so far, representing more than 60 per cent of the Aboriginal population along the proposed right-ofway,” she says. “But our work is not done.”

Holder says that she will continue to work towards meeting the 209 conditions, adding that she understands that economic development and environmental protection must go hand-in-hand. “Time and again, people have told us Northern Gateway is important to

release from a coalition of B.C. aboriginal groups, posted on the website of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations. “We will defend our territories, whatever the costs may be.”

When completed, the 1,777-kilometre twin pipeline is expected to carry 525,000 barrels of crude oil per day and ship 193,000 barrels per day by condensate pipeline between Bruderheim, Alta. and Kitimat, B.C. PL Jason Contant is the editor of Pipeline Magazine.

Follow us on Twitter @PipelineOHS PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 17

PRODUCTS | DISTRIBUTORS

The

Missing Link

By Jason Contant

T

he vast number of types of personal protective equipment (PPE) on the market today — not to mention the multiple selections within each product category — can make the search for the right safety gear an intimidating one. Enter the distributor — the intermediary that buys PPE products or product lines and then resells them to retailers or directly to end users. Distributors are often the link in the supply chain that can provide a helping hand, not only to the manufacturers who sell through them, but to any end users who decide to buy directly through them.

18 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

DISTRIBUTORS | PRODUCTS “Distributors typically today, and in safety and industrial supplies, have a very broad base of product offerings and have multiple selections, even within a product category,” says Craig Lindsay, president of Pacesetter Sales and Associates in East Gwillimbury, Ont. “Let’s say, for example, the customer is interested in buying hearing protection. A manufacturer has only got his own brand. A distributor will have multiple brands.”

Vanessa Nowak, direct marketing manager with Tenaquip Ltd. in Montreal, says that her company is an industrial distributor that offers material handling, tool storage and packaging products, among others. In terms of PPE offerings, the list is extensive: safety glasses, work shields, work boots, gloves, hard hats, earplugs, respirators, protective apparel (flash, flame resistant, chemical, high visibility gear), emergency showers and eyewash stations and ergonomic products, such as anti-fatigue matting.

All types of safety equipment are sold through distributors, “from the simplest pair of disposable gloves or earplugs to technical, high-end noise dosimeters to SCBAs (self-contained breathing apparatuses) that are there to protect lives,” agrees Alan Noble, marketing manager at Levitt-Safety in Oakville, Ont. UP CLOSE From a manufacturer standpoint, there are a number of reasons to sell through a distributor. One of the major benefits is that a distributor typically has a relationship with an end user that is “broader, deeper and better than a manufacturer,” Lindsay says. “The distributor is in there talking to them about multiple, multiple products, and so they’ll know who the right contacts are, so they’ll have an ongoing relationship,” Lindsay says. “An end user likes to buy from the distributor too, because they can buy multiple products from them and not just one type of product that a manufacturer makes.”

Manish Gupta, market manager at Draeger Safety Canada Ltd. in Mississauga, Ont., says that a personal relationship between a local distributor and a customer is not uncommon, especially in small communities, and some customers enjoy buying from these distributors. “They want to know you as a person before they buy from you, even with safety equipment,” Gupta relates, adding that this is particularly true in the Prairies and eastern provinces. “And that’s actually a big deal for some customers. It’s important to them.”

Another major benefit of selling through a distributor is their close proximity to a customer, which is typically closer than that of a manufacturer. “The distributors have the location, sales staff, inventory and people strategically located across the country, so it allows us, the manufacturer, to position inventory locally in a business community,” says Claudio Dente,

president of Dentec Safety Specialists Inc. in Newmarket, Ont. “And that’s in order to be able to serve the local customers in that area.”

“ Manufacturers will often not support the product if [it is] not purchased through authorized distributors, online or not.”

PERSONAL TOUCH It is this personal, local touch that is often appealing to customers. Using respirator accessories as an example, Gupta says that distributors can provide product stocking solutions as well. For example, if a customer in a remote location wants to purchase detector tubes, which have a two-year shelf life, they may have to purchase dozens of tubes and put them on shelves, at a financial hit to the company. But a distributor can store them, and the customer just buys them when they need them, offering some financial savings.

“The manufacturer cannot be everywhere, especially remote locations, so a local distributor can provide the support you need,” Gupta says. “You can speak to a human being and tell them the issues you need help with, and/or the local distributor can come to your plant on short notice to help you.”

Unlike manufacturers, distributors are also set up to deal with lots of accounts. Noble notes that manufacturers’ enterprise resource planning systems — software used to integrate all facets of a business’ operation — usually aren’t set up to support all the incoming and outgoing orders, calls and shipments. “The manufacturer also doesn’t want to deal with thousands of accounts for the receivables, handling the money, whereas a distributor is set up to do that,” Lindsay adds.

Nowak agrees that manufacturers “don’t want to deal with a million customers,” and by working with distributors, they have fewer customers to manage. This allows them to concentrate on things like production and research and development to create new products.

And because they are dealing with large quantities that can be broken down and sold to multiple customers, distributors can even break down the packaging and make it easier for the end user to buy, Lindsay adds. “A distributor creates all these efficiencies for a customer,” he says, pointing to local content, multiple product offerings, excellent management of receivables and the breaking down of packaging. Because a distributor receives quantity discounts, Nowak adds, PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 19

PRODUCTS | DISTRIBUTORS they can often buy by the pallet, rather than by the item, and “be able to pass along some of those savings to the customer.”

A distributor typically has a relationship with an end user that is “broader, deeper and better than a manufacturer.”

ROYAL TREATMENT Nowak says that her company also provides certain “value-added services,” such as arc flash seminars, to customers. For bigger customers, Tenaquip can even perform inventory management by integrating the customer’s system with Tenaquip’s “and create reports for them in terms of where they are spending their money.”

Her company also has safety specialists who can go to a workplace, conduct an audit of the situation and then make suggestions on how the company can ensure that it is compliant with safety regulations. Because there are a variety of different safety regulations across Canada, whenever a new law comes out, the safety specialists receive training on it, Nowak adds.

Good customer service is important, she says, so if a customer receives a defective item, “we can take care of getting it repaired or replaced for them.” Having products in stock when a customer needs them or being able to get them within a customer’s timeline is also important. “Obviously, we can’t always having everything in stock, but if a customer says this is a rush, then we can get them quicker,” she says. “We can adjust our ordering cycles and all that to be able to meet the customer’s needs.”

Knowledgeable staff can also suggest an alternative when a customer is asking for a product that may take three weeks to arrive, but they need it in one week, for example.

Gupta says it’s important to select a distributor who can train the customer and answer his or her questions, using the example of a customer who has a question about a specific chemical or respirator. “So if you phone up and need the respirator for ammonia, they know which respirators to sell you and make sure this is the right respirator based on the levels and not send you a half-mask, for example, when you have levels above 300 ppm and need an SCBA.” In addition to answering questions, the distributor could also provide some of the services, such as fit test20 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

ing, training employees on how to clean the respirator or performing gas detector calibration, maintenance and repairs locally. “One of the biggest complaints we have is repairs, so if I need to repair it, why would I send my item all the way back to Toronto or all the way from one end of the country to the other to get repaired?

Why can’t I just have local service?” Gupta asks.

As with any rule, there are exceptions. For products such as technical gas monitors that have to be installed, engineered and have schematics of the plant drawn up, Gupta says Draeger will sell these products directly.

CHOICES, CHOICES When selecting a distributor, Dente says there are certain criteria that his company uses: • Do they have local inventory? (branches or a branch?)

• Is there a relationship with the business community?

•W hat services do they offer?

•H ow do they go to market for their customers?

• Do they have purchasing systems such as electronic data exchange, a computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standard electronic format, to better serve the local community? and •C an they support the product online?

But it’s not only manufacturers that benefit from using distributors, end users themselves can also decide to buy directly from a distributor. Although Lindsay and Gupta agree that there are not many cases in which an end user will go direct — Gupta says that end users usually come to manufacturers, who recommend distributors to them — it is an option. Lindsay says that the end user is typically looking for someone who has a wide selection of products, a good service level, can completely fill orders, offers short wait times and has competitive pricing.

“It doesn’t have to be the lowest price,” Lindsay says. “It is a factor, just to make sure it is competitive and then really someone who can provide solutions to their purchasing needs.” Noble adds that his company’s research and anecdotal evidence actually suggest that cost is outside of the “Top 5” factors for customers. If service level, after-sale support and knowledgeable staff requirements are met, “cost is much, much less of a factor,” he says.

In particular, Noble says the following questions can help determine if a distributor is the right one: • Are you getting the PPE on time, when you expect it?

•D o they stock the product you want?

• Do they scorecard their suppliers?

•D o they offer to service the product?

• Can they keep you informed of scheduled maintenance (for compliance reasons)? and •D o they speak your language (safety)?

Having a distributor that sells only safety and not MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) raises the bar on the ability of a customer service represen-

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PRODUCTS | DISTRIBUTORS tative to serve the customer from a knowledge standpoint, Noble says.

IN AGREEMENT?

Different manufacturers or end users have different rules regarding agreements or contractual arrangements with distributors.

Craig Lindsay, president of Pacesetter Sales and Associates in East Gwillimbury, Ont., says that some will have a policy on minimum order size, while others will stipulate a certain timeframe, such as one year. If a customer is not happy with the service, he or she could then look at alternatives, such as with TV or phone service.

Claudio Dente, president of Dentec Safety Specialists Inc. in Newmarket, Ont., notes his company doesn’t have a purchasing agreement with a distributor. “It comes down to a business understanding that they are going to work with us to promote and sell our products and inventory it,” he says.

“If in the end, they don’t do that, then we make other distribution decisions. For all intents and purposes, if a distributor is not working out, that means they are not promoting the line and they’re not going to spend any time in it, and we just go our separate ways,” Dente says.

22 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

IN COMPLIANCE Once a manufacturer or end user has selected a distributor and is looking to buy the PPE, how does it go about ensuring that it is in compliance with safety regulations and standards? Besides provincial or territorial occupational health and safety legislation, which will sometimes specify that a piece of PPE must meet a certain CSA Group standard, the gear itself must be certified to the applicable standard. In Ontario, for example, CSA-approved safety glasses are required, Gupta says, adding that the CSA impact tests those glasses, which may not happen with other standards organizations, such as the American National Standards Institute or the European Committee for Standardization.

“The CSA mark, buying local, has a big plus to it,” Gupta says. “I always like to stick with North American, because I’m compliant. I’m not going to question — the European one, does it do all the things it’s supposed to do in Canada?”

While some distributors say that they do get requests for international products sold in other countries, these products may not be certified to meet Canadian standards. Nowak says that “there’s some request” for products sold in other countries, but “we really focus on Canadian customers.” However, she notes that Tenaquip does have what it calls a “hunter group,” so if a customer wants a particular brand outside of the company’s preferred brands, “we’ll get it for them, but we don’t really guarantee anything in terms of that.”

If a customer does decide to go with an international distributor, what happens if there is a problem with the product? “If you suddenly have a problem and you have to go to Italy or something to get production resolution,” Gupta says, “… all of a sudden, it’s become very complicated.” The key, Noble adds, is to buy products from a recognized manufacturer. “If not, care could be taken to ensure the product is properly tested to Canadian standards for a particular product,” he says.

BUYER BEWARE What makes purchasing even more complicated is the fact that more and more people are buying products online. “If you buy safety products from an online, U.S.-based company, they will not honour the warranty or support agreements,” Noble warns, saying that he heard about a case like this from the representative of a major Canadian safety supplier. “He had to walk away from an end user because they bought online,” from a U.S. company. Like Gupta, Noble questions what happens if there is a problem with the product or it needs to be serviced. “Is this online ‘store’

DISTRIBUTORS | PRODUCTS setup to support this?” he asks. “Also be aware, many online stores aren’t authorized dealers and, as such, the same U.S. story holds true. Manufacturers will often not support the product if [it is] not purchased through authorized distributors, online or not.”

So how does an end user ensure what he or she is purchasing is legitimate? In terms of product quality, the key is to buy products from a recognized manufacturer, Noble says.

“Everyone carries the same products typically… although one should avoid ‘discount’ distributors who would sell uncertified product,” he says, asking “will they be around tomorrow to support the product?”

While a distributor can provide references of other accounts in the area that are buying the product, Lindsay says, a pretty common approach is a trial and evaluation program. For example, if a company has 100 workers who require earmuffs, it can ask to try two pairs at no cost before purchasing 100. “That is another way to determine not only the quality, but also that the product suits the application,” Lindsay says.

“Because sometimes there’s multiple different types of hearing protection, you can’t just paint a wide brush and they all suit every application.” Nowak adds that her company will sometimes provide a “loaner” as a sample for a customer to try out. “Usually with our

“ Their safety knowledge a lot of times is very weak, so they really do look at that distributor as being the experts.” products, it’s touchy-feely,” Dente says. “You can tell firsthand if a product is a quality product or not.”

It’s important to remember that a distributor is more than a supply house, Gupta says. “They more than just sell it to you, they also provide the support, the training, the repair,” he says. “By going through the distributor, you have somebody technical that can actually guide your decision as well as help you to make the best decision.

“We have a lot of customers; they’re experts on painting, they’re experts on metalworking, but their safety knowledge a lot of times is very weak, so they really do look at that distributor as being the experts.” PL Follow us on Twitter @PipelineOHS

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PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 23

PETROLEUM SAFETY CONFERENCE | SHOWS

M

aking a minor change to a worker’s sleep opportunity could result in big safety dividends, suggests Pat Byrne, vicepresident and founder of Fatigue Science, a fatigue-related risk management company in Vancouver.

Byrne hosted a session entitled Mitigate Risk Associated with Fatigue at the Petroleum Safety Conference (PSC) in Banff, Alta. on May 7. In the session, Byrne said that managing fatigue risk takes three factors into account: sleep opportunity (is the work schedule designed so that workers have the right opportunity for sleep?); sleep obtained (taking into account sleep disorders and work-related and environmental factors, such as shift work and jet lag); and self-imposed factors (such as stress, little children at home, etc.).

He used the example of a shift worker who worked from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., spending about 68 per cent of his time in an impaired state in terms of his ability to react. “That’s because he’s starting at 6 a.m., so he has to get up at 3,” Byrne says. “If you change his schedule to give him one hour of sleep at night, you can reduce that from 68 per cent to 23 per cent, just by changing that shift by one hour.”

Erin Kelly, communications specialist with Fatigue Science, used a case study involving an oilsands employee who worked 11-hour shifts for 14 days straight. Using the company’s Readiband technology — a wrist-worn device that automatically detects a wearer’s sleep and wake periods and characterizes the quantity and quality of sleep — the organization was able to demonstrate that the mechanic “was spending almost 70 per cent of his work day in a fatigueimpaired state, equivalent to having 0.08 [blood alcohol content] or more.

“Using the technology, we were not only able to identify the extent of his fatigue, but its source, as we could see quite objectively how his long work shifts and commute were limiting his daily sleep opportunity and that the 14-day schedule provided him no opportunity to recover during his rotation,” she says. “The moral of the story with the oilsands worker was that we were really easily able to identify a few small changes that could be implemented, which would drastically improve the worker’s onthe-job safety score.”

In his presentation, Byrne pointed out that alertness and cognitive performance at any given moment are based on sleep history (within about the last week) and the time of day (circadian rhythm). “So what you’re looking at is the actual change in reaction time and the ability to concentrate over a 24-hour period,” he says. “Your reaction time is slower when you’re tired, and that’s measurable. We know people

perform better with eight hours [of sleep] than they do with seven, and we know they can perform better with 10 than eight.”

In the oil and gas industry specifically, Byrne suggests that millions of dollars have been spent trying to educate workers about fatigue, but it has had very little behavioural change. “You have to start somewhere,” he says. “If you know your workers are not sleeping because they have a sleep disorder, then you can get that looked at. If they have lifestyle issues, you can talk to them, you can look at their sleep environment.”

The Readiband is a wrist-worn device that automatically detects a wearer’s sleep and wake periods and characterizes the quantity and quality of sleep.

If a score is encroaching on 70 per cent, the wearer is considered fatigue-impaired.

PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 25

SHOWS | PETROLEUM SAFETY CONFERENCE Mark Eleven Photography

ing to go, what it’s going to look like when they get there, what steps they are going to need to take and who’s responsible for what,” he says.

“Once they have agreement on that, the next thing they need to determine is, ‘What do we want people to do?’ and then, ‘How well-aligned are our measurement systems and capabilities, to give us insight into how we’re enhancing knowledge, changing beliefs and changing behaviours?’”

Sometimes it’s even as simple as: “What does safe mean?” Galloway says. “A lot of time, we try to embed safety thinking in the company, but we safety professionals don’t think like the business executives.”

In his speech, Galloway says that while there is no perfect methodology for safety measurements, there is a handful of elements that can point a company in the right direction: • FOCUS — Forming one common understanding

CLEAR FOCUS KEY TO EFFECTIVE SAFETY MEASUREMENTS

Having a clear, precise focus as an executive team is essential to effective safety measurements. That was the message delivered in a post-session interview at the PSC, after Shawn Galloway, president and chief operating officer with ProAct Safety in The Woodlands, Texas, held a session entitled Safety Measurements: Boring, Uninspiring and Fear-Inducing.

Galloway says that the process starts with discovering, not as the safety manager, but as an executive team, precisely what they want workers to know. “The executive team has to have alignment on where they are tryMark Eleven Photography

of safety. Is the company focusing on the right things, and does the focus tell it how to improve?

• PASSION FOR SAFETY EXCELLENCE — What is the company doing that motivates or demotivates that passion?

• CLEAR EXPECTATIONS — “If you walk up to any supervisor and you ask them, ‘What are your key responsibilities to help us prevent injuries and enhance the culture?,’ what would their response be?”

• PROACTIVE ACCOUNTABILITY — How is the company ensuring that people are doing what is needed? “How we tend to use accountability around measurements is: ‘We didn’t get the result we wanted. Who needs to be held accountable?’”

• REINFORCEMENT — Are the right things being reinforced in absence of the reinforcers? Are people receiving training?

•V ULNERABILITY — Is there a healthy appreciation for the risk?

• COMMUNICATION — Are the right things being communicated? Are there boundaries?

•T RUST — “Building trust is like filling up a bucket full of water a drip at a time. It takes a long time to do so, but it’s pretty easy to kick it over and start all over.”

Galloway also warns of the hazards of “measurement dysfunction,” in which measurements don’t really have value. “When we measure to find fault, hold people accountable, we measure because we’ve always measured, it tends to create a demotivation within the culture,” he says. “People don’t see value in the measurements, so that measure no longer prompts and tells us how to get better.”

Galloway notes that safety measurements should

26 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

PETROLEUM SAFETY CONFERENCE | SHOWS

motivate, inspire, direct, prompt and align behaviour within an organization. But what motivates people? Is it money, peer recognition or boss recognition?

“The overwhelming conclusion on what it turns out in the work setting that provides the most effective motivator was visible progress towards a goal,” he said in his presentation. “Think about the days you are working really hard and you felt as though you hadn’t even scratched the surface, versus the days you think you are getting something done.”

Galloway adds that a common mistake of wellintended organizations is to allow a belief to persist in their companies that safety means not getting hurt or going home without an injury. He cites an interview on safety measurement and feedback with a worker who was about to retire from her company after 30 years. “‘The only time they’ve ever talked to me about safety is when I’ve done something wrong,’” Galloway says the worker told him. “‘Just once before I retire, I wish they’d tell me when I’ve done something right.’

Her career in that organization was safety is something you avoid, it’s not something you seek out.”

adding that in her company, every leader steps back into their previous role after three or six months.

“Because we need to allow people to save face, we need to be able to make it so people can step back out of leadership.

“Imagine an organization where every single leader was doing nothing but intentionally leading themselves. Then imagine the ability of those leaders to be able to actually encourage front-line employees to lead themselves,” Thompson says. “Engagement levels go through the roof, incident levels go down and employees actually come to work because they like to come to work, not because they need a paycheque.” PL Follow us on Twitter @PipelineOHS

LEADERSHIP INVOLVES LEADING THE SELF, PRESENTER SAYS

It was about 20 years ago that Yvonne Thompson, founder of Change Innovators Inc. in Winnipeg, had a life-changing experience. Newly employed at a large, unionized multinational company as a branch manager, Thompson estimated that about 95 per cent of her co-workers hated coming to work.

“Within a matter of weeks, I was very aware something wasn’t right,” she related in her Safety Leadership, Safety Culture presentation. “I had a chair thrown at my office door, maybe around week four. Around week six, I got 36 grievances on a Friday afternoon and the rumour was if they could get me up to 40, they could make me cry.”

That experience was the catalyst for her work now — what she calls progressive, out-of-the-box thinking as it relates to leadership. Thompson stresses the importance of the “leading self,” a deliberate and intentional way of acting. “You just own it and stand in your own energy… and all of a sudden, the rest takes care of itself,” she says.

Instead, many safety practitioners and professionals are “telling, we’re asking nicely, we’re trying to get people to see it the way we see it. In the leadership role, we believe it is our job to tell people what to do, but it’s not.”

In organizations, what often happens is the best welder is promoted to lead the welders. “Nobody should ever go from being the top welder on Friday to leading the welders on Monday,” Thompson says,

Mark Eleven Photography

PIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 27

GLOBAL PETROLEUM SHOW | SHOWS Following the LTI, the company loses one work hour per employee per day in efficiency, totalling $945,000 in wasted wages over a six-week period. Assuming that it typically produces 50,000 barrels per day, Kempling estimates that the company loses an additional $13.1 million in revenue on top of that.

The main factor in turnaround efficiency following an LTI is the time it takes to get back to production. In the same scenario, Kempling projects potential savings of more than $7 million if product starts flowing two days earlier. An improvement in efficiency of half an hour per day per worker could equate to more than $472,000 in savings from lost wages.

Another key to transforming losses from safety incidents into regained assets is attitude. Threats to safety culture include production pressure, complacency, normalization of carelessness and the tolerance of inadequate systems and resources. But these can be transformed into positive traits like committed safety leadership, vigilance, accountability and resiliency. Kempling defines resiliency in this context as “the quality to respond effectively to changing demands, in order to manage potential or emerging risks.”

“We have all written safety management into our budgets, and we will continue to do so for as long as there is industry,” Kempling says. “Safety subcontractors can be used to increase efficiency, especially during the turnaround process, without costing you an extra dime.”

pected service from your safety provider?

What if this budgetary ‘necessary evil’ could translate into a measurable return on investment?” He suggests that oil and gas companies track their efficiency with the goal of maximizing work time, while minimizing inefficient time resulting from safety incidents. “If you can’t track your efficiency accurately, you can’t budget accurately.”

One way to track efficiency more accurately is by using teams of trained observers to monitor employees and to project likely lost work time from potential safety incidents, as compared to the usual rate of productivity. For instance, Irwin’s Safety provides safety watches, spark watches

and air quality technicians, who act as key links in the emergency response chain and are trained to deal with employees working in confined spaces.

Downtime resulting from LTIs can often be attributed to facility owners and safety providers, due to procurement of needed equipment, permitting processes, gas testing and other possible variables. “As partners in efficiency, we want to ensure that we are the last reason the job is not moving forward in a timely manner.”

Kempling paints a hypothetical scenario in which an LTI occurs in an oil firm employing 300 people in 12-hour shifts at $75 per hour during a turnaround, totalling $22,500 an hour.

SEMINAR FOCUSES ON PREVENTING VALVE LEAKS Pipeline valves are expensive pieces of equipment, and leaks in them can cause major damage that can potentially result in months of lost production, not to mention wasted fuel and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on valve replacement. “It can really be a disheartening situation,” said Ernie Coates, services and training manager with Calgary-based valve sealant producer Sealweld Corporation, during his seminar Common Causes and Prevention of Leakage in New Valves on June 10.

Coates’ talk focused on causes of valve leaks and methods of preventative maintenance. He alluded to a major pipeline project in which he was involved in 2001 and during which the valves had become damPIPELINE SUMMER 2014 | 29

SHOWS | GLOBAL PETROLEUM SHOW

aged during the commissioning process.

“The first time the valves were turned with natural gas in them, the seats were damaged severely to the point that the valve wouldn’t seal,” he recalls. “I tried everything to seal the valves. I couldn’t even slow them down. So right away, pipeline integrity was lost.”

As a result, the project lost three months of production and the valve replacement ended up costing nearly half a million dollars, Coates adds.

Among the typical causes of leaks in new valves, according to Coates, is construction debris, such as sandblast, grinding compounds or metal end cuttings from the pipe. Companies should also consider how the valve was transported, since valves can sustain damage from road bumps, as well as how long it has been in storage and whether the covers were installed properly on the pup ends.

“If nobody takes care of the equipment, they end up in the system and then they don’t seal. If they don’t seal, they’re a liability,” says Coates. “This happens a lot.”

A worker can determine in advance if a valve leaks by performing an inside-out low-pressure test, which consists of the following: • Test the assembly components; • Connect the assembly to the body drain port; • Inject 120 pounds per square inch of air into the valve body and isolate it; •M onitor the gauge for any loss of pressure; • Drain the air to purge any test fluid remaining; and • Repeat this process after any welding or cutting occurs near the valve.

30 | SUMMER 2014 PIPELINE

During the commissioning phase, Coates suggests, it would be a good idea to apply a thin layer of grease inside each valve’s seat rings, to help prevent debris from getting into sensitive areas. A worker should also check the injection fittings and body vents to see if they need upgrading. “The body vent on the valve is a critical tool,” he says. “So many times I see on ball valves, there are plugs where the vents should be.”

Pipeline companies should also develop a comprehensive preventative maintenance schedule for ball valves, which are very maintenance intensive. During the first year of a project’s operation, when there tends to be a lot of debris left over from construction, a company should inspect and test valves every month and lubricate the seats every time that it cycles the valves. The second year should have a semiannual top-up service, which would become an annual top-up in succeeding years.

Coates concludes by noting that a small investment in maintenance could pay off countless times over in worry-free operation, extended life for both valves and pipelines and higher credibility for pipeline transportation. “Pipelines are scrutinized these days. It’s all our intention to make sure that this equipment is sound,” Coates said. “It’s all our responsibility to make sure that it’s strong.

“We need these lines. We need this stuff to be solid. We need it to work.”

TRAINING IN VIRTUAL REALITY Virtual reality (VR) simulation has become the norm for safety training in the aerospace and military sectors, and

the oil and gas industry is just starting to catch up. But employers need to know exactly what they want and how to use VR systems properly to get results, according to Lesley de Repentigny, president and CEO of driving safety firm DriveWise in Barrie, Ontario.

“Simulation has become affordable to utilize,” de Repentigny said in her seminar, Virtual Reality Simulation Drives Effective Learning Programs in Operational or High Risk Occupations, which she presented on June 11.

De Repentigny, who has worked with VR simulation in various industries since 1980, recommends that companies define exactly what they need so that their acquired VR systems are relevant to their unique safety issues. “All occupations don’t have the same risks,” she notes. As such, buying any random product could be “like trying to fit a square box into a round hole.”

Aside from a standardized training environment and ability to analyze data, the advantage of VR training for employees in risky work environments is a hands-on learning experience that allows trainees to make mistakes without dire consequences.

“In simulation, you can do it over and over, and no one is hurt,” de Repentigny says. For example, a driver who is hired in the summer has missed the chance to experience the challenges associated with winter driving. “But in a simulator, it can be winter anytime.” PL Jeff Cottrill is the editorial assistant of OHS Canada Magazine.

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