VBNC is committed to the health and safety of its employees and their families, throughout all aspects of our operations. Tremendous effort has been invested in policies, processes and procedures intended to prevent accidents and protect workers in the event of any incidents.

VBNC not only meets but, where possible, surpasses standards set by applicable legislation.  Best management practices are applied at all times to minimize risks to occupational and public health and safety. We have worked hard to nurture a safety culture, where workers are encouraged to take care of themselves and watch out for each other.

Knowing that all accidents are preventable, VBNC’s goal is zero incidents. By ‘setting the bar’ at the highest possible level, we aim to motivate the entire workforce to make safety a top priority. In fact, employees at the hydromet Demonstration Plant in Argentia had excellent safety performance during 2006, with zero disabling injuries.

However, there are still opportunities for improvement at the Labrador operation, where work-related injuries exceeded the target rate in 2006.

“At the end of last year, we weren’t entirely satisfied with our safety performance,” said Earl Dwyer, Manager of Environment, Health and Safety. “We are not where we want to be and need to refocus our efforts on improving workplace safety.”

Late in 2006, VBNC contracted Dupont to conduct an audit of its safety programs in Labrador. “We wanted a totally objective review, and Dupont delivered,” Dwyer said. “The audit demonstrated that we need to improve in a number of areas, so we are taking steps to do that. We won’t be doing a lot of new things; rather, we will refocus on the things we are doing so that we do them better.”

To achieve this end, the company has established a management committee at each operating facility tasked with reviewing safety programs and implementing changes that will result in improvements. Already, the company has revised and updated its list of ten VBNC Safety Principles, which guide management and employees during all aspects of work, anywhere in the operation.

“These principles are quite important,” Dwyer said. “All of our safety policies, processes and procedures cascade directly from them.”

Several initiatives are being undertaken to enhance safety, Dwyer added. “We’re implementing an integrated Health, Environment and Safety Management System, which prescribes a systematic approach to safety and environmental protection, and we are setting ourselves some pretty high standards. We are looking at improving our site inspection procedures, which are always important because they identify often simple measures that can be taken to make the work site safer. We are also looking at strengthening the incident investigation methodology, to ensure that we learn from incidents and avoid making the same mistake twice. Every incident must be reported including near misses, because there is much to be learned from those as well.”

Even the best safety programs are only effective when they are embraced by every employee in the company, Dwyer said. “We are making good progress, but there is still some work to do before we create the safety culture we want across all areas of our operation.”