CARSTAIRS - Town council has amended the municipality’s safety policy, establishing updated procedures for safe work practice, hazard control, incident reports and maintenance to town equipment.
The update for Safety Policy No. 12-030-24 came by way of motion during a recent, regularly-scheduled council meeting and included numerous additions and a few deletions.
The bylaw applies to employees, contractors and volunteers in town.
Chief administrative officer Rick Blair says the update came following a recent review by the health and safety committee.
“We have enhanced and updated the policy,” said Blair.
The updated policy outlines details of the health and safety committee’s roles and responsibilities, including ensuring the training of all employees in good safety practices, ensuring that employees are provided with all the necessary personal protective equipment they may need, and developing and keeping current safety program manuals for the town.
It also ensures the “documenting of every accident and incident and investigating and review to determine what caused the accident and what needs to be done to mitigate re-occurrences” and “develop and enforce safety rules and requires that employees cooperate with the rules as a condition of employment.”
The updated policy also includes a number of new guidelines, such as the following (quoted from the policy):
• We will do everything reasonably practical to eliminate or reduce work-related hazards. The Town of Carstairs expects its workforce to be familiar with and comply with all safe work practices, safety rules, preventative maintenance measures and relevant health and safety legislation as it relates to our operations.
• The Town of Carstairs staff at every level play an important role in making our workplace healthy and safe. Every employees, contractor and volunteer are personally responsible for their own safety as well as sharing the responsibility for safety of others.
• All employees are responsible for conducting themselves in a safe manner and for identifying and reporting unsafe acts or conditions.
In other news from the recent council meeting, councillors have repealed the Loitering Bylaw No. 646, which has been in place since 1982 and applied only to persons under the age of 16.
Administration is working on an updated loitering bylaw, which will be applicable to resident and visitor of all ages, he said.
Asked if the updated bylaw will include anything to do with pan-handling, he said, “It really hasn’t come up for us and it hasn’t been on our radar and we haven’t had anyone bring that forward as a concern. It’s not that we wouldn’t look at it.”
The updated bylaw will probably be ready for council consideration in the this spring, he said.
