Message from Mark Hoosein

Hello all,

I hope this message finds you all in good health and spirits. I am pleased to address you today with some updates and opportunities that lie ahead for our Association.

We emphasize the importance of a Certification of Recognition (COR™) and Small Employers Certificate of Recognition (SECOR™). These certifications have proven invaluable in promoting safety excellence and fostering a safety culture within our industry. Obtaining these certifications showcases our commitment to best practices, continuous improvements, and safeguarding our workforce. With this in mind, ACSA will reach out to our members who have yet to achieve their COR™/SECOR™ certifications in the coming months.

  • More than 4,300 (45%) employers in Alberta are COR™/SECOR™-certified with ACSA.
    • Approximately 49 per cent of COR™ holders in Alberta are certified with ACSA
    • Approximately 37 per cent of SECOR™ holders in Alberta are certified with ACSA.

Per our 2022 membership data, ACSA member companies with COR™ or SECOR™ have a lower average frequency rate of lost time claims than those without certifications.

From our 2022 What We Heard report, many of you shared your need for ACSA to increase our offerings in all formats, including in-person, online, virtual instructor-led (vILT) and on-demand. For this reason, ACSA is embracing a hybrid approach to learning and proctoring, allowing our members to choose the best method. On that note, our online proctoring system is coming soon, giving candidates who wish to get their NHSA™ and NCSO™ designations the ability to complete their exams anywhere, with an internet connection.

Your ACSA management team collaborated with our Board of Directors in June to chart the renewed strategic path forward. I am excited to share that we have come to significant alignment in how the Board and Administration wish to serve the industry and our members best. In the coming months, we will share updates on:

  • A revised strategic plan that clarifies our value proposition, core values, mission and vision—an initiative I am excited to begin sharing with you in early 2024.
  • Our efforts to build a culture of engagement and collaboration among our members, partners, and the industry are helping us move from compliance to culture.

These will ensure that we are prepared to face the evolving challenges in our industry, keep our employees, members and partners at the centre of our strategy, and remain at the forefront of safety practices.

Rather than distributing a ‘What We Heard’ survey this year, we shifted our focus to analyzing the feedback we’ve received from you in the past years. I am eager to share the resulting changes with you as we make improvements based on your and industry feedback.

Our 2023 ACSA Conference, November 22-23 at the Hyatt Regency Calgary, will be extra special as we celebrate our 35th anniversary. The Conference theme, “Healthy Minds, Safe Workplaces—Constructing a Culture of Safety,” underscores our dedication to the physical and psychological safety and well-being of our workforce.

We are collaborating with Canadian subject matter experts in psychological health and safety, equipping us with practical takeaways and guidelines that facilitate actions. Through these partnerships, we can address the physical aspects of safety and the mental health of our workforce, fostering a holistic culture of safety. Our goal is to provide our members with the best tools, resources and information to help address the growing mental health challenges affecting the construction industry today.

To ensure our Conference’s success, we will conduct a pre-Conference survey to understand your specific challenges in integrating psychological health and safety into your programs. Your participation and input will allow us to tailor our Conference topics to suit your needs. Please watch for our special newsletter edition in August for more information.

On a personal level, my tenure so far has granted me the opportunity to connect with many of our members and partners—critical in our journey to advance construction safety standards and practices. It is hard to single out just one or two of the stakeholders I’ve had the privilege of meeting. Still, whether it be someone representing the Road Builders, Home Builders, or the concrete industry, we all want the same thing—a safer work environment. One major objective moving forward will be to work together for our mutual goals. We can achieve so much more together than in isolation.

Finally, I thank each of you for your commitment to construction safety. Your dedication has brought us this far, and together, we will continue to shape a safer and prosperous future for our industry.

I look forward to welcoming you to our 2023 ACSA Conference for an educational and celebratory event!

Thank you,

Mark Hoosein

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