Amber Misner remembers the moment she started treating occupational health and safety with the seriousness it deserves.
The vice chairperson for the Central Alberta chapter of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers was a 22-year-old welder’s helper, working near Drayton Valley in 2004. She was told 21-year-old Dustin Cadrain, working on the next jobsite over, was killed when a heavy sideboom collapsed on top of him.
“You don’t expect it, you think you’re invincible at that age,” Misner said. “It definitely threw me for a loop.”
Misner, now 29, lives near Eckville and works as an occupational health and safety coordinator at Westridge Cabinets in Red Deer. She is currently on maternity leave, but has found time to organize Red Deer’s first ever Steps for Life event, a five kilometer walk for the victims of workplace tragedy.
“When people die on the job, often doing things they’re not qualified to do, you don’t really hear about it,” she said.
According to a report released in 2010 by the Government of Alberta, 1,285 occupational fatalities occurred in the province between 2000 and 2009.
The same study showed the fatality frequency rates in Alberta in 2008 (8.9 per 100,000 workers) to be the third highest in Canada, behind Newfoundland and Labrador (11.7) and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut (13.4).
Misner said its important to note Alberta Health and Safety factors fatalities that occurred in transit (to and from work), and illnesses causing death such as asbestosis into these numbers, which most other provinces don’t account for.
Regardless, nearly every workplace fatality is an avoidable tragedy and the issue needs to be combated with training and enforcement, as well as public awareness, Misner said.
The Steps for Life walk on May 1 is part of North American Occupational Safety and Health Week, which runs the first week of May, each year.
Misner said Mayor Morris Flewelling, Derek Kearney from Alberta Workplace Health and Safety, and Dustin Cadrain’s mother, Lynn will speak at the event.
All the proceeds from the walk, which takes place in 37 communities across Canada, will benefit Threads for Life, a non-profit group which provides financial support and counselling to the families of workers who have been killed or seriously injured on the job.
Misner also said the walk is a way of honouring the many people who have died on the jobsite in Alberta — more than 100 just last year.
“This is a way of remembering those people and hopefully preventing it from happening again,” Misner said.
For more information or to register for Steps for Life, visit stepsforlife.ca/register or contact Amber Misner directly at 587-877-7688.
syoung@www.reddeeradvocate.com