Everyday heroes who install, operate and maintain technical equipment across British Columbia help keep people safe on a daily basis.
The people and organizations that work tirelessly to ensure such safety are not the type of heroes who make the front-page news, says Technical Safety BC president and CEO Catherine Roome.
It’s by keeping accidents from happening that their diligent and careful heroics are performed every day.
Technical safety awards
“There are heroes that come to work every day and their job has a component of making sure that a technical piece of equipment is not going to hurt somebody the next day, or the next month or the next year,” says Roome. “I want to make sure that society understands we need to look at all kinds of heroes and make sure their accomplishments are brought forward.”
To help bring those accomplishments forward, the Lieutenant Governor Safety Awards were created to recognize individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to safe technical systems in the province.
Roome says nominating someone for an award helps create awareness and exposure of the importance of safe technical systems. Recognition helps encourage and acknowledge those who have made outstanding contributions, and also provides examples and best practices for others to learn from
Sharing technical safety knowledge
Sharing technical safety knowledge and inspiring colleagues is another reason awards like this are important, says Jennifer Kuba, marketing business partner with Technical Safety BC.
Award recipients are asked to speak about their work at the awards event, sharing their experience and knowledge with colleagues.
“The importance of that for us is to share the knowledge across the safety system,” says Kuba. “We want to share those best practices across the safety system to improve the learning and to help others achieve the same success.”
Past award recipient Hennie Prinsloo notes the need to learn from others to keep improving technical safety.
“Safety in the technical sphere is where it is today because of incremental improvements made over years, often triggered, motivated or accelerated by an incident or wanting to avoid an incident,” says Prinsloo. He was recognized with the Excellence in Boiler, Pressure Vessel and Refrigeration Safety award in 2015
“When I heard that I was to be honoured with the Lieutenant Governor Safety Award, I was surprised and speechless,” he says.
The award recipients are chosen by the Safety Award Selection Committee. The 2018 Lieutenant Governor Safety Awards luncheon will be held at the Parq Vancouver on November 7.
Recipients will be presented with a certificate and an award by B.C. Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin. The lieutenant-governor of British Columbia has partnered with Technical Safety BC on the awards since 2005, lending the weight of B.C.’s highest office to the honour and helping fill a previous gap in the recognition for those contributing to B.C.’s technical safety system.
Nominate someone for a safety award
Know someone or an organization that has significantly contributed to the technical safety system?
It’s easy to nominate someone for an award in one of the four categories:
• Exceptional Contribution to Technical Safety as an asset owner (individual or organization)
• Exceptional Contribution to Technical Safety as a contractor (individual or organization)
• Excellence in Safety and Technical Training
• Data and Digital Technology in Technical Safety
“With respect for nominators’ time we have tried to make the nomination process quite straightforward,” says Kuba. “Nominators simply need to submit a maximum of 500 words or a two-minute video on why they believe the nominee should be recognized, and then include two letters or videos from other individuals or organizations in support of the nominee.”
It takes just a few clicks on Technical Safety BC’s event page to submit a nomination.
The deadline for nominations is September 14.
