What a Workplace Health & Safety Officer Looks for during an Inspection - Evan Campbell Director of Compliance & Enforcement, WorkSafeNB

Tune in to hear Evan Campbell explain how WorkSafeNB conducts data-driven inspections of over 30,000 workplaces to identify hazards and enforce safety compliance through both education and strict enforcement measures. He stresses that effective workplace safety depends on active practices and open communication—not just documentation—with a zero-tolerance standard for critical issues like fall protection.

Transcript

Perley Brewer (Guest)   0:10
Welcome to today's podcast.
My name is Pearlie prayer and I'll be your host.
Today's podcast guest is Evan Campbell, director of Compliance and enforcement for Work Safe NB.
Evan is here today to talk to us about what a health or what a workplace they should say.
Work saving be health and safety officer looks like and looks for in a workplace inspection.
OK, I think I wanna start that one over again guys.
OK, so let's start from the beginning.
OK, welcome to today's Podcast.
My name is Perley Burg, and I will be your host.
Today's podcast guest is Evan Campbell, director of Compliance and enforcement for Work Safe NB.
Evan is here today to talk to us about what a Worksafe NB Health and safety officer looks for in a workplace inspection.
Let's start a discussion, Evan with you telling our listeners what a work safe NB Health and Safety Officer work safe work safe.
I should say inspection is are you?
What is his purpose?

Campbell, Evan   1:11
They do.
Perley, for having me on.
So, absolutely, uh, work safe.
Health and safety officer work Site inspection is a proactive process where an officer visits a workplace to assess compliance with New Brunswick Occupational health and safety laws.
Ohm these inspections are meant to identify potential hazards, ensuring that safety measures are in place and support employers and workers and maintaining a healthy and safety environment.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   1:42
So how does work safe NB's officer decide who to inspect?
Where to go?

Campbell, Evan   1:51
Yes, um, New Brunswick, we have over 15,000 employers and more than 30,000 workplaces in the province.
The country viewed stood out 370,000 workers.
The three largest sectors are the retail, construction and healthcare.
Out of the 15,000 employers, over 80% are considered small, which is means under 12 employees.
Then we have over 3000 medium size in approximately 1000 large employers with over 55 or more employees.
Given those numbers, it's simply not possible to visit every workplace each year.
That's why we rely heavily on our data to kind of guide our decisions.
Work safe.
NB officers have work plans that are developed kind of based on multiple criterias, including industry trends.
We look at instant rates and severity.
We also use regional knowledge and observation complaints that we receive from workers in the public.
By using this information, we're able to prioritize inspections, focus, or efforts where they're most needed to protect workers.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   3:09
Yeah.

Campbell, Evan   3:09
Uh, it's important to note that most workplaces or employers, they're fix, so they're not moving all throughout the province.
So that's one thing kind of beneficial to us.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   3:23
No, I've had folks asked me over the years, you know, when an officer comes into a workplace.
What?
What kind of things do they look for?
So perhaps a way we could give him a a sense of what you actually do look for is I've come up with four different scenarios that the kind of businesses that are that you might see around the province of the first one.
If you had an officer that went to, say, a bottling plant like a Moosehead facility, they walked through the door.
What?
What can I tell items?
What kind of things are they gonna look for?

Campbell, Evan   3:56
All inspections are centred around ensuring compliance with the New Brunswick Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations.
While there are core elements, officers will always look at, such as employers, health and safety program, first aid provisions and the presence and functioning of the children health Safety committees.
The main focus will vary depending on the industry and conditions observed at the site.
So for a bottling plant, the officer would look at machine guarding, lockout, tagout procedures, noise levels, chemical safety, maybe cleaning agents, warehouse traffic such as forklift safety.
Those would also be priorities.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   4:44
How long would it take you to do an inspection of a facility like that?

Campbell, Evan   4:49
It could range depending.
It could be a couple hours ohm and they may not be able to tour the whole facility.
There's some really large they may be just a a designated area on their inspection plan.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   5:03
OK, the second scenario, roofing contractor installing a refund, say a three story home.
So your officers driving around, he sees perhaps a new construction or he's been made aware of a of a new construction or a even a replacement of a roof on a home.
What kind of things would they look for there?

Campbell, Evan   5:22
Definitely fall protection would be the primary concern.
Ensuring guard rails harness life lines.
Proper anchor points are in place.
Who later use?
Also, we would look at weather conditions.
Safe, safe material handling would also be review.
We would also probably ask for training on, you know, understanding what type of training they had around fall protection and those things.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   5:49
So if you have a for 1/3 scenario construction, say, have a six story office building or an apartment building, we're seeing quite a few loads go up.
I know here in the city of Fredericton, an officer goes on on a larger site like that.
What kinds of items would they would they want to focus on?

Campbell, Evan   6:08
Here the inspection would be more comprehensive.
Officers would be accessing scaffold safety, maybe mobile crane operations, fall protection, housekeeping, site access and traffic control.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   6:26
What about a trenching scenario?

Campbell, Evan   6:29
Um for trenching.
The officers would focus on trench safety, ensuring proper shoring, benching, or sloping was in place.
They may also look at just the exit and entry points depending on the situation.
Maybe atmospheric testing if it was confined space.
Also, looking at traffic controls and maybe utility locates natural gas lines, electrical those things.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   6:58
So when the officer does the inspection and finds item or items are not in compliance, what options do they have to try and correct that?

Campbell, Evan   7:09
The answer is we have a range of tools.
We try to use the right one for the right situation.
Our first approach is often a collaborative approach.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   7:17
Right.

Campbell, Evan   7:19
We think if it's a matter of weariness or understanding, we might start with education or training.
Officers can take the time to explain what's required and why it's important.
A lot of employers want to do the right thing.
They just may not know exactly what it is or what it looks like.
Um, so that's one of their first tools.
But when education isn't enough, or if the issue is more serious, then we move to enforcement and that could mean writing an order requiring the employer to fix the issue within a specific time, or more urgent cases where there's a serious risk to workers, health and safety, we can issue a stop work order until the danger is resolved.
We also have another tool.
It's fairly new, but like ministrative penalties which are fines or noncompliance, those are the most serious cases, and especially where there has been willful or reckless disregard for safety, the file could be referred to our investigations team for further action.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   8:24
Now, if you issued many fines to date or administrative penalties.

Campbell, Evan   8:29
Ohm I want.
Yeah, we have.
Well, I won't say many.
We've we've conducted and I'll get into that probably maybe more in detail, but we've conducted 6000 activities in 2024 and we written we did about 4700.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   8:44
Yeah.

Campbell, Evan   8:50
Or or inspections and out of those inspections, rewrite in 3700 orders and out of those orders just a small percentage.
I would say 127 ministrative penalties were issued in 2024, so we do use them.
I did look at the statistics.
In 2023, they are up.
We probably using more administrative penalties, but again it's still a very small percentage.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   9:25
Are there any specific topics that you would tend to see where administrative penalties would be used?

Campbell, Evan   9:34
Yeah, I think there that we do have a system in place some.
I won't list them all, but there's quite a few there.
Most would be maybe around lockout falls, confined space ohm guarding.
Hey, coming in contact with a natural gas line without having a locate those ones would generate.
Uh, automatically, administrative penalties.
This ohm so it would be kind of the burden of the employer to demonstrate to the officer that they had the corrective measures to ensure that administrative penalties is in issued.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   10:03
The.
What would be the most common order that you would write or the officer would write?

Campbell, Evan   10:26
When was great question in 2024, our compliance Forcement team, like I said conducted over 6000 activities.
So I love all those activities a three 3700 orders were issued.
The most common orders written were under the general regulations we had over 2000 orders in this category alone.
These typically cover things like machine guarding, personal protective equipment, fall protection, and general housekeeping.
Basically, the foundational Safety stuff that applies to most workplaces to dive down deeper, I looked at it.
We've also tissued 380 orders brick related to electrical safety and if we break electrical safety down 109 orders were specific to electrical equipment like main service switches and temporary panel boards.
Um.
So I've kind of focus on electrical safety, but just kind of a high level of what type of orders work safe NB Roach in 2024.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   11:31
Yeah.
Now when you when you look at the orders that you've written, if you look at the kinds of workplaces that you go into, are there any areas that are concerned to you or that you're you may be paying a little extra attention to because of perhaps a statistic you're seeing it or what the officers are telling you?

Campbell, Evan   12:02
Yes.
Um, we look at one of the things we've Worksafe NB we're.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   12:09
Yeah.

Campbell, Evan   12:10
Um conducted or I guess paired up or for compensation system.
So our compensation system fuels the work plan.
So a lot of the claims data injury severity, frequency, ohm, that information kinda works its way into our work plan and our planning.
Yeah, if there are things that we are seeing, we make those strategic priorities.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   12:35
What about soft tissue injuries?
Do you?
I know that's a real fuzzy areas, so to speak.
What?
How are your officers handling those kind of questions that workplaces might have about, you know, lifting and and so on manual material handling and so on?

Campbell, Evan   12:53
So for what we call call soft issue or MSI's, we do have a dedicated team.
If an officer is unable to provide information or education or training.
They would refer those services to we have our ergonomics officers, so they they're part of technical services and they can provide services to our clients.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   13:21
Now, can they write orders as such?

Campbell, Evan   13:24
Yes.
Anyone who has?
AI officer appointment has the authority inability uh to write an order.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   13:37
So you've talked about, you know, what officers look for when they go in to do an inspection in the different aspects.
What about the paperwork aspect?
Organizations are required to, you know, to have, for example, joint health and Safety Committee, do orientation for new workers, written health and safety program to go to practice.
All this sort of thing.
What's your approach in regards to the sort of the the paperwork into the business?

Campbell, Evan   14:05
Yeah, that's a great question.
And honestly, while it may seem like just paperwork, these are really the building blocks of a good safety program.
What we call the internal responsibility system, we're not just walking in with a checklist looking for binders on a shelf.
What we really wanted to see are that these things are actually being used, lived out in the workplace.
So yes, we'll we'll also about the joint and health safety committees will look for proof of new employee orientation and we'll want to see a written health and safety programs in any required codes of practice.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   14:32
Yeah.

Campbell, Evan   14:45
But more than that, we're having conversations with workers and supervisors to see if these programs are actually working.
Are people aware of the safety rules?
Are they being trained?
Do they feel comfortable reporting hazards?
So yeah, paperwork matters, but not only if it's a backup by real actions on the floor.
A strong safety culture shows up.
Not just in documents, but how people talk and act every day.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   15:15
Do you still have the areas of 0 tolerance that you had a few years ago?

Campbell, Evan   15:20
Yes, we do have 0 tolerance and that would go back to your ministrator penalties. 0 tolerance.
A.
But we have around fall protection trenching locked out those those zero tolerance measures are are triggers for administrative penalties.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   15:44
So when you talk to your colleagues across Canada, what sort of sense do you get from the point of view of of the philosophy of inspections, the different jurisdictions have to, you know, the people put more emphasis on education?
Do they put more in consulting inspections?
Do you find any any variants when you talk to your different colleagues and different provinces, different jurisdictions?

Campbell, Evan   16:07
Yes, the money is reaching out to the other jurisdictions.
When I became a director in this role, I the first day I think I reached out to my counterpart and work safe BC and just to get their counterpart UM.
I also realized that work safe NB should be very proud who they are.
I think they were recognized as the top employer in Atlantic Canada.
We're also considered the safest place in New Brunswick, so there are elements that we are doing here.
Great.
I think one of the things I looked at and maybe more a collaborative approach more.
A focus around lessening.
One example I can give is the fishing industry.
Fishing industry is an old industry, but it's a fairly new industry to work safe and NB, so we're doing an educational training awareness.
We had a town hall session and Block Bay last fall, and that's where the fishing association for characters gathered, and rather than tell them what the regulations were, we really wanted to hear their concerns.
And any questions they had.
So the listening proach was beneficial because they brought up things like right to refuse.
And we were able to explain the process.
We've also things we're learning too is that there are new industry, they may not be fully aware who to report to.
So reporting is a another important thing.
So yeah, I think it's really understanding or clients who are clients are and connect tailoring or specific approach to.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   17:57
Any heart issues in health and safety across Canada member a few years ago, jurors.
Some of the jurisdictions like British Columbia, they were having a lot of asbestos, for example, issues that because of so much construction in in old buildings.
So converting them to condos and apartments and so on.
And what are you hearing from your colleagues again as far as sort of hot issues in their jurisdiction or what they're seeing, maybe an increase in accidents, whatever?

Campbell, Evan   18:30
So we do reach out and do get provided feedback.
There are some uniqueness to the province, some industries maybe in logging and civil culture, like on hills and slopes may not apply to New Brunswick, where maybe BC it's an issue ohm.
We do look at commercial fishing, we also you know, you know we realize that we may have more protected waters.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   18:49
OK.

Campbell, Evan   18:58
We're we're more sheltered.
But you know, what are the risks to those uniqueness around diving?
Cause maybe we have different challenges around diving versus in those industries.
Yeah.
No.
We do also look at, I think one example was going to talk about is we do have strategic initiatives.
One is, I think was discussed on the podcast by my counterparts is the silica tool.
So that came about conversations with other jurisdictions.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   19:27
Hmm.

Campbell, Evan   19:31
You know, I think if you look at New Brunswick, we're in a construction boom and my partner, she wanted quartz countertops and it's it's engineered stone and there's risk around cutting it.
And and I wasn't aware of those hazards and which I thought was interesting.
And so it is a learning, health and safety is always evolving on, you know, even sometimes all things you know are still hurting people which, you know, we're trying to understand, you know, lock out and guarding a lot of people are still getting hurt.
Ohm and you know and I was trying to understand what is the people process and the equipment issues around those, how can we help support our clients from preventing those injuries from occurring?

Perley Brewer (Guest)   20:26
So the summer season is as many referred to as coming up a lot more construction, lot more general activity.
The new hopes that work safe have any sort of special initiatives on the GO relative to this summer season.

Campbell, Evan   20:43
So annually, we usually have strategic initiatives and our strategic strategic initiatives are kind of aligning with our organizational values.
So my teams were responsible for the entry frequency and injury severity, frequency KPI.
So we're there, try to drive, try to drive those numbers, making New Brunswick the safest place.
So one of the things we looked at is fall protection initiative.
Since 2018, there's been 65 fatalities.
So when we look at this, it indicates that from the severity injury frequency that it's false.
So what type of falls is it?
Is it slip?
Fall in a parking lot.
Is it a you know, a fall from roof?
One of the things we have great access is a lot of information and data.
So to kind of tailor approach and to kind of narrow in our focus what we've observed is 80% of the injuries around falls severity is sociated to.
Accessing scaffolding and platforms, so we'll be taking a strategic note initiative focusing around training and education and access around scaffold, trying to drive down the injury severity frequency.
The other one we're looking at also too is we have a lot of newcomers into the province.
Some of the numbers so I have, I think that we had 23,000 and there are contributing to our communities, but we also they're entitled to rights as well not to get injured.
So we have partnership with the Migrant Workers Alliance.
We've also reached out to.
Employers for feedback to have an understanding.
What resources they may need to help support new comers, one of the group of newcomers were looking at is temporary foreign workers in the commercial facial processing plant.
We're looking at new employee orientation.
Um, kind of looking, maybe focusing on lockout, guard out and maybe providing additional resources in various languages.
Plain language helped to support newcomers to kind of understand the rights.
And have access to those information more readily available.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   23:26
No, I know one of the areas that's always been difficult when you talk about falls is a lot of people doing work on roofing jobs around.
I know around here in the city you can drive around in the summer and unfortunately in a lot of cases you know you, you'll see different roofing companies and and they're not wearing any form of fall protection.
How do you how do you try to reach out to those folks to to get them to make them more aware of the of the importance of doing that?

Campbell, Evan   23:58
So there's various tool tools we may receive.
Inquiry could be from the public or employees.
Ohm, uh we may because of the severity of it depending if we know the the employer will reach out to them, indicating that um.
But we have workers working on safely.
Then we'll have an officer dispatch to check out the workplace.
There will follow up and maybe ask questions.
1st we have to see, you know, one of the key principles of the health and safety officer is administrating justice.
An officer has a lot of.
Protections.
I guess authority we can go to a workplace on it now, once we can issue a stop work order.
So there's a lot of authority, so we have to make sure that we're ministering trust is barely, and when we are looking at fall protection, the same lens supplies.
So there are requirements in a regulation where fall protection is required.
Are they meeting the regulations?
I think that's what we're looking.
Is it a flat roof?
Do they have barriers guarding and trying to understand what corrective measures ultimately we're looking at compliance, trying to ensure workers comply and, as they did discuss, we do have those tools, various tools that we will try to leverage to help support compliance within the province.

Perley Brewer (Guest)   25:31
But.
Well, look, Kevin, like to thank you very much for joining us on today's podcast.
We certainly appreciate you.
You're taking the time from your visit schedule for our folks listening today.
Thank you very much for listening and stay safe.
We'll talk to you again next week.