Our 10th Outreach and Diversity session, on 23 March 2022, looked at safe and inclusive work spaces.
The speakers:
- Stewart Cameron (Kiwitinohk Acahkos) of the Saulteau First Nation in BC and president of Maugwa Energy;
- Michael Gibb, director of health, safety, security and quality at Coastal GasLink; and
- Budd Phillips, manager of prevention field services (and manager for oil and gas) at WorkSafe BC.
Quick quotes:
Stewart Cameron spoke on how “cultural safety” goes beyond cultural understanding and produces better, mutually beneficial relationships that don’t have agendas.
“There was a dark history. . . . When people say ‘history’ we always point out it’s not history to us, because the effects and the impact of it are still alive and here with us today, and we’re still dealing with it. . . .
“People have to start to understand, corporations and industry have to start understanding, when they’re making a relationship with me the Indigenous person, they have to take into consideration and understand my world view. along with my traditions . . . and the effects of what happened to us as Indigenous people and how we’re dealing with it today (and) listen to each other with our hearts and our ears.”
Michael Gibb
“We got together as a leadership group (at Coastal GasLink) and the question was posed, ‘What’s our commitment to this project? What’s our commitment as leaders towards safety? What’s our commitment as leaders toward the people who work on this project, to the communities who work on this project? . . . At the end of that two days, we came out with one sentence: ‘Together, we will create an extraordinary legacy of safety and respect for all people, communities and the environment.’ . . . We all agreed on it, so we can always go back to that, as leaders. ‘Are we aligned with that commitment?’ . . . The commitment doesn’t change.”
Budd Phillips
“In the past we probably had a pretty clinical approach to it, and over time we’ve recognized that understanding, especially, cultural differences, sensitivities, etc., from our perspective helps us be more effective in doing our job. Our ultimate goal is to ensure safe and healthy workplaces, and . . . being sensitive to cultural differences . . . brings about a much more happy and productive workplace.”
- You can watch and listen to the Zoom session at http://ow.ly/2X6r50Iue2W (Passcode is QI0H!H0?)
Check out, too, our Outreach session on 23 February 2022 that looked at First Nations monitoring and input on the environmental impact of LNG, pipeline, and resource development: http://ow.ly/eoKe50IuepR
And earlier sessions are available via http://ow.ly/HFy150Iuew3
(Posted here 28 March 2022)
