GrainsWest Spring 2020

they would just need to also address any hazards to the employee. GW : AgSafe offers resources and tools for farmers. How do these help contribute to safety plans? JW: We offer tools that make it easy to start, like the Quick Start Guide. Let’s not start saying we’re going to build a whole plan. Let’s take a piece and start thinking about what we could do to accomplish that. If you talk to people in other industries who are building full safety plans, it takes time. That’s really the key part of this: you’re not going to get it all done at once. GW : Are you seeing more general interest in safety? JW: We’re seeing increased uptake on our website, certainly around announcements. Last June, when the technical rules were coming out, farmers were on our website to find information. Again, in December 2018, when the rules were coming into ef- fect, farmers were again going, “OK, what does that mean? What do I have to do?” We made sure to put out documents detailing what changed with these new safety bills. GW : There have been plenty of changes to provincial farm safety legislation over the past five years, most recently, the implementation of Bill 26, the Farm Freedom and Safety Act. How has AgSafe supported farmers through these changes? JW: Every time legislation changes regarding farm safety, there is confusion, and AgSafe receives calls and emails from farmers asking what the legislation means for them. For example, the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act still applies to farms and ranches but the regulations and code under the Act do not. What is the difference, and what do I have to do? Some farmers wonder which rules apply to their farm. GW : What other AgSafe resources are available to farmers? JW: We’re developing a web portal so farmers will be able to log in and take some courses to introduce them to build- ing farm safety plans. There are tools and templates available to get started. The government used to do a two-day workshop. We brought it down to a half- day or one-day workshop, depending on the size of your farm and what you need to do. Then, if the farmer has completed the e-learning in the online portal and learned definitions and other pieces, they can come to the workshop and start building their hazard assessments and other tools with the support of someone from AgSafe. GW : What are the most important parts of on-farm safety for farmers to consider? JW: One of the requirements under the OHS Act is to identify the hazards on your farm. Then you can decide what you will do to eliminate or reduce the risk of haz- ards. That’s certainly a good place to start. The other one is having your emergency response ready. As the owner of the farm, you can describe every land location and specific quarter. But if somebody is work- ing for you out on one of those pieces and gets into trouble and needs to call for help or call an ambulance, can they describe their location? Is the information handy in the cab of the tractor or combine for them to tell emergency services? GW : Has your perception of on-farm safety changed since joining AgSafe? JW: In safety circles, it’s referred to as the iceberg theory: for every dollar in direct cost of an accident or incident, there is somewhere between $5 to $50 in other costs that you don’t directly see for that incident. Perhaps downtime fixing the equipment, insurance costs and other factors. As farmers, we manage risk for prices, markets and weather. We have to think about safety as the same sort of thing. What’s the most valuable resource on your farm? It’s not the buildings or machinery, it’s the people. We want to mitigate that risk and keep them safe. Spring 2020 Grains West 16 JodyWacowich discusses farm safety planning with AgSafe director Ian Chitwood in his shop. PERSON PLACE & THING