League of Champions Introduced to the Construction Industry
As a core value, health and safety has always been a top priority for Ball Construction. We were therefore very pleased to help introduce the League of Champions to the construction industry at the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) Leadership Day and the Certificate of Recognition program (COR™) Open House on February 19th.
The OGCA’s Leadership Day was held at the Centre for Health and Safety Innovation in Mississauga and was co-hosted by the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association and eCompliance.
The league is a joint OGCA/MySafeWork program supported by IHSA, WSIB and the Ministry of Labour intended to create a framework to promote worker safety and launch a program aimed at changing the culture of safety in Ontario in all industries, beginning with construction.
Regardless of sector, the League of Champions provides a common banner under which Ontario industries can unite and demonstrate their commitment to keeping Ontarians safe and healthy at work.
The initiative is directed at young workers, students, and apprentices with the goal of creating a culture of safety through awareness. Employers will serve as champions who are committed to building this safety culture within their organizations, while working in tandem with employee champions to meet and speak to the next generation of employees and develop new safety strategies.
OGCA and other industry sectors in partnership with MySafeWork will be taking this message into schools, training centers and businesses to promote the message of safety. The league represents an exciting new vision, building on the MySafeWork Jersey of Courage program. We will be expanding the program by providing more structure and a clearly identifiable industry buy-in to achieve a new culture of safety in Ontario.
League members will sign a charter affirming their company’s safety values and pay an annual fee to support programming. Upon membership approval, they’ll be entitled to use an NHL-style League of Champions emblem and will receive a symbolic signed jersey.
Six league champions prepared to demonstrate assertive health-and-safety leadership in Ontario. From left to right: David Frame( OGCA), Craig Lesurf (Walsh Canada), Clive Thurston (OGCA), Kevin Flynn (MPP Oakville, Minister of Labour ), Rob Ellis (MySafeWork), Jason Ball (Ball Construction, OGCA chairman).
