Alberta Rigging Safety Council launches after tradesperson's death
New oversight body funded by $1.2 million creative sentence aims to prevent hoisting and rigging injuries after Red Seal journeyman Brandon Nelson died on the job in 2022.
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Alberta has launched a new Rigging Safety Council, tasked with reducing hoisting and rigging-related injuries and fatalities in the province's trades sectors.
The council's creation was funded through what Alberta Occupational Health and Safety says is its largest-ever creative sentence — $1.2 million directed from an offender toward workplace safety improvement.
The research behind the council began after Red Seal journeyman Brandon Nelson, 26, died in Fort McMurray in 2022 when a piece of equipment suspended from a crane struck him and fell.
"It's a tremendous opportunity to do right by people who have essentially given their life, and to make sure that that same thing doesn't happen again," said Thomas O'Neill, lead researcher and professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Calgary.
The council serves as an oversight body representing industry interests to regulators, unions, and policymakers. "We currently lack a source of truth about what are the safest rigging policy and lifting practices," O'Neill said. "There's really nobody that can answer all of these questions for employers, so employers are left to their own devices to ensure their employees are properly trained."
Jesse Johnson, chair of the Alberta Rigging Safety Council, emphasized the need for standardized training. "If we're going to have any person on any job site performing the task of rigging and hoisting, then we need to have them meet this basic minimum standard," he said.
Creative sentencing — where courts direct offenders to fund projects improving workplace health and safety — has been part of Alberta's approach to OHS violations since 2002.
