51st Annual Health and Safety Seminar for the Mining Sector THE MINING INDUSTRY, PROUD OF ITS RESULTS IN HEALTH AND SAFETY, AND COMMITTED TO IMPROVE ALWAYS
22/09/2015
Québec City, September 22, 2015 – The Québec Mining Association (QMA) is proud to announce its 51st annual health and safety seminar for the mining sector. Each year, the event brings together managers and supervisors from Québec's mining sector and provides an ideal opportunity to learn more about best practices and help prevent mining accidents. It also allows the QMA, which was originally set up in 1936 to improve the health and safety of mine workers, to recognize and reward the efforts of health and safety workers.
"It is no secret that accident prevention in the mining sector is a key concern for us," says Josée Méthot, the QMA's President and CEO. "We will always strive to do more, and we are happy to see the improving trend in recent years. Health and safety are now firmly anchored in mining company practices, at all levels. The accident frequency rate has continued to improve from year to year, and is a source of pride for the QMA and for the whole of the industry."
Positive deviants
Positive deviants After making an enormous effort to make machinery and tools safer and to implement a strong health and safety culture within Québec's mining companies over a period of almost two decades, Québec's mining industry noted in 2015 that it had reached a plateau in terms of the accident rate and that it would now be difficult to influence the rate further using existing methods and practices. For this reason, the QMA has set up an innovative new program, "Positive Deviants".
"The positive deviants program will take pride of place in coming years," says Josée Méthot. "The program is intended to continue to improve the accident rate in the mining industry by focusing on the inter-dependency of work teams. We hope that all workers will learn to worry not just about their own health and safety, but that of other people as well. We believe that this approach will encourage our workers to agree to pay more attention to other people in the workplace and will stimulate a dynamic of sharing to achieve excellence in the area of workplace health and safety. To reach our goal, we will follow the example set by positive deviants."
Positive deviants are people identified by the QMA for their positive attitude and behaviour, working in all departments and at all levels. They display natural, communicative leadership which encourages the people around them to follow their example, take responsibility and imitate their approach to health and safety. "It is no longer enough to keep health and safety in our minds—we now have to implement a strategy to keep in our hearts," adds Ms. Méthot.
About the Québec Mining Association
The Québec Mining Association (QMA) was founded in 1936 and speaks proactively for mining companies involved in extraction and processing, mining contractors and junior mining companies, along with suppliers, institutions, non-profit organizations and other mining sector partners. It is proud of the 45,000 high-quality jobs and $3.2 billion in investment generated by Québec’s mining industry over the last year. The QMA’s mission is to promote, support and play a role in the development of a responsible, committed and innovative mining industry in Québec.