This year’s inductees into the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame at the Museum of the Cariboo-Chilcotin in Williams Lake include a well-known farm and ranch safety advocate. Reg Steward was one of four inductees at this year’s ceremony on April 16, which also celebrated the contributions of working cowboy John Young, Okanagan horseman Allan Macdonnell …
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New child worker rules
Certain work will now be off limits to workers under the age of 18, according to new rules the BC Ministry of Labour announced October 11. BC farms can no longer allow youth under the age of 18 to work in confined spaces or work with “dangerous equipment” at on-farm abattoirs. A chainsaw is also …
Mental wellness resources meet a growing need
WILLIAMS LAKE – Growing crops and raising livestock are not only physically demanding, the seemingly endless uncertainties that go along with the work can take a toll on mental health. Between wildfires, drought (or floods), extreme heat, crop and livestock losses, financial concerns, changing regulations, COVID-19 and family expectations, there’s a lot that could keep …
WorkSafeBC increases inspections
The single-largest cause of on-farm injuries in the farm sector according to WorkSafeBC is falls, but with the COVID-19 pandemic still going strong the provincial agency is doubling down on efforts to make sure the farm sector is adhering to its safety plans designed to curb the risk of infection. WorkSafeBC announced May 8 that …
Farm injury rate falls
BC farms have been working hard to stay safe, an accomplishment AgSafeBC chair Don Dahr says everyone can take credit for. “With more than 24,000 workers in the agriculture subsector in 2019, a reduction in the number of time-lost claims is something everyone of us should be proud of,” he told the association’s annual meeting …
Pandemic-related stress increases
AgSafe BC safety advisor Emily Kerr was a featured presenter at Virtual Grower Day, organized by Greenhouse Canada on August 12. The live annual professional development and networking event had been scheduled to take place in Abbotsford, its first time in BC, but it was moved online in response to COVID-19. With five months of …