Health & Safety at the Core of Pomerleau’s Business
About Pomerleau
Pomerleau is one of Canada’s largest construction companies, excelling in delivering buildings, civil and infrastructure works, and major projects using alternative models. With its research and development lab, Pomerleau integrates innovation into more than 70% of its projects and constructs sustainably to build the living environments of tomorrow. Guided by their family values and innovation since their founding in 1966, Pomerleau recognizes their corporate responsibility to solidify their commitment to sustainable development and the importance of having the highest standards of environmental management in their projects.
Prioritizing Safety Excellence
Ten years ago, when Mitch Flannigan joined Pomerleau, they were already on their way to achieving safety excellence, with a focus on where they wanted to go.
“Our safety culture at Pomerleau is paramount to everything that we do. We give the tools, and empower every one of our staff to be involved in the safety process when it comes to regular enhancements to our safety program,” says Flannigan, Regional Health and Safety Manager at Pomerleau. “Internal meetings, whether on a worksite or office, incorporate a health and safety moment.”
At Pomerleau, health & safety is at the core of their business. The company has multiple teams of employees who teach and adhere to an active safety culture. In addition to being COR® Certified, they are an active coast-to-coast leader in the construction industry. To promote safety excellence in the industry, Pomerleau joined a committee formed by the top ten construction companies of general contractors in Canada. Together these corporate competitors collaborate to implement changes that will make the industry safer.
Putting COR® at the Core of the Company
In Nova Scotia, Pomerleau has been a CSNS member and COR® Certified since 2004. To continue maintaining safety excellence at Pomerleau, the Health and Safety team ensures all projects meet the COR® program standard.
“For Pomerleau, the COR® Standard ensures we know where we need and want to be but more importantly, we use it as criteria when employing our sub-trade partners. When we issue a contract to our sub-partners, I ask for specific assessments or procedures on specialized operations, that I know won’t be a surprise to the sub-partner because they are also COR® Certified,” says Flannigan. “It creates a level of conversation and understanding throughout our sub-trade partner relationships.”
Even though Pomerleau operates their own specialized training facility called PX3, Flannigan says that CSNS remains a preferred training partner. “We will always send our personnel to Construction Safety Nova Scotia for training like, Fall Protection, Confined Space, and more,” he says. “CSNS’s training allows us to easily maintain the proper certifications necessary to work safely.”
Health and Safety in Action
As the Regional Health & Safety Manager at Pomerleau, Flannigan’s role is to manage a team of Safety Coordinators right through Atlantic Canada and give them guidance to ensure the COR® program is met at their project sites. Most of Pomerleau’s sites have a full-time Health and Safety Coordinator that regularly conducts audits and acts as an advisor.
With any ongoing operations at Pomerleau, their onsite team and safety personnel work in conjunction to ensure that for every decision made – from mobilization to demobilization, and once construction is finished – safety is always at the top of the mind. Pomerleau’s safety program has evolved and excelled so much that they’ve created a department in their organization solely focused on environment and sustainability.
