ORFA Facility Focus

ORFA’s Technical Director speaks with Amanda Nadeau from Timmins, Tiffany Vis from Thunder Bay and April McNamara from Parry Sound on how the Pandemic and loss of Canadian Red Cross aquatic training programs are impacting their ability to provide service. There has been a 2-year in service recertification pool gap and a loss of trained lifeguards that are going to limit aquatic programs and services across the province and beyond. 

In this podcast, ORFA’s Technical Director goes down the “what is training” rabbit hole while looking back at ORFA’s evolution in training, professional development and certification over the past 75 years. As a supervisor you need to consider do I want an employee who has graduated from the Harvard of the industry or a pop up trainer? The ORFA pathways have been designed by practitioners who work in the industry full time. Not all training is equal or carries the same weight when called into question. Want to know what you're buying… listen to this episode of Facility Focus Podcast.

The May 9th, 1992 Westray mining explosion that claimed 26 lives resulted in accountability change across Canada as Bill C-45 was created to help ensure that those directly responsible for the health and safety of others are held criminally accountability should they fail to act appropriately. In this podcast, ORFA’s Technical Director looks back at the Westray accident and the legal wranglings that occurred post event that had Canadians coast to coast demand change. He also overlays the Westray event over the Fernie BC refrigeration plant explosion and shares that 5-years after the October 17, 2017 accident that the BC RCMP investigation remains open and active and speculates that B-C45 could be playing a role.

In this podcast ORFA’s Technical Director shares how the ORFA arrives at industry best practices by clarifying ORFA’s role which does not include evaluating any product or service that is available in the marketplace. The conversation includes a discussion on the question of “is it time to rethink hot water flooding”? If we look back at how we have changed many of our operational approaches but not really changed flood water temperature maybe it is time to re-evaluate what works – but that’s up to the ORFA which is in fact our members not the staff in Suite 102 at 1 Concorde Gate in Toronto. Have a listen.

In this podcast, ORFA’s Technical Director Terry Piche chats about the first aid responsibilities and misconceptions of recreation services as it is a unique work environment that balances both worker and public safety. Understanding the potential return on investment for quality First Aid and CPR training and on site equipment was once again highlighted in a recent event at a Collingwood Arena. Are facility staff expected to respond as EMS when the publics health at risk. The ORFA recognizes the frontline staff who responded to this event but also wishes to point out the leadership of supervisory staff by not only investing in staff training and on site equipment but also for their commitment to ensure that all the moving parts to this responsibility were in fact properly maintained. Understanding compliance and moral response is a supervisors obligation to discuss with their team.

In this podcast, ORFA’s Technical Director shares what he didn’t know was legally required, some of the historical gaps and the roles and responsibilities of refrigeration plant stakeholders as it relates to plantroom logbook information. Read ORFA Technical Corner on this topic.

ORFA’s Technical Director, Terry Piche chats about the gifts that the “light bulb salesperson” used to bring in the olden days to the benefits and challenges of having a purchasing department to navigate in todays workplace. When buying any equipment in our industry just because it walks like duck and quack likes a duck doesn’t always mean it is a duck.

In this podcast, ORFA’s Technical Director chats about the OHF/ORFA Return to Play joint statement and what this type of relationship could mean to the future of our industry. He discusses why an employer has the right to release workers that are unvaccinated and the vandalism that occurred in Ottawa during the recent protests. Lots of recreational brain food to digest in this session.

ORFA Technical Director, Terry Piche discusses the history of staying connected at work.  Specifically, the evolution of recreation staff being a constant point of contact by phone or other electronic means during work or non-work hours.  This constant point of being connected appears to replace strong training programs or assists in meeting the required “supervising” provision requirement of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The introduction of Bill-27 is governments attempt to get our attention to finding work/life balance and their role in supporting workers when this balance can not be achieved. It is best that a facility manager understands the issues and tries to get ahead of this common workplace situation before a Ministry of Labour, Training and Development inspector becomes involved. ORFA Resource

ORFA’s Technical Director speaks with CIMCO staff on a variety of topics that impact ice sheet refrigeration plant operations. Not every podcast will have a return on investment but this one does. Any member who has refrigeration plant operations or maintenance responsibilities will benefit from taking the time to listen to this information.