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Director seeks clarification of COR safety audit after news account

Director Tom Siddon called on regional district staff to provide the Committee with full disclosure of a recent COR safety audit

 

Area “D” Director Tom Siddon called on regional district staff to provide the Protective Services Committee with full disclosure of a recent COR safety audit performed on the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen at the October 3 board meeting.

The request came after Siddon received a letter from a constituent claiming that comments quoted in a recent Western newspaper article by RDOS Emergency Services Coordinator Dale Kronebusch indicated that the regional district failed the safety audit because of “deficiencies with peripheral organizations such as recreation commissions and fire departments.”

Siddon went on to say that the Western article had only received a summary of the audit, omitting the names of the failed peripheral organizations because they were staffed by volunteers.

“The implication is we failed the safety audit largely because of our volunteers,” Siddon said, “and we have at least one representative of a couple of  those groups crying foul, saying ‘nobody talked to us about this.’”

Siddon requested the board receive a full copy of the safety audit, noting that the Western report said that certain recommendations from a 2010 audit had been implemented.

“This is three years later and if that’s the case, I want to know who fell down, and where. If it was the voluntary groups, I guess we better get into discussion with them.”

Chief Administrative Officer Bill Newell explained that the RDOS was the first regional district to receive COR accreditation. He said the regional district maintained that certification for three  years, but Workers Compensation “changed the rules somewhat.” That was pointed out during the external audit earlier this year, he said. Newell said that in order to meet the changes for COR certification the regional district was going to have to change some of their practices and they were preparing a response on that. He went on to say, “I’m not quite sure why the intense interest in pointing out that  we failed the audit - we’re one of the few that initially achieved it, so we’re still safer than most organizations in the province.” Newell added, “The terms of reference had changed, one of the main reasons for that was they separated the peripheral organizations from the larger organization, which they didn’t do in the first round, so we’re adjusting to that, and addressing some of the issues.

We’d be happy to report on that.”

Siddon insisted on clarification surrounding the implication that it was the peripheral organizations that were at fault.

“I don’t think we should be pointing, or laying blame anywhere, until the board knows what the background circumstances are.”

Newell agreed to provide the board with a full copy of the COR report, reitirating once more that the failure to receive the COR certification didn’t mean that the regional district wasn’t safely run.

“I don’t want our volunteer organizations to be tarnished by things that they may or may not be (responsible) for,” concluded Siddon.

“Exactly why we aren’t releasing names or specifics,” replied Newell.