Mining in ONTARIO Lessons from the pandemic By Chris Hodgson
I
t is an understatement to say that 2020, the year the Ontario Mining Association turned 100 years old, was not the anniversary year we had imagined. While there was no opportunity to mark the occasion as our community may have wished, the crisis we all lived through revealed the resiliency, resourcefulness and strategic importance of the Ontario mining industry. Despite the challenges experienced, what we have learned is a cause for celebration, and the lessons will help define the future of our industry and the province. Lesson 1: Our safety culture matters more than ever. In moments of unprecedented crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, an effective response hinges on leadership and a culture that enables rapid recognition and mitigation of risk. One of the defining features of the Ontario mining industry is our commitment to health and safety as a core value that influences decision making at all times and levels. As a result, Ontario is one of the safest mining jurisdictions in the world, and mining is one of the safest industries in Ontario, achieving a 96% improvement in lost time injury frequency over the past 30 years. Our ongoing collaborative journey towards enhanced safety practices and the goal of zero harm, has meant that we are FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021
not only equipped with standards and procedures necessary to achieve a safe working environment, but also with deeply engrained norms that shape the mindsets, attitudes and behaviour of our people. For example, miners across Ontario, start their day with a safety meeting, bringing attention to risks, while ensuring that safety is at the forefront of their minds. The longstanding dedication to safety helps Ontario mining companies to build organizational resilience to enable proactive, flexible and innovative responses to unexpected circumstances. From the onset of the public health crisis, mining companies were able to mobilize rapid collective action, adapting existing protocols and developing novel prevention and mitigation policies and practices to prevent the spread of Covid19. They tapped into knowledge from other jurisdictions and shared strategies (including through the OMA), meaning that they were consistently ahead of the curve in everything from simple protective measures, such as universal mask wearing, to testing of employees as part of enhanced onsite screening processes. Their leadership was recognized by industry peers and the government, and they were asked to share their approaches. It is a testament to the strength of our safety culture and our people’s expertise
that, throughout a global pandemic and provincial emergency declaration, our industry managed to operate safely as an essential workplace in Ontario – sustaining northern economies and keeping people across the province employed. Undoubtedly, our safety culture has been strengthened by our current experiences, and will continue to be the basis of our competitive advantage in the future. Lesson 2: Mining is essential – now and in the future. If this was not clear earlier, it is obvious now that mining is indispensable for our response to, and recovery from, this crisis. As an industry providing the materials that are at the front end of our healthcare, manufacturing, and supply chains, mining was deemed essential by the province throughout the pandemic. As we plan for recovery, mining remains not just a provider of good, high-paying jobs; it is the foundation of our supply chains and integral to every sector in the economy, including the green-technology sectors. Many see the pandemic as an inflection point in history – an opportunity to disrupt past practices that have not served us well and build a more resilient, sustainable economy. Prime Minister Trudeau recently pointed out that the mining sector “will
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