Calgary, Alberta, Saturday, April 29, 2015

Chair and CEO Peter Watson’s
Speaking Notes – Enform Executive Summit

Check against delivery

Thanks David: and thank you to all of you here today. I am pleased to be here today. Enform is a critical resource in promoting strong safety practices in the industry and their contributions to safe work practices and safety culture are tremendous.

Speaking from the perspective of the regulator, I am especially pleased to see so many industry leaders in the room. As Cameron very rightly pointed out, safety starts at the top with the attitude and approach of leadership.

I have been travelling a great deal this spring, talking to our stakeholders across Canada, meeting with municipal leaders, first responders, environmental groups and so on.

And I can tell you all – though I am sure you know it – that safety is their number one concern. They want to hear about what I am doing, as the head of the NEB, to keep them safe. They want to hear about what companies are doing to keep them safe. They want to feel confident that we are keeping things safe.

And whether safety for them means no explosions at the facilities in their towns, no spills into the river they get their water from or whatever – there is nothing more important to them.
That means there should be nothing more important to us.

The NEB has been centre-stage now for some time, as a focal point for Canadians concerns about safety. Our role as the regulator, our public processes, provides a venue for people to talk about their concerns and questions around industry safety. Some of you have heard me say that it’s as though the NEB is the “eye of the storm” when it comes to public perceptions about the energy industry.

A part of how the NEB will weather that storm is accept it: to embrace the growing public need to learn more about safety practices in the industry and to see how those practices are put into action every day. We believe that engaging Canadians with information is a key part of building that confidence that we, the regulator, and you, the companies, are on the job and doing it right.

The NEB is also taking measure of our internal management systems and performance. We are taking steps to define what regulatory excellence means for us as an organization, putting structure around our organizational self-assessment, bench-marking and measurement.

But first and foremost, we are taking action on safety.

Work is on-going to refine our action on pipeline safety and environmental protection, and to demonstrate the link between our safety and compliance actions and the safety performance of companies we regulate.

We are putting increased focus on trending, root cause and systemic issues. And that focus is not just on preventing incidents — it is on fostering the development of industry safety culture so that incidents are less likely occur.

That’s where you come in.

Company culture can be summed as “the way things REALLY get done around here”.

Every organization that I know of has Corporate Values. They often live on the wall in the Boardroom or maybe in reception. But we need to ask ourselves:

Are your organization’s “values” actually driving your culture or are your values “a sign on the wall”?
Are your values reflected – and reflected prominently – in your business planning and in your processes?
Is your company’s commitment to safety and operating excellence an explicit value that is not a sign on the wall – but an actual part of “how things REALLY get done around here?”  

This is what we, as the regulator, are asking.

In any well-operated company, you find some common attributes. You expect to see:

committed leadership at all levels.
vigilance exhibited at all levels.
empowered and accountable employees.
and the capacity to manage complex activities in a rapidly changing environment – corporate resilience.

Safety has to be managed in this same way – with a “whole-of-business” approach.

Safety culture can’t be the isolated accountability of one team.
It can’t be the afterthought in financial planning. It can’t be just a value posted on a wall.

It has to be integrated into your entire business culture as a part of standard operations.

If a corporate safety culture exhibited the attributes of leadership, vigilance, improvement & accountability & resiliency → you would never be worried about regulatory action.

Strong management systems are the path forward – having a well-documented and systematic approach to manage and reduce risk, and to promote continual improvement in all aspects of safety – from organizational structures, resources, and accountabilities to policies, processes and procedures.

And having every level of leadership, in every team, on board with it.
That is key and that is something that we expect from regulated companies.

There is debate about precise definitions of safety culture. My sense is that if you are debating the finer points of what safety culture is or is not, you are likely missing the point! We need to stop debating this. The time for navel-gazing has passed and as I stated earlier – a perfect storm of public confidence is happening now, and action – not words or definitions – will be required to start building that confidence to back up and to gain trust and support for energy infrastructure.

We need to break out of “business as usual” with this. That’s why leaders are so critical. It is our job to talk about this, insist upon this, and demonstrate what we expect to see in the organizations we lead.

It’s our job to pull the values off that piece of paper and to make them real to the people around us – and by extension that will make the values real to the stakeholders who are watching our actions so carefully.

And we need to do this consistently, every day, so that the value – and attitudes and behaviors – of a strong safety culture become “the way things REALLY get done around here”.

Thank you.

Source:: http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=971129&tp=970