The annual Vancouver Island and Interior Safety Conferences are industry-driven safety conferences covering topics of interest to the forestry sector.
The conferences are led by steering committees made up of representatives from labour, industry, BCFSC and WorkSafeBC with industry sponsorship that allows for free admission for conference delegates.
Thank you to all who attended the 2024 Vancouver Island Safety Conference which focused on Bridging Generations in Today's Safety Culture.
We welcomed 295 attendees on Saturday, October 26th and listened to some excellent presentations from:
- Health and safety expert Eldeen Pozniak, who spoke about generational considerations and how to communicate with one another based on our generational gaps.
- Former US Marine and author of Core of Four, Tim Page-Bottorff who shared his insights on embracing failures in order to learn from them and sharing them as a teaching tool.
- Tom Wilson, gave us a moving presentation on surviving a plane crash giving insight into the importance of speaking up as it could save your life and the lives of others.
- Will Dirksen from WorkSafeBC spoke about the upcoming First Aid Regulation changes.
- Patrick McDonald from Superior Glove challenged the audience's knowledge on hand safety.
- Angelina Robinson from Road Safety at Work reminded us of the importance of road safety and the responsibilities of employers and workers when driving for work.
- We also celebrated our three Safety Award winners, Bill Bolton who received the 2024 Carey White Lifetime Achievement Award, Toby Jeffreys from the Adams Lake Division of Interfor received the Forest Harvesting MVP and Chris Fowler from Canoe Forest Products, a division of the Gorman Group, who received the 2024 Manufacturing Safety MVP.
SAVE THE DATE: The 2025 Vancouver Island Safety Conference will be held in Nanaimo at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre on Saturday, October 25, 2025. Stay tuned for more information.
We'll be adding our conference wrap-up in the coming weeks and will share photos, presentation overviews and presentation links and conference details from the day's event.
If you have questions regarding next year's conference, contact the VISC steering committee by email training@bcforestsafe.org or call 1-877-741-1060.2024 Past Conferences
Interior Safety Conference - Safety at Work: Inside and Out
Thank you to everyone who attended this year's conference. For those who missed the chance to attend in person, you can download some of the presentations from the day's events.
The Interior Safety Conference (ISC) is an annual event that brings together professionals from the BC forest sector to discuss safety-related issues and explore ways to improve safety practices in the industry. It is FREE for anyone who works in any phase of the forest industry from silviculture and harvesting to wood products manufacturing. It features forestry-related safety topics with speakers, industry experts, and relevant safety information.
The ISC is held in partnership with the Interior Logging Association (ILA) Conference.