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Trade standards important for safety according to Canadians

Apr. 19, 2013 – When it comes to safety, Canadians trust expert industry approval. According to a recent survey commissioned by the Canadian Welding Bureau, 97 per cent of Canadians agree that construction work, including welding contractors and steel fabricators, should be overseen by a national organization and held to a common Canadian standard. CWB is the regulator of welding professionals and companies throughout Canada, and works to ensure that each project involving welding is completed and overseen by certified and accredited professionals.

Apr. 19, 2013 – When it comes to safety, Canadians trust expert
industry approval. According to a recent survey commissioned by the Canadian
Welding Bureau, 97 per cent of Canadians agree that construction work,
including welding contractors and steel fabricators, should be overseen by a
national organization and held to a common Canadian standard. CWB is the regulator
of welding professionals and companies throughout Canada, and works to ensure
that each project involving welding is completed and overseen by certified and
accredited professionals.

Craig Martin, vice-president
of public safety at CWB, said, “Since founding CWB in 1947, Canadians have
taken a position of leadership in the global welding industry and developed one
of the first welding certification standards to ensure that the welding process
provided consistent and high quality results. We are a standard Canadians
should be proud of.”

But there is a contradiction amongst survey recipients. When asked to
rank importance of features when it comes to keeping Canadian buildings,
bridges and other key infrastructure, such as pipelines safe – design comes out
on top (39 per cent ranking it as important) while certified tradespeople comes
out near the bottom (13 per cent ranking this as important). Quality of
materials comes in second (26 per cent) and regular inspection third (21 per
cent).

“Most people assume that if a bridge or building is designed to meet the
standards it is being built to those standards,” continues Martin.
“Unfortunately that is not always the case. Industry needs to continue to
enforce those standards from design through to building and maintenance.”

When considering the safety of a product, nearly all Canadians feel that
expert industry approval is important, and three in four (76 per cent) view it
as very important. Almost half of us consider products made in Canada to be
safer than those made elsewhere (44 per cent).

“Welding is all around us, so being able to count on an industry
standard should be important to all Canadians,” said Martin.

CWB’s certification programs have expanded beyond the welding of steel
to offer programs for aluminum welding, resistance welding, welding electrodes
and welding inspectors, among others. In all cases, the programs are based on
standards produced by the Canadian Standards Association.

Related Link
eng.cwbgroup.org