BCMSA Courses and Costs  Please note:

• there may be additional charges for travel.
• member pricing is listed. Contact BCMSA for non-member pricing if it is not noted.

Firefighters may be exposed to asbestos during fire suppression, fire prevention inspections, or arson investigations.  In this session participants will learn about the hazards of asbestos-containing materials, be able to assess the risk, and understand how to protect themselves and others from the risk of exposure to asbestos.

Drywall manufactured prior to 1990 may be contaminated with Asbestos-containing products such as joint compound or textured surfaces.  Proper disposal of this product has become difficult, time-consuming and expensive for home or business renovators, and municipalities are often the site of illegal dumping of the product.  This short course will provide workers with hands-on instruction in the proper technique for gathering and disposing of the discarded drywall.

This course is for people with or without prior experience. The seminar includes approximately 3 hours of inside theory and 2 hours of practical. Topics covered include PPE, tools, worksite assessment, bucking, and kick backs.

There are literally hundreds of confined spaces in every municipality, from manholes, to underground chambers, to pool maintenance areas.  Confined spaces can be deadly if proper entry procedures are not followed.  This course covers regulatory requirements, introduction to confined space hazards, and hands-on instruction in the use of gas detectors and confined space entry equipment.

This 8 hour course is designed and intended solely for the worker who enters a confined space to perform their assigned work or task. It includes an actual entry by the participants into a confined space. Upon successful completion of this course, participants will receive a certificate for the role of a confined space entrant only.

Topics Covered:

• Relevant legislation, regulations, CSA standards and industry best practices
• Identification of confined spaces
• Characteristics, examples
• Hazard identification
• Atmospheric, physical
• Effects of atmospheric hazards
• Monitoring and testing of confined spaces
• Ventilation, cleaning and purging of confined spaces
• Protective equipment – personal and general
• Introduction to the use of confined space equipment including:
• Retrieval systems – tripods/davit systems
• Supplied air respirators (SARs) and self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBAs)
• Written work procedures and entry permits
• Objective of entry permits

Under the Workers’ Compensation Act, your municipality has many legislated responsibilities as the Owner of the jobsite. This session will provide you with useful information on what those responsibilities are, as well as tools and suggestions to help you comply with Contractor Coordination requirements.

BCMSA has teamed up with the Thinking Driver to offer on-line driver training including such topics as Defensive Driving Techniques, Defensive Driving Attitudes, Winter Driving and Safe Backing.  Discounted prices for these courses are available for BCMSA members (including a sliding scale for multiple registrations).  Contact Helga  hhildebrandt@bcmsa.ca to register for courses.

• Driver Training Course Descriptions
• Driver Training Price List

Under WorkSafeBC definitions, a supervisor is a person who instructs, directs and controls workers in the performance of their duties.  Nearly every person could be determined to be a “supervisor”, except for the brand-new employee.  Understanding the term “due diligence” and the steps you need to take to ensure you are fulfilling your responsibilities as a supervisor are key elements of this course.

Visit the Supervisors Safety Certificate Program page for more information.

This course covers the A (anchor points), B (body holding devices) and C (connecting means) of fall protection.  Regulations, fall protection plans and complex systems will also be covered.

Municipal inspectors are exposed to numerous hazards as they conduct inspections of residential or commercial premises.  This one-day course will highlight the myriad of hazards such as asbestos, lead, mould, excavations, working from heights, etc., and will provide tools to conduct in-field assessments of those hazards in order to lessen their risk of injury or illness.

Hazard Awareness & Recognition for Municipal Inspectors

Participants will learn how to perform hazard identifications in their workplace, and quantify the risk level so that priorities can be established to eliminate or reduce the hazard.

Visit the Supervisors Safety Certificate Program page for more information.

This course will provide participants with the knowledge and tools to conduct investigation interviews, analyze facts, determine causes, write reports, and make effective recommendations to prevent a recurrence.

Visit the Supervisors Safety Certificate Program page for more information.

This course is for staff who wish to learn more about how the COR audit is conducted, and will enable large organizations to perform their own maintenance audits in years 2 and 3 of the COR Audit cycle.

Prerequisite: Safety Management Systems training

Whenever unexpected startup of equipment or machinery or a release of energy can
harm the workers who are running or maintaining the equipment or machinery, it must
be de-energized and locked out. Participants will be able to identify various sources of
energy that could harm them, including electrical, mechanical, stored and nuclear
energy, and will understand the use of tools and techniques to ensure their safety.

The human body is the most sophisticated machine we have. Unfortunately, many of us take better care of our cars than ourselves. This interactive training session is designed to provide employees with tools and strategies to reduce the development of musculoskeletal injuries while enhancing their lives both at work and at home.

The goal of this workshop is to provide an understanding of ergonomics as it relates to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and performance measures. Participants will be trained in the identification, qualification and quantification of MSD hazards and risks as well as subsequent ergonomic control strategies.

The goal of this course is to improve the comfort and efficiency of the office environment while minimizing the risk for the development of musculoskeletal disorders. Emphasis will be on training workers how to optimize their current workstation while encouraging personal responsibility for health and wellness through the use of effective microbreak strategies.

This course will be valuable for aquatic supervisors,  pool maintenance staff and lifeguards/instructors.  It will provide the participants with an understanding of the various hazards encountered in a municipal pool, including chemicals, confined spaces, and violence in the workplace, to name a few.

Upon completion of this course participants will:

• Know where to find applicable WorkSafeBC Regulations
• Be able to identify hazards that may require PPE
• Understand the use, maintenance and storage requirements of PPE

The intent of this course is to provide Managers and Supervisors, skills to become a confident presenter and first class communicator.  Participants will learn how to prepare and deliver excellent crew talks and presentations, all in the field of safety.

Visit the Supervisors Safety Certificate Program page for more information.

This seminar focusses on safe and respectful driving behaviour and public perception. Employees will learn:

• Why what they think is good driving may still draw complaints from the public
• What the most common complaints are and how to avoid them
• How to manage stress and pressure to compromise on safety and respectful driving behaviour
• The 5 Fundamentals of Defensive and Respectful Driving

This course examines the legislated requirements for the committee, its role, conduct of meetings and making recommendations.  Through individual and group work, participants will learn how to make their Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee meetings more productive and effective.

A Health and Safety Management System is a comprehensive in-depth approach that addresses all aspects of an organization’s operations from a health and safety viewpoint and involves management and workers in a meaningful way. An organization wishing to pursue COR must have had the CAO or another manager participate in a Safety Management Systems course.

1. Use the following link to access the course: http://elearning-bcmsa.ca/index.php
2. Create a New Account – enter a username & password (select student)
3. Select Course Registration from the menu on the left side
4. The corresponding SMS Course Manual is available for download.

Earth, when cut into, instantly seeks to heal itself – which can result in an excavation failure unless proper procedures aren’t followed.  A major collapse of the side of an excavation can injure or kill workers.  Even a small volume of soil can suffocate, crush, or trap a worker. With a hands-on component, participants will be able to identify which passive or active shoring systems are best for various applications and will see, first-hand, how they are used.

This course is for staff who receive or handle dangerous goods, and will provide them with the knowledge to understand the basics of the TDG Regulations, the meaning of safety marks and placards, required information on and interpreting shipping documents, and how to deal with special or emergency situations.

This workshop is for municipal employees who have responsibility for planning and setting up traffic control as a regular or occasional part of their work. It will be valuable for a variety of workers and supervisors in public works, maintenance, engineering, special events and safety roles.

This certification course includes a blend of learning in both classroom and field environments and will help experienced operators take the next step towards becoming effective instructors.

NOTE: This course is for experienced operators becoming instructors. Course content is focused on teaching, coaching, mentoring, and evaluating—NOT on how to operate equipment.

This intermediate course will provide participants with an in-depth knowledge of underground utility hazards.  Students will use the locating tools used in their own municipality, and will fully understand the principles and practices to follow when locating underground hazards.

Presented in five modules, this on-line course and exams will help you meet the requirement to train all staff in WHMIS, and to track the success of that training.

• An Administrator/Supervisor will be created for your staff’s online training; this allows you to monitor the training progress, completion, etc.
• The Administrator will be sent system generated emails with instructions on registering staff/participants
• Duration of the training is approximately 2 hours
• Participants can start, stop and resume training to accommodate their schedule
• Each module has a quiz which must be passed before being allowed to proceed to the next module
• No expiry date on keys

Priced on a sliding scale:

1 to 9: $10 per person
10 to 49: $9 per person
50 to 99: $8 per person
More than 100: $7 per person

Contact Helga (hhildebrandt@bcmsa.ca) to purchase keys or for more information.

Upon completion of this course participants will:

• Know where to find applicable WorkSafeBC Regulations
• Be able to state the purpose of WHMIS
• Describe and understand the key elements of WHMIS
• Be able to identify WHMIS hazard symbols
• Explain the information on labels
• Explain what an MSDS is and the info on it
• Apply this information in their workplace

Workers are subjected to violence from non-workers on a regular basis.  This fast paced, interactive session will help participants identify potentially violent situations, and will provide them with skills to defuse the situations.

Employers are required to conduct regular inspections of their operations.  This course will provide participants with techniques and templates to help plan and conduct inspections, prioritize hazards, write effective reports and assign responsibility for corrective action.

Visit the Supervisors Safety Certificate Program page for more information.