Since 1939, the OGCA has fostered and leveraged
strong alliances with the construction and govern-
ment agencies, and the League of Champions and
COR are two very strong examples of the OGCA’s
ongoing commitment to health and safety. In 2011,
in collaboration with The Infrastructure Health and
Safety Association (IHSA) and the Ontario Gener-
al Contractors’Association (OGCA) developed an
Ontario version of the Certificate of Recognition
(COR) for occupational health and safety accredi-
tation and allows for contractors to implement ef-
fective health and safety programs.
COR is now frequently used as a pre-qualification
and/or condition of contract by public and private
project owners across Canada.
“Owners want to make sure they have safe sites
and are looking around for a program that dem-
onstrates that, which COR does. COR is what is
being embraced in eight other provinces and own-
ers from outside Ontario are asking more and more
that Ontario general contractors have COR.”
League of Champions is a charity created to pro-
mote workplace safety for young people. The
charity was borne out of a tragedy. Founder Rob
Ellis lost his son, David, to a workplace accident.
David was 18.
“We very much stand behind the League of Cham-
pions,” says Thurston, adding that the OGCA has
partnered with My Safe Work to support aware-
ness with young people and promote Rob Ellis’s
campaign to build excellence in workplace health
and safety. League of Champions links students,
parents, educators, and workers to discuss work-
place safety—over 5 million people across North
America to date.
Rob Ellis started this charitable foundation to try
to prevent young workers from dying or getting
hurt at work. Its unique approach of linking up stu-
dents, parents, educators and corporate executives
and workers face-to-face to talk about workplace
safety has impacted more than five million people
across North America.
PROMOTING SAFETY CULTURE AWARENESS
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business elite canada
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NOVEMBER 2017
