Kitchener’s Brick & Co. Restoration Ltd. has taken top honours in the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s (WSIB’s) annual Small Business Health and Safety Leadership Awards.

The WSIB announced the award recipients at a virtual presentation on November 24. The awards recognize outstanding health and safety achievements in small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. This year’s awards took a particular focus on the work being done by small businesses to demonstrate exemplary health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic and to keep their employees and customers safe.

Indeed, says Chair Elizabeth Witmer, the WSIB delayed this year’s awards to allow companies to focus on their response to the pandemic.

“Businesses had a unique challenge to deal with this year, and part of how we determined our first place winner was by measuring their response to COVID-19,” she says. “In that regard, Brick & Co. was outstanding.”

Brick & Co. Restoration has been in business for more than 30 years and employs 45 people. The company specializes in repairing, restoring, preserving and protecting properties in communities across Southern Ontario, with a particular focus on building envelope repair.

In an award-profile video produced by the WSIB, health and safety compliance coordinator Michaela Zehr explains that safety has always been at the forefront of Brick & Co.’s work.

“We start with meeting the standards described in the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and then we add our own requirements to go beyond those minimums,” she says.

When the COVID pandemic was declared in Ontario in March and construction was limited to work on only those projects deemed essential, Brick & Co found itself in the position of developing and adapting safety protocols on the fly as it worked on a handful of essential projects.

That process saw the company quickly put in place those processes that are now commonplace on jobsites: self-identification questionnaires, site signage, smaller site crews, staggered work shifts and increased cleaning protocols.

On one project in Windsor, the company rented a house for its crew to live in for a month, where it might otherwise simply provide hotel rooms by way of accommodation.

“We do what we have to do to keep our people safe and maintain their well being,” says Zehr. “That’s a really important part of what we do every day.”

This year’s winners were rounded out by Albany Retirement Village in Petrolia and Ron H. Williams Drainage Inc. in Listowel. In total, 76 companies applied for this year’s awards.

"Our Small Business Health and Safety Leadership Awards celebrate the efforts and achievements of leaders in small business who make their workplaces healthier and safer – and who can inspire their peers by example,” said Witmer. “I congratulate all of the applicants who took the time to tell us how they are staying resilient within one of the most challenging times in living memory."

This year marks the third in a row in which a construction firm has won top honours in the WSIB’s Small Business Health and Safety Leadership Awards. Hawkins Contracting Services Limited of Stouffville won the gold award in 2019, and SG Cunningham of Waterloo in 2018.