Corporate

Workplace Safety & Prevention Services 2012 Annual Report 3 "We have asked a lot of WSPS leadership and staff. Over and over again they have responded to the need to change by being creative, engaged, agile, aligned." It wasn't that long ago when enterprises like yours and ours did business in an economy of fairly consistent growth and relative stability. That's not the case anymore. We now face ongoing economic uncertainty, the spectre of mid-sized firms disappearing from the Ontario economy, and ubiquitous restructuring. Clearly, Ontario's industry stands at a turning point, facing big choices that demand new technologies, partnerships and ideas. As the single largest provider of health and safety consulting, training and products in North America, WSPS is addressing the same challenges. We must pivot our organization to better meet the changing health and safety needs of our 154,000 members and the workers in our sectors. WSPS is unique not only in size, but in capabilities and relationships, its hundreds of volunteers welded to the core purpose of the company. It is also unique in how it is structured: a mix of government agency; a not-for-profit, member-driven organization; and a for-profit company; making for great complexity, and requiring resilient business processes. We have asked a lot of WSPS leadership and staff. Over and over again they have responded to the need to change by being creative, engaged, agile, aligned. Bucking the odds, WSPS succeeded with its amalgamation: finding efficiencies, improving services and capabilities, articulating a new brand, reinventing its national conference, and enhancing its website. Its emphasis on technology and solutions, rather than on disparate products and services, prepares it to meet what's coming. I would add to any inventory of our organizational strengths, the quality of the WSPS Board of Directors. I value their diversity of perspectives, their knowledge, their collegiality, and their commitment. A great part of our success has come from the emphasis we place on governance and the accountability we feel toward Ontario employers and workers for improving health and safety outcomes by looking for ways to create more capacity at lower cost. I am leaving the Board after having enjoyed many years working with my colleagues on the Board, our CEO Elizabeth Mills, the WSPS staff, and others in our prevention system partner organizations. While it is time for renewal, I will miss the deeply satisfying work and the exhilarating sense that, together, we are changing the world, even as it is changing us. Changing the world GORDON VALA-WEBB, Chair, WSPS

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