I worked my entire life in the safety field – mostly in the roadbuilding sector – until the end of 2021. My Mom’s dementia was advancing and that made it very difficult to have a job that saw me working upwards of 75 hours a week and traveling all over the province. That, coupled with the realization that my vision for safety was quite different from that of my colleagues, made me want to launch O
rtega Safety in early 2022. Deaths in the family, added responsibility at home and the fear of the unknown all prevented me from fulfilling my dream of Ortega Safety at that time. I even took a day job – which I love. But my heart kept calling me back to safety. I took a class one time where I was challenged to write my own personal mission statement and this is what I came up with: Jo Ann Ortega ~ to live authentically while inspiring others to reach their full potential. Over the years, I’ve kept coming back to that mission. With Ortega Safety, I hope to be able to help employers to help their workers life their safest lives! Why did you become a Safety Officer? I have two very real reasons why I became a safety officer! First, because it was the only role left in my family business by the time I joined it!! But, then my father was nearly killed in a very preventable workplace accident and that solidified my belief that I was on the right path in life; that it was going to be my job to ensure people who chose to work for us actually got home safely to their families at the end of the day. You’ve done some consulting in the past, what’s different about this? Yes, in the past, I was able to do some consulting but in an undefined way. Creating the programs was great but having the actual time to ensure a full and real implementation and full and real buy-in from management and workers was difficult with my full time job responsibilities. With Ortega Safety, I know what I am able to do in my time budget and I know how I can help companies. My biggest goal is to help companies help themselves! Creating a culture that supports, encourages and embraces safety is the end game here! What is your background? What makes you competent to be a Safety Officer? For 22 years, I have worked in the construction safety industry as a safety officer. I have worked on multi million dollar projects to a simply driveway repave. I have taken every course I have been able to, via Construction Safety Nova Scotia, online prequalification training, Det Norske Veritas and participate in ongoing professional development at every turn. Since I already had a formal education before beginning my safety career, studying at St. Francis Xavier University and Queen’s University, I didn’t feel the need to formalize my safety training once such training became available locally. Until I decided to launch Ortega Safety. So I applied for and then was invited to take the exam to earn my Canadian Registered Safety Professional designation. What is a CRSP designation? It is a professional designation that is highly sought after and highly respected. It ensures that the holder of the designation possesses the highest standards of safety and is committed to lifelong learning and professional development. It demonstrates my dedication to the safety field, to education and to making the lives of Canadian workers that much safer. I’m very proud to hold this designation. What makes your way of doing safety different? This is a loaded question, as I don’t believe there are wrong ways to approach safety (unless you’re not approaching it at all!!), but I like to “do safety” with kindness. I’m not a police officer. I’m not a Department of Labour Inspector. I believe that kindness is at the root of all safety. If we care about our employees; if we care about our co-workers; well, then we’re going to want to do everything within our power to ensure they get home safe to their loved ones at the end of the day. And, if we are doing everything within our power to do just that? Well we have created a culture of safety and kindness…two things the world needs far more of! What kind of services do you offer? I would like to help you make your workplaces safe! That may include creating a trucking safety program (reviewing and keeping track of your trucker logs as is required). It may mean coming in and auditing your safety program; figuring out ways to improve it. It may mean helping you achieve your WCB safety certification. It may mean figuring our your training needs and hooking you up with my favourite Construction Safety training peeps. It may mean helping your supervisors come up with topics for weekly toolbox talks and assisting them with those and/or inspections. And it may look like helping your Spanish-speaking workers to stay up to date on your safety programming! How does it work? How can we hire you? Send us a message! I’d be happy to speak with you to discuss your goals. I’d come up with a plan; outline how much time allotted to that plan and provide an estimate on costs. One of the best parts of our services at Ortega Safety is that we are available early mornings, evenings and weekends! Let us help you create that ideal safety environment that you’ve always dreamed of! We’ll come up with a contract both parties agree to…and we’ll get to work!
