This page has been set up to share photos & video relating to the "Rules & Regulations" chapter of "Step By Step, A Tree Planter's Handbook." Visit www.replant.ca/books to see books about tree planting.
There are many different rules, regulations, laws, guidelines, standard operating procedures (SOP's), and other types of guidance that companies and employees might follow.
Every province has its own Employment Standards legislation. We'll discuss BC's employment standards act in this chapter, but planters should become familiar with the unique employment standards regulations in every province within which they work, no matter what province their company is headquartered in. Employment standards regulations are designed to protect employees. If an employer is breaking the law, it is up to the employee to report the problem to the appropriate regulatory agency.
Companies are held to higher standards for the training, supervision, and care of young and new workers. WorkSafe recognizes that this category of worker is at a particularly high risk of incidents that can cause injuries or even fatalities.
It is very important for planters to record as much information about their workday as possible, in a daily diary or tally book. This information can help support your claim if a company fails to pay you properly or breaks the law in other ways. Record your time leaving camp, your time returning to camp, your tallies (broken down by various species or planting areas), the prices, who you worked with, the weather, and any other pertinent information that you can think of.
There are free apps that let you superimpose GPS data from your phone over top of photos. This is great for documenting your adventures, but also for saving as evidence of where you were on a specific time and date. This particular app is called Geocam Free by Wazar.
Within BC, it is a legal requirement for your planting company to notify you of the tree prices on all blocks, before work commences on that block.
No matter what province you work in, there will be a provincial Employment Standards act which mandates that all employees receive vacation pay (or paid time off, but planting companies all opt for vacation pay). The rate for vacation pay is currently set to 4% in almost every part of Canada (it is slightly higher in Saskatchewan).
No matter what province you work in, after you have been employed by a company for a certain amount of time, you are entitled to pay on statutory holidays. This is a really confusing issue that is treated differently in almost every province, so you should check out the labour laws of the province that you're working in for a detailed explanation.
If you feel that your employer has broken the law, you can talk to the appropriate provincial ministry of labour (for the province that the work was done in, not the province where the company is based). There are different rules in every province, but in most cases, the government will be quite helpful in trying to resolve your situation. Unfortunately, the government can't do anything if it doesn't get any complaints, so don't hesitate to step up and say something if you were treated unfairly during your employment. That's the only way to ever hold a bad company accountable for its actions. Bitching about a company on Facebook has almost no impact on that company. Even if you prevent a couple of other people from applying to work for that company, there's always more cannon fodder to fill the empty seats.
When you are hired by a company, you will be asked to fill out an employment contract before commencing work. Make sure that you keep a copy of your contract. Reputable companies will give you an extra copy automatically when you're being hired. If you don't get one, ask for it. If the company hesitates to give you a copy, be very wary (and take photos of the contract that you're signing with your cell phone).
Every province also has its own workers compensation act. In BC, this legislation is supported by an organization known as WorkSafe BC (formerly the Workers' Compensation Board, or WCB).
WorkSafe mandates dozens or even hundreds of requirements on every work site. These are all spelled out in the provincial Occupational Health & Safety Act for the province you're working in (the name may vary from province to province). One requirement in BC is that a copy of an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) be posted within camp, so workers have the ability to refer to it during an emergency.
The Canadian Standards Association imposes standards upon some of the tools, work clothing, and PPE that we use. WorkSafe will sometimes check to ensure that your PPE meets the CSA standards. Two example of this are that quad operators need to wear CSA approved helmets, and chain saw operators need to wear CSA approved kevlar pants.
The Canada Human Rights Act (and the provincial acts that mirror it) is important for protecting Canadians from many different forms of discrimination.
A tent camp can be a chaotic place, or it can be a very enjoyable place to spend your summer. The difference is up to the company's management, and the planters living in the camp. There are many government regulations in place to ensure that certain standards are required for remote work camps. While these regulations can prove to be a headache for some employers and camp supervisors, they help make a planting camp a better place for tree planters to live in (for companies who follow the rules).
Here's a copy of the camp standards regulations for British Columbia.
A photo of a remote mobile tree planting camp.
There are minimum requirements to ensure that proper handwashing facilities are in place. This is important to help prevent the spread of disease. Many camps over the years have been struck with outbreaks of diseases such as Norwalk, which can make a lot of employees sick.
Heated showers are a legal requirement (in BC).
It is important that employees have an adequate supply of safe, potable water, and aren't simply drinking out of a creek. In BC, potable water must available, and must be tested for safety. Organizations within the province, such as the Northern Health Authority, enforce that water is safe and potable.
Cooks will have dozens of food handling regulations that they must adhere to. Planters should always wash their hands carefully before entering the kitchen, and before eating.
In some provinces, it is mandatory to have certain levels of first aid resources on site, including people trained in various aspects of proper first aid. In this photo, an Occupational First Aid (level three) attendant, also known as an OFA3, is performing their duties on a coastal contract, checking with a planter to assess whether or not she is having any problems with tendonitis or other issues.
The lumber and pulp mills often have their own detailed set of requirements for their contractors.
Here is the front page of a planting contract, which outlines a contractual agreement between a planting contractor and a client. The client is the one who writes the contract, since they are the party which is seeking to have work completed, and who is paying for the work. It is therefore in the best interests of the client to write the contract.
It is common for clients to spell out their exact quality standards and requirements in planting contracts.
The contract will also outline density requirements.
The contract will also outline the client's expectations for stockhandling.
The contract will outline the client's deadlines for completing all work associated with the contract.
If you work in British Columbia, for any branch of the provincial government as a Client, then the contract between your employer and the government should be public data, and can usually be found on the public BC Bid website. Data for publicly or privately owned corporations, licensees, and mills is unfortunately not available.
It is almost certain that any company you plant for will have EMS guidelines, and any Client of your company will probably have a full set of EMS regulations written into the work contract. EMS stands for Environmental Management System. An EMS is designed so that a company's operations don't do damage to the environment.
The International Standards Organization (ISO) has a number of different certification programs. Many large corporations make conscious decisions to implement their own sets of internal guidelines and regulations in order to obtain various types of certification, because in some cases, their customers demand it. For example, if West Fraser wants to sell lumber to Home Depot, they may be required to prove that the lumber originated in forests that were covered by ISO 14001 certification, and that the entire process of producing the lumber, from stump to store, happened in a manner that also adhered to ISO 14001 standards. Incidentally, the 14001 standard specifically relates to Environmental Management Systems, based upon the Plan-Do-Check-Act mantra. Another of ISO's certification standards, the 9001 standard, relates to Quality Management Systems.
Each planting company will have its own set of internal rules and guidelines.
Planting companies will ask their planters not to set their tents up under or near dead and unstable trees (live trees are ok). This is to avoid the risk that a tree blows over during a windstorm in the night, and crushes a tent with a planter inside. There have been a couple of documented cases in BC where trees blew over and crushed tents during the day, when planters were at work on the blocks. Let's keep everyone safe.
Some companies hire full-time quality checkers, to ensure that planters are meeting clients' standards. These internal company checkers are a first-line of defense, catching quality problems before clients or external auditors find them.
In addition to crew-specific morning "tailgate" meetings which are held on a daily basis to discuss hazards and other safety issues, it is common for planting companies to have regular safety meetings in camp.
Here's a sign showing the local fire hazard index. Some employers will not allow fires in camp when the fire hazard index is at high or extreme.
Taking a few minutes in the morning to have a meeting, so the supervisor or foreman can outline the daily plan to everyone involved, can save a lot of time and headaches later. Communication is a key element to running an efficient planting operation.
Some companies have standard assigned seating for each specific vehicle, and at other companies, the seating assignments may vary from day to day.
Here we see a crew having a morning tailgate meeting to review the plan for the day, and to talk about any potential hazards on the block.
Different planting companies can be structured in different ways.
Click here to see a page listing books related to reforestation in Canada. If you received a photocopied version of this book from your planting company, or you're a trainer at a Canadian planting company, click on this link for more information.
