Occupational Health & Safety Advisor

Status: Permanent, Full-time

Salary Range: $72,179 to $103,758

Location: Hybrid

Schedule: Monday to Friday

Anticipated Start Date: August 31, 2026

Reporting to the Occupational Health and Safety Manager, the Occupational Health and Safety Advisor plays a key role in developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating Coast Mental Health's Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) program. This program is designed to ensure compliance with health and safety legislation, regulations, standards, and healthcare collective agreements while promoting a culture of safety and well-being. This role involves leading safety initiatives, delivering training, conducting investigations, and supporting employees and leaders in maintaining a safe work environment. Regular travel to Coast Mental Health sites throughout the Lower Mainland is required to conduct inspections, investigations, training, committee meetings, and other health and safety activities.

Responsibilities

• Support the creation, monitoring, and continuous improvement of OH&S program components, including policies, procedures, instructional programs, resources, and reporting systems.
• Support the annual departmental safety plans, with a focus on leading indicator activities, meeting facilitation and activity tracking.
• Lead health and safety initiatives that align with organizational objectives and drive a culture of safety.
• Identify, assess and recommend mitigation for workplace hazards; provide technical advice and recommendations to management on maintaining compliance with applicable legislation, regulations, OH&S programs and collective agreements.
• In the context of the Health and Safety Management System (HSMS), provide guidance to the organization for meeting and exceeding regulatory compliance by coaching and guiding leadership, management, human resources, and appropriate site personnel during site-based implementation of OHS programs and regulation requirements
• Provide consultation, guidance, and advice on all elements of the safety program, including ergonomics, working at heights, confined spaces, lockout/tagout, working alone, and hazardous materials such as asbestos and hazardous drugs.
• Interpret regulations and apply OH&S procedures and standards of practice to support leaders and staff in aligning with strategic goals to prevent workplace injuries and exposures.
• Perform audits and inspect work areas, offices, and job sites to identify workplace safety concerns, possible safety issues and recommend measures for risk mitigation and continuous improvement.
• Liaise with WorkSafeBC officers during inspections, investigate and provides advice to management as well as other clients respecting WorkSafeBC inspection reports/orders including reviewing WorkSafeBC inspection reports, development of Notice of Compliance (NOC) plans with management, submitting NOC's to WorkSafeBC, and where appropriate challenging WorkSafeBC inspection reports/orders on behalf of Coast Mental Health though preparation of appeal documentation in consultation with legal counsel.
• Deliver engaging education and training to diverse employee groups on a variety of OHS topics including: Joint Health and Safety Committees (JHSC) and Worker H&S Reps, incident investigations, workplace inspections, hazard identification and control, violence risk assessments and violence prevention, ergonomics, emergency preparedness and response, respiratory protection.
• Responds to workplace incident and near miss reports; coordinate incident investigations, including ensuring appropriate documentation is accurately completed, submitted and action items are implemented in a timely manner in accordance with legislative requirements.
• Support management by ensuring thorough investigations for incidents, accidents, and near misses are conducted and documented, including root cause analysis and corrective actions as well as appropriate follow-up action is taken and provides recommendations to achieve compliance with applicable legislation and the OH&S program.
• Identify workable solutions or corrective actions to try and prevent future incident occurrences and work with leaders to ensure identified actions are tracked to completion.
• Plan and coordinate emergency drills, exercises, and initiatives related to workplace mental and psychological health.
• Support coordination of the contractor safety management program to ensure compliance with applicable legislation.
• Conduct ergonomic assessments and support the development of safe work procedures.
• Identify workplace hazards and recommend effective mitigation strategies to management.
• Provide oversight and guidance to JHSCs, ensuring regulatory compliance and alignment with organizational goals.
• Represent Health & Safety on various internal and external committees such as Site Leadership, Joint Occupational Health & Safety Committees and provincial working groups.
• Manage OH&S documentation, update templates, and research best practices to support program administration.
• Collect and analyze data, prepare applicable reports, and maintains various records

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• A two-year diploma in Occupational Health and Safety or a related discipline from a recognized institution or a combination of experience and training acceptable to Coast Mental Health
• Minimum of 3 years' experience in an occupational health and safety role
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook).
• Valid Class 5 Driver’s License and access to a personal vehicle.
• Designations such as Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP), Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), or Registered Occupational Hygienist (ROH) are an asset.

Skills and Abilities

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
• Proven ability to conduct risk assessments, audits, and incident investigations.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently without supervision and in a team environment where mutual support is essential.
• Able to deal with individuals in different situations including situations where complex, high pressure, difficult decisions, or emergencies, interacts with others in a tactful, compassionate and sensitive manner.
• Experience administering asbestos exposure control plans is an asset.
• Experience working in unionized or public-sector environments is an asset.
• Experience administering respiratory protection programs and/or performing qualitative respirator fit tests in accordance with WorkSafeBC and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) requirements is an asset.
• Effective delivery of training in both in-person and virtual settings.

Compensation

Status: Permanent, Full-time

Salary Range: $72,179 to $103,758 (Midpoint: $90,224)

The Salary Range is the estimated minimum and maximum annual salary based on fulltime equivalent hours. Candidates are typically hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the range based on their knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience in relation to the role requirements. The top 10% of the pay range is for the incumbents who are considered industry experts in the role and bring an exceptional combination of experience and competencies required to perform all duties and responsibilities at a superior level.

About Coast Mental Health

Coast Mental Health is one of the largest mental health non-profit societies in Canada and operates a large array of innovative housing and community-based rehabilitation services for people with a mental illness living in and around Vancouver. Coast Mental Health operates in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia providing approximately 1000 people with supportive housing and 4000 clients living in the community with a wide variety of programs and services.

Coast Mental Health fosters a client-driven, recovery-oriented environment that promotes restoring health, personal growth and a return to society for individuals with a mental illness through advocacy and providing direct programs and services. Coast Mental Health is deeply invested in cultural safety, reconciliation, and anti-racism. Our employees receive training on cultural humility, trauma-informed practice, and inclusive leadership. We strive to reflect the communities we serve and value lived experience alongside professional qualifications.

Why Coast Mental Health

• We recognize safety as a top priority for the organization.
• We believe in our people and recognize hard work.
• We operate client-centered care under the principles of psychosocial rehabilitation.
• We offer a variety of work placement opportunities within the organization.
• We strive to be the best that we can be.
• We hold Exemplary Standing with Accreditation Canada.
• We have been recognized with numerous awards for our innovative programming.
• We care about our employees, and believe in living our values and culture throughout the organization

Some of the Benefits we Offer

• 100% employer-paid benefits for employees and their families.
• Vision Care, Dental Care, Prescription Drugs, Naturopath, Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Group Life, Massage therapy, Physiotherapy, and Unlimited Out-of-Province and Out-of-Country Emergencies.
• General sick-leave accruals.
• Long-term disability programs. Short-term disability programs available to exempt positions only.
• 5 days of paid leave for Indigenous Employees for Ceremonial, Cultural, and Spiritual events per year.
• 8 weeks of paid leave for gender affirming care for medical procedures for transgender and gender diverse employees, cumulative total.
• Employee and Family Assistance Program, which includes personal counselling, Life Coaching, Financial Coaching, Legal Referral and Advisory Services, and Health Coaching. In addition, Coast Mental Health provides a cognitive behavioural therapy program (Telus Health CBT) and Headversity for managing a variety of life issues and includes self-paced therapeutic support.
• Municipal Pension Plan with guaranteed lifetime monthly pension when you retire. More information can be found at: https://mpp.pensionsbc.ca.

***For any unionized positions, current/internal Coast Mental Health employees must apply within seven (7) days of the posting date with their internal UKG account (using their Coast Mental Health email address), in order to be considered as an internal applicant. Current/internal Coast Mental Health employees who apply to a unionized position using an external account (or email), or after the seven (7) day deadline will be considered an external candidate. In this case, seniority will not be considered.***

Coast Mental Health is committed to creating a culture of diversity and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from Indigenous persons, visible minority group members, persons with disabilities, people of all sexual orientations, genders and gender identities, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and others with the skills and knowledge to productively engage with diverse communities.

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