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The 2025 Canada’s Safest Employers Awards, hosted by Canadian Occupational Safety and Key Media, brought together safety leaders and innovators from across the country for an evening dedicated to recognizing excellence in workplace health, safety, and wellness.
The event, now in its 15th year, highlighted the achievements of organizations and individuals who have set new standards in safety culture and operational excellence. With categories spanning sectors from utilities to non-profit, the awards underscored the diversity and depth of Canada’s safety community.
For Shilo Neveu of Valard Construction LP, which was named Canada’s Safest Utilities and Electrical Employer, the award was a testament to the dedication of those on the front lines.
“This is their award, full stop. Safety starts and stops out in the field. Without them doing what they do every day and doing it to the best of their ability, this is not achievable. It’s the actions out in the field of the men and women every day – keeping the lights on, keeping the power on for everyone in Canada. This is their award,” Neveu said, emphasizing that operational safety is built on the consistent efforts of employees in the field.
Carla Madra, FCPA, FCA, of Women Building Futures Society, which received the award for Canada’s Safest Non-Profit Employer, reflected on the broader impact of being recognized.
“Awards like these are critical to help employers promote themselves in terms of their ability to share their story about their safety processes and the importance of safety within their organization and also to give employers confidence that our employees have trained our students from a health and safety perspective, knowing that those students are coming out with a great track record to bring into their places of employment,” Madra said. She noted that such recognition not only validates internal efforts but also reassures partners and the public of the organization’s commitment to safety.
For John Lawrie of Bora Pharmaceutical Services Inc., winner of The Bruce Power Award for Canada’s Safest New Employer, the recognition highlighted the industry-wide value of safety initiatives.
“It really shows the public that employers are generally interested in safety and are thinking about how employers, employees, and safety impact families, not just individuals. So, I think these awards highlight what industry is doing to support employees,” Lawrie said, pointing to the ripple effect safety has beyond the workplace.
Giselle Lue of Jazz Aviation, which earned The DriverCheck Award for Canada’s Safest Public Transportation Employer, credited her organization’s success to the commitment of its employees.
“I would believe our employees played everything. They are really the front line. We are the ones with the expertise, but they are really the ones who put the rubber to the road. So, I would say that they are the ones to thank for this award, to be honest,” Lue said, underscoring the importance of empowering and recognizing those who implement safety practices daily.
The 2025 Canada’s Safest Employers Awards served as a reminder that safety is a shared responsibility, requiring ongoing commitment from leadership and front-line staff alike. The stories and reflections shared by this year’s winners illustrate how a culture of safety is built – one decision, one action, and one team at a time.
Across Canada, there are leaders who refuse to treat safety as a routine obligation. They see it for what it truly is — a commitment to people, a culture, and a future where every worker returns home safely at the end of the day. These awards exist to celebrate that commitment.
The organizations and individuals featured in this commemorative guide represent the highest standard of excellence in health and safety. They challenge complacency. They rethink what’s possible. They prove, year after year, that safety leadership is one of the most powerful ways to strengthen a workplace and the people within it.
Canada’s Safest Employers Awards are more than a recognition program. They are a national platform that elevates ideas, showcases innovation, and reminds us that safer workplaces don’t happen by accident, they happen because people choose to do the work.
A special thank you goes to our sponsors, whose partnership helps make this celebration possible. Their support not only champions these outstanding achievements, it reinforces the shared belief that safety should remain a core pillar of every organization in this country.
To our winners and Excellence Awardees: thank you for raising the bar. To our readers: may these stories inspire you to keep pushing your workplaces forward.
Shane Mercer
Editor
The Safety Mag
View the full photo gallery here.
Stage 1 – Nominations
The call for nominations was open to all occupational health and safety professionals, teams, companies and organizations, including industry service providers, from across Canada.
Nominations were open from February 24 to May 2, 2025, 11:59 pm ET.
To submit a nomination, participants went to the Nominate page of the website. Submissions were free of charge.
Stage 2 – Research
The Canada’s Safest Employers Awards team conducted research and drew on knowledge and information gained through Canadian Occupational Safety to verify and support the nominations received.
If you were successfully shortlisted, you were invited to move to the next round and were required to complete a more detailed submission form and an employee perception survey, which you were required to send out to your employees and meet a minimum threshold of respondents by a predetermined deadline.
Stage 3 – Excellence awardees
Once all nominations were considered and research was completed, excellence awardees were selected in each category and notified via e-mail or phone.
All submissions remained confidential unless otherwise marked and were not shared with any third parties other than the judges
Excellence awardees were officially announced in July 2025 on the website and promoted in Canadian Occupational Safety magazine and online channels. Promo packages to leverage achievements across marketing and promotions were available for purchase.
Stage 4 – Judging
All submissions from excellence awardees were forwarded to the independent judging panel comprising esteemed experts, thought leaders and veterans in and around the occupational health and safety profession. The panel assessed and voted for their winners in each category according to the relevant criteria.
Voting commenced in August 2025 and their judgment was impartial, balanced, incisive and fair. Any judge with a conflict of interest in a category recused themselves from judging that category.
Stage 5 – Winners
Using a simple points system to aggregate judges’ votes, the excellence awardee with the top score in a category was named the winner.
Winners were announced at the awards show on October 9, 2025, and on the website. They were also promoted in Canadian Occupational Safety. Promo packages to leverage their achievement across marketing and promotions were available for purchase.
