Panel at HSPC PDC 2025 urges collaboration, accountability, and national recognition for safety and hygiene designations
A spirited panel of safety and hygiene leaders called for sweeping change, not just in how Canada certifies its professionals, but in how it unites, recognizes, and strengthens the credibility of those working in occupational health and safety.
In the final session of Day 1 at HSPC’s Professional Development Conference (PDC) 2025, Larry Masotti, Alex Mercer, and Tegan Slot tackled the evolving role of certification, the challenges of maintaining professional standards, and the ongoing push for title and scope protection across Canada.
“Just because I was good 25 years ago doesn’t make me good today,” said Masotti, a BCRSP board member and longtime advocate of lifelong learning. “Complacency is the scariest thing in the world.”
Certification: Standards worth strengthening
The panel emphasized that certification is far more than a line on a resume. It is a commitment to continuous learning, ethical conduct, and technical competence in an increasingly complex profession.
“No one hygienist knows everything,” said Mercer, a senior occupational hygienist with Stantec. “But certification proves you have the breadth of knowledge to operate responsibly, and that’s critical in a field where most people still don’t even know what occupational hygiene is.”
Slot, Focus Ergonomics’ principal consultant, echoed the point, describing how ergonomics certifications once required rigid academic credentials but have since evolved to recognize broader professional experience. “We’re now working with educational institutions to align programs and provide clearer pathways into the profession,” she said.
Unified voice across disciplines
One of the clearest messages from the panel was that Canada’s professional safety bodies, from BCRSP to CRBOH to CCPE, must collaborate more closely to ensure credibility, consistency, and recognition.
“The fact that we’re up here together isn’t an accident,” said Masotti. “We’ve been working for years as an alliance. We’re talking with industry, with academia, and with government. Because if we don’t speak with one voice, we risk not being heard at all.”
Total worker health: The next frontier
Looking ahead, panelists agreed that certification will need to adapt to reflect emerging priorities in workplace health, particularly the integration of psychosocial risk, mental health, and human-centred design.
“We’ve got to stop thinking in silos,” Mercer said. “We can’t just focus on noise exposure or air quality and ignore stress, distraction, and fatigue. They’re all connected, and the profession has to reflect that.”
Slot added that psychosocial components are already being woven into ergonomics scopes of practice and expects legislation to follow.
“We’ve known for a long time that psychosocial determinants affect injury rates. Certification must evolve to reflect that.”
Certification as a career catalyst
While all three speakers acknowledged that certification isn’t always a prerequisite, they reinforced that it opens doors, validates expertise, and earns respect, particularly in competitive or specialized environments.
“I met someone on the plane who said, ‘I don’t hire anyone unless they have a CRSP,’” Masotti shared. “That tells you something about how important this is becoming in the hiring market.”
Masotti also spoke passionately about the CRST designation for trades professionals, noting how it creates pathways for hands-on workers to join the profession.
“We’re pushing the trades in this country, and this gives them an avenue to be recognized.”
The road ahead: Global reach, local impact
The panel promoted two major upcoming milestones that reflect growing international recognition of Canadian safety professionals.
- The IOHA International Conference (Montreal, 2027), hosted by CRBOH
- BCRSP’s 50th Anniversary (Niagara Falls, 2026)
Both events are expected to draw global attention to Canada’s evolving professional landscape and spark renewed momentum for growth and alignment.
Panelists also addressed the slow progress of government recognition. Masotti noted that BCRSP is actively pursuing title protection in Ontario and Alberta and continues to press other jurisdictions to follow.
“It’s a long game,” said Mercer. “But if we want our profession to survive another 50 years, we need to bring new people in, and we need to make certification more accessible without compromising quality.”
The session closed with a call to those in the room, many of whom were certified or pursuing certification, to see themselves as more than practitioners.
“We’re not just here to pass a test,” Masotti said. “We’re here to set a standard, to grow a profession, and to protect people. Not just from falls and fumes, but from burnout, bias, and being left behind.”
