Veriforce Canada's president previews why the October Toronto event centres on decision-making power
Veriforce Canada, the country's largest network of contractor and hiring-client relationships, has signed on as an event partner for the Women in Safety Summit Canada 2026, running October 21 in Toronto as part of Canadian Occupational Safety's expanded COS Live programming for 2026. For Henriette Bichai, President of Veriforce Canada, the partnership is about pushing the conversation past recognition and toward influence. Ahead of the summit, she spoke with Canadian Occupational Safety about what it takes for women in occupational health and safety (OHS) to move from being invited into decision-making rooms to shaping what happens inside them.
From recognition to real influence
Bichai, who has spent 20 years in business transformation, growth and risk management, said celebrating women in safety isn't enough on its own. The conversation, she said, needs to cover how women build careers, influence decisions and lead through difficult moments, and ultimately how they get into positions where they can shape their organizations.
"Being invited into a room is one thing," she said. "Having influence over your room is something completely different."
Safety leaders limit their own influence, she said, when conversations begin and end with metrics and compliance. Connecting safety to operational readiness, cost, business continuity, reputation and customer impact is what earns lasting influence at the executive table.
"You can be collaborative without being passive," she said. "You can disagree without being difficult. You can be respectful without watering down what you believe." Credibility, she added, comes from thinking a position through and being accountable for it, not from agreeing with everyone.
The Women in Safety Summit is one of few Canadian platforms built around that kind of conversation, Bichai said. In its first year in Toronto, the summit builds on the career advancement strategies shared at last year's Calgary edition, with the one-day event expected to draw more than 350 attendees and 20-plus speakers, including an inclusive personal protective equipment (PPE) showcase.
A pragmatic approach to AI in safety
Artificial intelligence is one of the themes running through this year's summit programming, alongside sessions on psychological health and life-stage health in OHS roles. The topic tracks with recent research on how Canadian safety leaders are adopting artificial intelligence, which found adoption still trailing interest across the profession. Bichai's own view is deliberately unsentimental.
"I don't want to use AI because it's fashionable," she said. "The question should be: what does it actually improve?" She pointed to earlier risk identification, pattern recognition and reduced administrative workload as the kinds of gains that justify AI adoption in safety.
"Accountability cannot be outsourced to a technology nor to an AI," she said. "That belongs to the human being." AI can accelerate information and insight, she said, but judgment stays with people.
"Don't stand on the sidelines of AI because you're waiting until you're an expert," she said. "Get close to it. Use it. Understand it. Challenge it." She wants women in safety helping shape those tools now rather than adapting to them later, freeing safety professionals to spend more time on the human side of the job.
Advice for women moving up the safety ladder
"Doing your job extremely well is important, but in itself isn't enough," she said. Early career value comes from personal expertise and execution, she explained; leadership value comes increasingly from the decisions made, the clarity created and the outcomes influenced.
Her advice for the transition is direct: "Don't wait for perfect readiness." Some of her biggest growth, she said, came from stepping into situations without every answer on day one, then learning and surrounding herself with people who could help fill the gaps.
She also urged women to build knowledge outside their formal function, understanding operations, finance and what keeps a chief executive awake at night, and to step in on problems outside a formal job description. "I would say I'm prepared to pay that forward," she said of the mentorship she received early in her career, framing it as something senior women in safety owe the professionals coming up behind them.
Why Veriforce Canada is backing the summit
According to Veriforce Canada's mission to reduce workplace fatalities in Canada, three workers die on the job across the country every day, with workplace injuries costing the economy an estimated $29 billion annually. That's the reasoning the company gives for backing a summit built around career advancement rather than only workplace safety outcomes.
Bichai closed with a pitch to anyone still deciding whether to attend. "It is an absolute privilege for us to come together, share our challenges and expertise, and empower each other," she said, calling platforms like the summit rare and worth showing up for.
The Women in Safety Summit Canada 2026 runs October 21 at the Automotive Building, Exhibition Place, in Toronto, alongside the Canadian Safety Summit and Canada's Safest Employers Awards as part of COS Live. Readers can register for the Women in Safety Summit Canada 2026.
