How a BC company built Canada's first gender and cultural safety management plan and why regulators may replicate it
When Woodfibre LNG broke ground on its liquefied natural gas project near Squamish, B.C., the company knew the construction phase would draw a large, predominantly male workforce into close proximity with an Indigenous community that had real concerns. The question was not whether those concerns deserved a response, but how substantive that response could be.
The answer, developed in collaboration with the Squamish Nation, became what Selena Basi, Vice President of Corporate Relations at Woodfibre LNG, describes as Canada's first Gender and Cultural Safety Management Plan: a regulatory requirement codified alongside the project's environmental assessment approvals and built to protect women, Indigenous workers and two-spirited people both on the worksite and in the surrounding community.
"On construction sites, people from Indigenous groups or two-spirited people or women: they should have access to those economic opportunities, and they shouldn't feel like they're going to be shamed or bullied," said Basi. "So that's what this plan does: it sets a standard for safety and treatment of people from all walks of life."
A response to a national conversation
The plan did not emerge in a vacuum. Basi, who previously worked in the office of former B.C. Premier John Horgan, was attuned to the policy conversation taking shape around the resurgence of large industrial and resource extraction projects, including the documented risks those projects can pose to women and girls in nearby communities. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which released its final report in June 2019, included specific calls to action directed at the extractive industry. (Source: National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report, June 2019.)
For Woodfibre LNG, the response began with two immediate measures: housing the entire workforce in a co-ed floatel (a floating accommodation vessel) rather than allowing workers to live in the community of Squamish and implementing a strict code of conduct. But Basi and her team wanted to go further.
"We thought, you don't get to be at the forefront of a major project like this and just ignore this topic," she said. "So we sat down with women from the Squamish Nation and the local community and we created a first-of-its-kind committee called the Gender Safety Committee to provide a women's lens on a very male-dominated work environment."
How the plan works in practice
The plan operates on two levels. On the preventative side, every worker who joins the project, regardless of role or seniority, is required to complete a mandatory gender safety training course delivered in person by Indigenous trainers. The goal is cultural embedding from day one.
"Right from the moment you're on the project, you're sort of embedded in that culture," Basi said. "So it starts there and then we have a zero-tolerance policy so that when there are incidents, that sends a relatively chilling effect throughout the project, knowing that there is no tolerance for that."
That zero-tolerance approach appears to be working. Basi said the Gender Safety Committee met recently and confirmed the plan is having a measurable impact, with improving numbers on incidents.
On the responsive side, when incidents do occur, clear protocols govern reporting and follow-up, designed with the same gender-informed, culturally safe lens.
For the community of Squamish, the outcomes have been positive. "Certainly there's been no complaints or concerns from the community," Basi said. "Very supportive."
From project requirement to industry template
Perhaps the most significant aspect of Woodfibre LNG's work is its potential reach beyond a single project site.
Working alongside the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, Woodfibre LNG has helped codify the plan as a regulatory requirement, creating in effect a template for future industrial projects in British Columbia.
"We are going to be working with the BC Environmental Assessment Office to take ours and make that sort of the template going forward," she said. "Yes, we do expect that working with the regulator, these will become the norm and the expectation."
That expectation extends to codifying such plans directly in regulation, a development that would require extractive and industrial project proponents across the province to apply a gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) lens as a matter of law, not merely best practice.
Interest from industry has already begun. Basi says other companies have reached out to Woodfibre LNG to learn more about the approach. The company has also presented the plan at various industry association forums across the sector.
The current plan covers the construction phase of the project, running through approximately 2027. A new plan will be developed for the operations stage, reflecting the company's view that gender and cultural safety is an ongoing commitment, not a one-time compliance exercise.
For Canadian safety professionals, the Woodfibre LNG model is worth close attention. Employers operating large industrial projects in Canada will increasingly face pressure, both regulatory and social, to account for the gendered impacts of their workforce. The question of safety culture in remote and industrial settings is no longer limited to conventional hazards. What Woodfibre LNG has demonstrated is that gender and cultural safety can be built into a project's operational fabric from day one, and OHS professionals interested in how workplace safety standards are evolving in Canada will want to watch whether other provinces move to adopt similar requirements.
This article is part of our Monthly Spotlight series, which in May focuses on safety culture.
