The Electrical Safety Authority’s (ESA) vision is an Ontario where people can live, work and play safe from electrical harms.
In order to implement this vision in today’s world of ever-changing technology, we must address new and evolving concerns about potential electrical harms.
Since I have assumed the role of CEO at ESA, I have taken the opportunity to have in-depth conversations with our senior leaders, employees at all levels of the organization and our board of directors in order to ask ourselves if our current culture, level of collaboration, and capabilities allow us to follow through on our vision and implement our five-year strategy as well as plan for the next one.
A FRAMEWORK FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
As a result, we have developed a framework that will foster a culture of accountability, which means every single employee of ESA is focused on our vision of electrical safety. In that sense, we are one team, powered by the same purpose. This drives engagement, internally as well as externally, in the way we want to interact with our stakeholders, including local distribution companies (LDCs). Electrical safety is at the core of all ESA staff – whether you are an inspector, work in IT or in finance – we are all part of the electrical safety ecosystem and want to bring ESA’s voice and value to the table.
We see the electricity sector evolving very quickly. As the safety regulator, we also need to evolve. That includes maintaining active awareness of changes, ensuring we are value- add and having a good understanding of changes sooner rather than later so that we can appropriately regulate.
ESA does not want to hinder new technologies and innovation but rather able and support them while ensuring a robust electrical safety culture in our sector. We want to work with industry, as a safety partner to do that and not be passive on the sidelines.
We also want to reduce regulatory and administrative burdens for our stakeholders and customers – without sacrificing safety.
So how do we get there?
Click here to read Electrical Safety Authority story in the winter issue of The Distributor.