Workplace Safety North opens new health and safety training facility

There's a new hub for workplace health and safety in Sudbury, Ont.

Workplace Safety North (WSN) has opened a new training centre at 235 Cedar Street in the downtown. The building is also home to the headquarters for Ontario Mine Rescue.

WSN provides health and safety training, with a focus on mining and forestry. It's the only provincial health and safety association based in northern Ontario.

The organization plans to support underserviced areas across the north says director of mining, Mike Parent.

"We currently have field members across the north, both in prevention and in mine rescue."

"What we want to do is kind of give a home to health and safety, a place where people know this is where you go for health and safety training," says Parent.

The main flour of the building includes four large training rooms equipped with state-of-the-art technology, along with a boardroom.

There is a fifth training room room in the basement which WSN will use for hands-on emergency response mine rescue training.

The facility is also the headquarters for Ontario Mine Rescue.

That is the WSN program which trains and equips volunteers who fight fires, rescue injured workers and respond to incidents in underground mines across the province.

"We needed this space to not only maintain the Ontario Mine Rescue station, but also to allow health and safety training for the sectors we serve. As well as allow more space for the mine rescue training that takes place," says Ontario Mine Rescue general manager Ted Hanley.

Workplace Safety North also plans to open similar training centres in Timmins and Thunder Bay.

Training at the Sudbury location will officially begin in September. The public will get a chance to check out the centre during an open house in mid October.