We get this question all the time. Since confusion is running rampant in the oil and gas industry as a result of Enform dropping IRP 16 in favor of what is now called GSO, I will take a few moments to explain my understanding of the new document.
The IGSO is now a "guideline", meaning that the Enform committee has chosen to leave it up to each employer to decide what hazards exist in their workplace, and which corresponding training is required. This is nothing new... regulations in all provinces have always required employers to perform hazard assessments and to train workers according to
the actual hazards in their workplace. The IGSO document is now confirming that this is the case.
The IGSO guideline now refers to, and even points to government sources, such as the
WorkSafe Saskatchewan Orientation Guide, which is where you will now find the checklists that were once in IRP 16.
There is no list of training topics in the Enform IGSO. The fact that Enform lists the content of PST and CSTS in Appendix 4 does
not mean those topics are the ones to be covered for every company's safety training program. It is simply a tool to help you perform your gap analysis (i.e. "do we provide training on all the high-risk hazards in our workplace?").
Even the WorkSafe Saskatchewan checklist is open ended, such as "Any other industry-specific hazards not already covered" and "Anything else the worker must know". In essence, what the regulations and now IGSO are saying is that companies
must train on whatever is appropriate, not just the topics on a given list. Essentially, it is up to safety and senior operations personnel to go through these and other list of training topics and turn on anything that might be a high-risk hazard at your company. [And anything missing from awareness training should be added as a safe work procedure.]
Do not let Enform's incestuous mentioning of their own PST program fool you into thinking that PST satisfies IGSO or government regulations. The document itself makes no such claim. An off the shelf program like PST will likely miss certain hazards and leave your workers untrained for some hazards and your organization exposed to non-compliance. The IGSO document even says so (although not so directly). A customize training program, delivered in whatever format you like, is what will best satisfy IGSO. Of course we believe an online training program, integrated with your OHSMS, will work best - simply because compliance is tracked and records are maintained automatically.
We here at SafetySync have been planning for this change for some time. Our online Safety Management System is designed specifically to meet the regulatory requirements and the new IGSO guideline. You can select which hazards apply to your operations, and even assign them only to positions that may be faced with those hazards. Our system can pre-populate the courses and lessons according to the old IRP 16 / PST list of topics, but hopefully you now understand that they are simply recommendations that should be modified according to your company's unique needs.