Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
Safety certified for your peace of mind
Safety is an important issue for the Manitoba Home Builders’ Association (MHBA) and our members.
The Certificate of Recognition (COR) program is the ultimate accreditation to verify companies that have implemented a comprehensive health and safety program. This program provides industry employers with an effective safety and health-management system to reduce incidents and injuries along with associated human and financial costs. The Small Employer Certificate of Recognition (SECOR) program is an occupational health and safety accreditation program that verifies companies that have a fully implemented safety and health program that meets provincial standards. It’s like a simplified version of COR for smaller companies. The MHBA requires all of its builder members to be COR/SECOR-certified as part of our membership criteria.
COR-certified companies undertake extensive safety training for their workers. COR/SECOR certification for Manitoba’s residential construction industry is managed and monitored by the Construction Safety Association of Manitoba. CSAM is a tremendous resource of information and best practices that keep our COR/SECOR-certified members up to date on workplace health and safety issues.
MHBA renovator members take worksite safety just as seriously. In order to promote and achieve greater safety results for renovators, the MHBA and CSAM have partnered to develop a specific safety training program for home renovators. This safety program was launched at the 2017 MHBA Housing Forum last fall and has been available for renovators and their employees to take following that initial launch.
Starting this September, completion of the safety program will be a membership requirement for all MHBA renovator members and part of the MHBA membership criteria. The MHBA is excited to provide this training tool to our renovator members to help ensure that they are working in a safe work environment. The goal of this program is to help MHBA renovators improve safety on their worksites and keep them up to date on the latest in safety procedures and best practices.
When you are looking for a builder for your new home, you should make sure your builder is COR/SECOR certified. You can be sure they are certified if they are a Manitoba Home Builders’ Association builder.
If you are looking for a contractor to take care of your home renovation, hiring a MHBA renovator member will also ensure the job is done professionally and safely.
You will want to know that the work site for your home is safe and is operated by someone who takes pride in their reputation, their performance and, most of all, takes care of the people working on your home. Safety is everyone’s business and everyone should come home from a day at work safe.
Beginning on Sept. 8, the MHBA Fall Parade of Homes will showcase 138 different homes by Manitoba’s best home building companies.
Each and every show home entered into the MHBA Parade of Homes was built on a safe worksite under the supervision of a COR/SECOR-certified company.
Lanny McInnes is president of the Manitoba Homes Builders’ Association.
Renovation & Design
Plan and prepare now for rapidly approaching school year
In the blink of an eye, all of that planning and organizing you did to make your summer run smoothly is in the rearview mirror, and it’s already time to focus on yet another busy seasonal and schedule change. The waning weeks of summer require some thinking ahead to make the shift back to more hectic routines, new schedules and less free time more agreeable. Here are five things you can do now to help get the school year off to a productive and pleasant start.
Update your calendars: Add important dates for the entire school year to your electronic or personal paper calendar. It will save you significant time to enter all the dates at once, instead of constantly having to access your school’s website to check for days off, parent/teacher conferences and vacation dates. Likewise, note important school and other dates on your family’s shared calendar at least through the end of October, so you don’t have to rush to do it later.
Stock up on lunch staples: If you know you’re going to pack things such as chips, pretzels, juice boxes and fruit bars in your kids’ lunches for the next nine months, buy them in bulk so you don’t have to purchase them every other week. I also like to keep a list of quick dinner possibilities and school lunch ideas on my refrigerator or in a kitchen drawer. When time is tight and you’ve already made 100 decisions during the day, it can be especially exhausting to come up with dinner ideas. But if you can quickly look at options, it’s easier to make a decision and actually prepare it.
The same goes for making lunch. It’s easy to fall into a routine of packing essentially the same lunch for your child every day, but it’s always nice for them — and for you — to mix it up a bit. It can be hard to think of ideas first thing in the morning, however, so keep a reference list.
Organize plastic storage containers and water bottles: Inventory your plastic storage containers to ensure you have a sufficient supply in a variety of sizes, and that all of the containers have a matching lid. Discard any that do not have a mate. Buy new containers and reusable snack and sandwich bags as needed, and label them with your child’s name. Do the same with water bottles.
Scan and file health and dental forms: Scan your kids’ health and dental forms and save them to your desktop for easy access. This will make registering for after-school activities or vacation camps less time-consuming. Make several hard copies of each form and place them in a labelled and easy-to-access file folder.
This is also a good opportunity to check the dates of your children’s last doctor and dental appointments. Either add the appointments that need to be made to your to-do list or skip the list and take 15 minutes to schedule them.
Combine school shopping with home office shopping: Save time, and maybe even some money, by stocking up on home office supplies while you’re picking up school supplies. Extra toner cartridges and printer paper are always good to have on hand, and they seem to disappear more quickly when homework begins. And it’s always beneficial to have a small supply of things such as file folders, pencils, tape, stamps and envelopes.
Nicole Anzia is a freelance writer and owner of Neatnik.
— Washington Post
