News Health & Safety Workforce
Mercer Celgar’s Emergency Response Team holds first ever annual general meeting

Mercer Celgar recently added an Emergency Response Team (ERT), led by Mark Smith, safety and emergency response coordinator.

Smith is passionate about safety, specifically emergency response tactics and techniques, explains the company in a press statement. He takes his responsibilities to coordinate and ensure Mercer Celgar’s ERT is as prepared as possible incredibly seriously.

Mercer International explains in the statement that high-risk workplaces, including manufacturing facilities such as Mercer’s Celgar mill, need to be prepared if something unexpected happens. Emergency response is essential in aiding and saving people during crisis situations. The emergency responders that take part in these events play an important role by providing assistance to those who have been affected by the crisis, managing the situation and coordinating with other agencies involved in the rescue effort.

Mercer Celgar’s team of emergency responders is made up of members who come to the team from all different areas of our operation and bring with them a diverse set of knowledge and skills. However, they all have one thing in common — a commitment to safeguarding the health and safety of their coworkers, family and friends.

Each month our ERT members get together for a series of training sessions to learn and practice rescue scenarios that have the potential to occur in our workplace. While the hope is to never have to deploy the ERT, we know that we must be prepared so that if an emergency occurs in the workplace we can respond as quickly as possible and do everything in our power to protect our colleagues.

On February 2, Mercer Celgar’s ERT held its first-ever annual general meeting (AGM). The meeting had roughly 30 members in attendance — the first time these many members were together in the same room at the same time.

Part of the focus of the AGM was to review statistics for membership and recruitment, incidents and training statistics, as well as take a look at what’s planned for 2023. Since it was the first time bringing together a group of this magnitude to cover such broad areas, the team reviewed the last five years of operation.

The team also conducted a simple SWOT analysis for the purpose of identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the group. Mercer shared that there were some great discussions around improvement opportunities and suggestions on ways to strengthen the team.

Mercer adds that this practice will not only help open lines of communication between team members and enhance team cohesiveness, but it will further corroborate emergency preparedness within the organization.