Rob Ellis speaks to business owners, industry leaders at chamber safety summit

Rob Ellis speaks to crowds all across the province on workplace safety because he’s a father. Because he cares about young people. Because he doesn’t want what happened to his son David to ever happen again.

Ellis, founder and president of MySafeWork, was one of two keynote speakers at the Burlington Chamber of Commerce’s Building Safer and Resilient Communities Summit last Thursday (Feb. 8) at the Burlington Convention Centre.

“I’m telling young people today, look for great leaders who combine that with great workplace culture, and that includes safety,” Ellis said.

The interest young people have in a good work culture and workplace safety is significant, Ellis said, adding that the questions he gets when he speaks to crowds of youth are amazing.

“Our young people are asking more and more questions about why they want to work for a company that they might get hurt in. Why do I want to work for a company that has no respect for me at all?” Ellis said.

Ellis’s reasons for speaking at the event, for starting MySafeWork, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring safety in the workplace, are personal.

“I’m absolutely passionate about this because I lost my 18-year-old son David in a workplace that did not respect him, did not hold him in the highest regard like I did as a father. I love my son,” said Ellis, whose son died in 1999.

The second keynote speaker was Dr. Joel Moody, chief prevention officer for the province of Ontario.

“Sustainable development is the state that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” Moody said.

Sustainable development is important to business owners and industry leaders in the present day.

“How are you also thinking of the future? Your workforce, your staff? What does your business look like five, 10 years from now?” Moody said. “We know that when we talk about the concept of workplace health and safety, that is another important contribution to sustainability. How do we integrate safety and health into that proactive strategy that can help achieve the organization’s success both now and in the future?”