Animal attraction is not a good thing when referring to black bears and workers at oil sands sites. Earlier this year a a 36 year old woman who worked for Suncor was attacked and killed by a bear.
To cut down on future altercations, the oil company is implementing a wildlife safety training program.
Kim Titchener, founder of Bear Safety & More, which provides the training says, “it’s good to see something proactive come out of the tragic loss.”
“There are different levels of wildlife awareness training,” said Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal. “It would depend on where workers are, where their roles take them, where their jobs take them and what the scope of their work would be.”
Titchener said her training will include how to avoid encounters with black bears and other wildlife, how to understand bear behaviour, how to deal with an encounter and how to deploy bear spray, bangers and flare guns.
The training will become mandatory in the Wood Buffalo region by next March.
(Source: Calgary Herald)
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