The Coulson Group of Companies

By Paul Pashnik, EMS & Fire Suppression ManagerEnvironmental Management & Fire Suppression News

A. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Coulson Manufacturing Ltd’s annual FSC Chain of Custody audit was held on November 24th. I’m pleased to confirm that at the exit interview the Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) lead auditor advised me that he did not identify any serious non-conformances and that CML passed the audit. I was pleased with the electronic tracking system of "logs in and lumber out" as it made the reporting and auditing of the timber origin and the lumber sold as FSC credit very easy to track and validate. Thanks to George Rose and Karen Salyn for having the electronic records in place and up to standard. The audit of the mill processes including lumber packaging and labeling also met the required standard. Big thank yous go to John Kuch, Darren VanDyk, Darlene Kemps and Randy Rose for having all of their work up to standard. Congratulations to everyone for doing a good job!!

2. Coulson Group ISO14001 Environmental Management System (EMS)

Coulson Manufacturing Ltd’s EMS ISO14001 re-registration audit has been rescheduled for the week of February 16, 2009. QMI SAI Global, is our new EMS Registrar. SAI Global a worldwide ISO14001 EMS Registrar and had recently purchased QMI from Canadian Standards Association (CSA). The company had recently carried out some re-structuring and assigned a new auditor to conduct the mill’s re-registration audit. As part of the process to get ready for the registration audit, an internal EMS audit

was done early December at the 3 Coulson Manufacturing facilities. The internal audit was conducted by Streamline Environmental Management of Nanaimo. The audit identified a couple of minor issues for improvement (garbage disposal and supplier training). These issues will be easily remedied in time for the official February audit. All 3 plants will be audited by QMI SAI Global so John, Darrin and Scot will be conducting EMS awareness training and follow-up on the minor issues identified during the internal audit.

Coulson Aircrane Ltd’s EMS ISO14000 registration audit has been re-scheduled to March 9/09. We needed this extra time as the on-line manual is in the final stages of completion and should be accessible by everyone around Dec 23/08. I have been working with Wayne Darlington and Jim Messer to get the 2 Aviation divisions ready. EMS training for both Coulson Flying Tankers and Coulson Aircrane airport hanger crews is planned for the first half of January and the internal audits for the first week of February 2009.

Management Team meetings are required to review audit results and approve action plans for improvement of EMS performance. We plan to hold the Manufacturing Management meeting on January 9, 2009 and the Aviation meeting on February 13, 2009.

The Timberlands EMS program is still on track and has no issues. Next internal audit will be scheduled for April 2009 followed the Registrar’s annual surveillance audit during June 2009.

B. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

1. Coulson Forest Products Operations

The Fire Weather Station was brought in to our 4th Ave building and the pumps and water tanker trucks have been stored for winter. Ron Sorensen and Scott Davidson will be getting necessary equipment repairs and testing done during January and February so we are ready for the 2009 Fire Season.

2. Coulson Aircrane Ltd Australia Firefighting

I was pleased to hear that during late October, Coulson Aircrane Ltd was awarded a contract for a three year period to supply 2 S61 Sikorsky Helicopters to the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC) in Australia for firefighting in Victoria State.

The aircraft were shipped mid November and have now arrived in Melbourne Australia just in time for the Australian fire season which is mid – December to the first part of April. Paul Ryan, Jim Messer plus engineers are in Melbourne getting the aircraft ready.

Under the terms of the NAFC contract, Coulson must supply the aircraft with fully trained pilots and engineers and all logistical support to enable mobile operations. My involvement has been to assist with the worker visas on behalf of Aircrane. In so doing, I recently applied, on behalf of Aircrane, for an Overseas Worker Sponsorship permit for an additional 17 workers. The sponsorship was approved on November 14th for all 17 nominations. I have since been involved with each individual Pilot and Engineer’s visa application. An additional 7 new visas were applied and have been issued for new crews. Aircrane had 17 pilots and engineers with valid visas from our first 3 year contract -- We now have a pool of 24 Pilots and Engineers to draw from and dispatch to Australia.

In addition to the 2 fire fighting S61s under contract to NAFC, Aircrane landed another Australia contract to supply our Joint Venture Australia partner Jayrow Helicopters PTY Ltd with one fully crewed S61 for use in the oil exploration business near Darwin in Northern Australia This additional job will require an additional 9 worker visas as it is a 24 hour, 7 day a week service being provided.

DEC.24 HEAD OFFICE CLOSES AT NOON
DEC.25 & 26 HEAD OFFICE CLOSED
Dec. 31 HEAD OFFICE CLOSES AT NOON
JAN.1 HEAD OFFICE CLOSED

Nov/Dec, 2008 Volume 08-140