The City of Surrey is the first and only Canadian municipality to win the American Public Works Association Exceptional Performance Award – Safety, in recognition of its commitment to occupational health and safety (OHS). The award was  presented at the November 19, 2018 council meeting to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of the often-unsung heroes of the City’s Engineering Operations team who play a vital role in our community’s livability and vitality.

“The city’s public works professionals are the planners, designers, builders and managers of our infrastructure and services,” said Mayor Doug McCallum. “What they do is work at the heart of our community to improve the everyday life of our citizens. This well-deserved recognition highlights the efforts of the men and women who are providing services Surrey citizens rely upon, like clean drinking water, winter storm work and turning trash into renewable energy.”

In the past 13 years, Surrey’s public works team has increased their production hours by 30 pe rcent while reducing lost time hours by 65 pe rcent, all while serving a city which has grown from 400,000 to 530,000 residents.

With this increase in population comes the inherent risk of delivering significantly increased services and infrastructure. Using city values, such as teamwork and innovation, staff have mitigated this exposure and taken a collaborative approach to significantly improved outcomes so that everyone is working safer and smarter.

The City of Surrey also received top honours for the 2018 National Public Works Week Award given by the Canadian Public Works Association. This award recognizes staff’s community engagement efforts in a competition with other large Canadian municipalities of populations 100,000 or more.