Sollio Agriculture team: Meet Jeff LeBlanc

Jeff LeBlanc is an OHS prevention advisor for Western Canada and the Maritimes. With nearly 30 years of experience in occupational health and safety, he sees his job at Sollio Agriculture as a chance to learn new things in an industry he admittedly knew “absolutely nothing about” when starting out.

Question: What does an OHS prevention advisor do?
Answer: Take the plane. Ha! But seriously, my priority is ensuring employee health and safety at all our sites outside Québec. We make sure our sites are meeting all their requirements, deliver training and awareness activities, do a lot of tests and inspections, help with incident investigations, and so on.

Question: What has kept you motivated in this job for so long?
Answer: Well, over my 30-year career I’ve worked in a lot of different industries—healthcare, automotive, textiles, education, and more. Joining Sollio Agriculture has been a great opportunity to keep learning, especially since I knew absolutely nothing about farming before.
My daily motivation also comes from seeing our teams improve our OHS and getting to help everyone get on the same page so we can grow and progress together.

Question: How has your role changed since you joined Sollio Agriculture?
Answer: The role itself hasn’t changed much, but we’ve made great strides in OHS at our sites. The drop in incidents we’ve seen shows that our hard work is paying off.

Question: Do you have a responsibility or achievement that you’re particularly proud of?
Answer: Absolutely! This year I earned my Canadian Registered Safety Technician (CRST®) certification. I’m really proud of that because it’s a highly recognized certification and it’s fairly difficult to get. It attests to my knowledge and experience.

Question: Now for a few rapid-fire questions. What’s something about you that might surprise your colleagues?
Answer: I’ve been a baseball and hockey coach for 20 years.

Question: How would the athletes describe you?
Answer: They’d say I’m focused on results! I try to help everyone improve equally.

Question: If you could do another job for a day, what would it be?
Answer: Truck driver.

Question: What was the last book you read?
Answer: A Dan Brown novel, for sure!

Question: If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Answer: Even Flow by Pearl Jam.

Question: What’s your specialty in the kitchen?
Answer: I’m the one who cooks at home, and I think I make an excellent spaghetti and meatballs.

Question: Who’s your most inspiring colleague?
Answer: If I don’t say my boss, will I get in trouble? Ha!

Question: To conclude, do you have any advice for new employees starting out at Sollio Agriculture?
Answer: Take every chance you get to learn and grow. And Sollio Agriculture has plenty!