SPRING 1999     Inside: • FAST, A New Approach to Pre-Purchase Site Assessments • New BC WCB Regulation Highlights • Building Material Diversion • Health & Safety Challenges in Argetina HEALTH & SAFETY CHALLENGES IN ARGENTINA By Randy Scott, CRSP     At the end of World War 2 Argentina had one of the strongest economies in the world. In 1999 this country of thirty million people has a re-emerging economy after three decades of financial and political instability. As part of Northern Alberta Institute of Technology's Inter-national Program, I was asked to pre-sent two weeks of seminars on safety, due diligence and emergency response. These courses were given in response to a new federal law requiring all employers to provide workplace insurance (a private equivalent to our Workers Compensation) for all workers in the country. The new found desire to provide education and dialogue in a formerly unregulated environment was the focus for my seminars. The rolling plains of Patagonia.     Nequen Province and its capital Nequen sits in the Southern half of the country bounded by the Pampas to the North, the Andes to the West and the roaming plains of Patagonia to the South. It has many parallels with Alberta, both geographically and economically, with an economy based on agriculture, oil and gas. Government officials attended my seminars from the Ministries of Transport and Agriculture, along with school, hospital officials and industry. The challenges of multinational companies having to blend with local customs and habits prompted a need for further discussion and collective planning.     The workplace and environmental processes were similar to Canada in the nineteen seventies. Many hospitals had no fire escapes. Most workplaces had no formal health and safety documentation. No environmental first response plans had been compiled. There was a limited amount of worker-employer dialogue on these issues. Through these seminars a process of employer/worker dialogue was established that should initiate multi-stakeholder regulations and further more site specific training that will care-fully enhance our Canadian process.