Consumer Advisory Council Meeting Minutes April 26, 2016

Transcription

1 Consumer Advisory Council Meeting Minutes April 26, 2016 Meeting: Date: Location: Consumer Advisory Council (CAC) April 26, :30 am to 12:30 pm ESA Provincial Office 155A Matheson Blvd W, Mississauga Present: Carol Gravelle Tim Krause Sarah Thompson Andre Bachand Kari Manninen Joan A. Pajunen Rod Skinkle Larry Allison Absent: Sandy Manners Dean Anderson Hollis Hopkins Guests: ESA Staff: Stephanie Martin, MGCS Farrah Bourre Allison Trenholm Carol Keiley 1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM NOVEMBER 25, 2015 Motion to approve the amended agenda by Kari Manninen Seconded by Carol Gravelle Motion to adopt the minutes of Nov 25, 2015 as amended: CARRIED Conflict of interest none identified. A reminder of the importance of risk management was given. Welcome to Allison Trenholm and introduction of all attendees. 1

2 2. MEMBERSHIP UPDATE ECRA MEMBER VOTE FB provided an overview of the CAC-ECRA position previously help by John Buchanan, along with the nomination process. RAGC interviews and approves the ECRA membership. Why does RAGC approve ECRA and not other councils? Licensing predates ESA; formerly part of local government (municipal licensing) and thus has regulatory oversight. Quorum is achieved proposed both Tim and Larry be put forward to ECRA as candidates. CAC voted unanimously to put forward both candidates. Joan Pajunen mentioned this is her last term as CAC Chair and urged members to submit nominations for the new Chair. 3. PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY MEASUREMENT (See presentation) Farrah Bourre provided an overview of the Public Accountability Survey findings. One of the three goals of ESA s five-year strategic plan is to ensure stakeholders recognize ESA as an effective, publicly accountable organization so research was conducted to establish a multi-stakeholder accountability perception measure. Twelve questions were asked of over 1600 individual stakeholders (all stakeholder groups were included). Included 500 homeowners who had previous contact with ESA. ESA s Mean Accountability Index Score is 7.9/10 which is encouraging. Results were positive in terms of feedback received. ESA was looking for areas to work on, i.e. where challenges exist. o ESA provides good value is one area ESA will work on. ESA will aim to maintain this score. Survey will be repeated every two years. Research will be used across the organization to determine plans and next steps. The CAC was surprised in general at the extent of the positive results, which were consistent among the different stakeholder groups. 2

3 Comments/Questions: Language in the presentation should reference ESA s accountability to the public versus public accountability. ESA staff includes all staff the homeowner has contact with however, some homeowners may not distinguish between contractors and ESA. Any plans to dig deeper on the areas of concern? Survey will be repeated every two years. Will all ESA staff receive this info as part of their training? It will be shared with staff; it s good news for staff as the results show the importance of front line contact with consumers. What is bad customer service is there a definition? The research firm gathers all comments and is trained to categorize comments. Bad Customer Service is a category - specific examples weren t used. There is inconsistency with inspectors and scheduling, which is an issue. There are also inconsistencies with interpretation of the Code; however, homeowners will only have exposure to the scheduling part. These questions are different from past research on customer service specifically versus public accountability; however, comparisons could be made. Does ESA have statistics around the index development? Yes, scale reliability analysis was done. Rod Skinkle will review the full report and provide comments. Surprised the LEC score was so high, especially since ESA is the regulatory body. Any differences between the demographics? That would be valuable info to cross-tab. Inspector issue could be referenced by region as well. What is the purpose of the research? Small sample sizes for some stakeholder groups can only be directional. ESA has not done this before so it s not known if 7.9 will be a consistent score; the research needs to be repeated to be able to compare results. Many of the questions can lead back to the inspector and their interactions with homeowners AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS (See presentation) 3

4 Allison Trenholm provided an overview of the 2016 awareness campaigns, specifically the Power Your Reno and Powerline campaigns. Power Your Reno Power Your Reno intervenes in the early stages of planning a renovation by using a third-party design expert (Kimberley Seldon) to incorporate electrical safety messages with on-trend design advice. Power Your Reno was promoted on social media, which included Pinterest for the first time (launched a Pinterest contest). There is more work to be done on consumer engagement on social media to increase two-way conversations on social media. ESA underestimated people s interest in electrical safety at the Toronto Home Show appearance. This realization caused us to increase in the amount of electrical information provided in the website blog. This was ESA s first time speaking to consumers in a blog format, and will look at emulating this for the other spaces moving forward. Comments/Questions: Are you sure Pinterest is the right space? ESA is not investing heavily in Pinterest, just trying different avenues; thought it would be a good spot for home renovations/designs. For example, the contest focused on kitchen aspirations. ESA will continue to use Pinterest as one way to reach consumers. Did you target geographically? Yes, the campaign use geo-targeting. Is the content shareable? Most of it is. LECs are pleased overall with the content; it promotes the use of LECs for electrical work. ESA wants to make sure people ask their contractors the right questions to ensure LEC status. Is ESA planning to reach out to the other renovation experts? There is some interaction on social media with other experts. ESA is an Ontario regulator which makes engagement of nationally known spokespeople challenging. The homeowner is responsible for electrical work two years after selling their home this is a very important message that ESA should find ways to incorporate. Yes. Liability seems to resonate with consumers. 4

5 Powerline Campaign The 2016 Powerline campaign will target the electrical cowboys consumer segment. ESA will use same creative elements and safety videos as they work well. New for this year: Job site visits will be conducted with a brand ambassador to share electrical safety messages. ACTION: #4.1 Farrah Bourre Send copy of Toronto Star PYR ads to CAC. 5. ESA WEBSITE (See presentation) ESA asked CAC to recommend ways to streamline ESA s consumer section on the website and make consumer information easier to find. ESA will document the recommendations and provide a report to ESA management for review. General Comments/Questions: 43% of Canadians are at Literacy level 1 or 2 this means they can read a simple passage, but changes are difficult. Level 3 is the standard for working in Canada. Content should not exceed grade eight levels. ACTION: #5.1 Farrah Bourre compile recommendations and create a consumer website section recommendations report from CAC to ESA management. #5.2 Farrah Bourre Send the consumer trends report to CAC. 6. OTHER BUSINESS ECRA Update Normand Breton provided a briefing on the recent conviction which resulted in $537,500 fine for Pro- Teck Electric in Niagara Falls the largest fine in the history of electrical contractor licensing in Ontario. The briefing included a review of the specific and unique circumstances in the case, when and how ESA become involved, the behaviour of the LEC, factors that contributed to the Justice of the Peace s assessment and fine calculation, and the rationale for publicizing the conviction. Norm noted that it was a difficult and complex case and a sad situation for everyone involved. UAC Update The Community Powerline safety Alliance (CPSA) was discussed. The CPSA formed a working group to design communications for dump truck powerline safety guidelines. 5

6 A broad consultation will take place for mandatory reporting ESA is considering revising Regulation 22/04 to include reporting of serious electrical safety incidents on equipment under 750 volts. A Reporting of Serious Incidents working group was created to revise the guideline on how to report these incidents. A Pole Top Fires Working Group was created to suggest best ways to mitigate electrical wire pole top fires caused by salt accumulation. Membership Survey The CAC Membership survey coming out shortly via ; looking for 100% participation. Chair Nominations Joan Pajunen s term as chair will end in September. Dean Anderson s term as Vice Chair will end in September. ACTION: Adjourn ment: #6.1 Farrah Bourre send out nominations for Chair and Vice Chair Motion to adjourn by Sarah Thompson Seconded by Tim Krause Carried End of Consumer Advisory Council Meeting Next Meeting: September 13, :30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Location: ESA Provincial Office 6