Valles Steamship (Canada) Ltd. has identified safety and the environment as two key areas in its sphere of operations that are of paramount importance and need to be effectively controlled to prevent unnecessary injuries, loss of life, damage to health, property and degradation of the environment.

To meet this requirements Valles Steamship (Canada) Ltd. has embraced the IMO's International Safety Management Code and using the code as a model, has developed a Safety Management System (SMS). The SMS is designed to ensure the Company's activities are sufficiently controlled to protect personnel, property and the environment from all risks and hazards that can be reasonably expected.

The Company also recognizes that an effective Safety and Environmental Protection Programme makes for a more profitable operation and thereby ensures the welfare of all involved in the business, both ashore and at sea.

Safety is the concern of all and has no rank. However, to be effective it has to be Management led. To this end, Management is committed to making all personnel more safety conscious and encourage all to become actively involved in identifying possible hazards, implementing corrective action and constantly monitoring all facets of their working environment to ensure that Safety & Environmental Protection conditions prevail.

An accident is indicative of a failure in the operating system and the Company is committed to fully investigating all accidents or near miss incidents. The results of such investigations and any corrective action will be brought to the attention of all concerned so that all may learn from the incident.

Learning is a never ending journey on the road to excellence and effective training is fundamental to the Company's business and its safety culture. As our standards improve, new goals and targets will be set to which all personnel shall strive to attain.