Our commitment to social performance extends to everything we do at Enbridge, from investing in community initiatives, to conducting public dialogue with our stakeholders, to adhering to best practices for human rights, and creating a healthy and safe work environment for our employees.

Health and Safety

Safety of employees, contractors and the public is an absolute priority for us. Our long-term goal is zero work-related incidents. We are committed to being an industry leader in worker safety, with the aim of performing in the top 25% of similar companies.

Safety statistics

Our continued focus on safety across our operations has delivered an overall improvement over the last five years. In 1999, our performance on days away injuries (as measured by employee days away injuries per 200,000 hours worked) was 0.99 incidents. In 2003, it was 0.31, representing a 69% reduction.

And in 2003, several of our operations, including Gas Distribution, the Lakehead System and Dufour Petroleum, received awards for outstanding safety performance in 2002.

We are building on these earlier efforts to ensure a healthy and safe work environment as we work toward our goal of zero work-related incidents. Increasing awareness of our health and safety policies and practices among staff remains critical to our success. We are also increasing our efforts to influence the safety performance of our contractors.

Fatalities

We deeply regret that on March 3, 2003 a Gas Distribution employee was fatally injured while driving his vehicle. His vehicle was struck by another vehicle near Peterborough, Ontario, despite taking defensive manoeuvres to avoid the collision. Both Enbridge and the Ontario Provincial Police investigated the incident.

Although our ability to control traffic risks is limited, we are concerned about the potential for these types of incidents in our operations. In 2003, we provided training and awareness to further improve vehicle safety throughout our operations in Canada and the United States.

On April 24, 2003, seven people died in an explosion and fire on Bloor Street West in Toronto. The incident was a tragedy, and Enbridge is deeply saddened by the deaths and injuries that occurred. Enbridge Gas Distribution and two other companies have had charges laid against them related to this incident. This matter remains before the courts. Enbridge Gas Distribution regularly reviews its systems and procedures and makes appropriate changes that further enhance public safety.

Health and safety training and awareness

Many activities are under way to increase employee and contractor education and awareness of safe work practices at our work sites and facilities.

Workplace safety Our operating groups implement programs, designed for their specific business environments, to encourage and recognize safety performance by employees.

Our Liquids Pipelines group uses an activity-based safety process to promote safe behaviour. This process covers a range of activities including regulatory compliance, health and wellness, assessment of workplace hazards and contractor safety. Performance improvement comes from the reinforcement of safe behaviour, with positive feedback and coaching to correct at-risk behaviours.

In Gas Distribution, we have introduced a formal safety recognition program to drive continual improvement in worker safety. This program provides awards to individuals and teams for maintaining safe work environments and avoiding lost-time injuries. As a result of these and other efforts, Gas Distribution employees remained free of lost-time injuries for 141 days, a new record for the company.

Our U.S. Natural Gas Business uses a "safety-by-objectives" program to identify specific safety measures each year for improvement and to encourage employee participation. Individual contributions to these objectives are measured and rewarded through compensation awards and an employee recognition program.

Vehicle safety Driving is one of the most hazardous jobs our employees do. Through driver safety training and awareness, we encourage safe driving techniques on and off the job.

In 2003, Gas Distribution carried out a study of past vehicle incidents and, based on this analysis, published a series of employee articles to promote vehicle safety among its Ontario employees.

Liquids Pipelines also stressed the importance of defensive driving through a safe driving information campaign aimed at field employees in Canada and the United States. About 250 of our Liquids Pipelines employees received defensive driving training during the year. In 2004, based on a review of industry best practices, the company plans to implement a new driver safety awareness program for field employees.

Transportation of hazardous materials During the course of our daily business, we truck and ship petroleum samples, compressed gas and other hazardous and flammable materials. Safely managing the transportation risks associated with these activities is an important focus.

In 2003, Gas Distribution reviewed and updated its transportation practices to meet new government legislation.

Dufour Petroleum,our U.S.trucking services business, trained more than 110 drivers and operators on the handling of hazardous materials. The training included quarterly safety meetings, review of regulations and newsletters stressing handling precautions for these materials.

We also provided refresher training in safe transportation procedures to 250 operations employees in our Lakehead System and more than 420 drivers and facility employees in Gas Distribution.

Ergonomics Ergonomics involves the study of injuries resulting from excessive muscle force, repetitive work and physical stresses caused by the work environment. Effective ergonomic programs identify and prevent early symptoms of injuries, increasing worker health and safety while enhancing productivity.

There are ergonomic assessment and training programs in place in Gas Distribution and our U.S. Natural Gas Business. Liquids Pipelines also offers an online ergonomic assessment tool to Edmonton office employees.

Contractor safety management Our commitment to EH&S excellence extends beyond our own employees to contractors who work at our locations. All contractors must prove their commitment to safe work practices by meeting our safety performance requirements and government regulations.

Our U.S. Natural Gas Business conducts on-site EH&S audits and inspections to evaluate contractors' health and safety performance. We also require contractors working in the company's plant and pipeline operations to complete a formal EH&S questionnaire.

In 2003, Gas Distribution strengthened its contractor management process by integrating EH&S requirements into a new contractor approval process. The company's pipeline standards inspectors also assess contractor safety practices as part of routine inspections of distribution system projects.

We regularly involve contractors in safety training at our field locations. For example, Liquids Pipelines frequently invites contractor company inspectors to participate in a training session outlining our health and safety procedures and standards. We also provide training to contractor company inspectors and supervisors working on our major projects.

Recognition for outstanding performance

1. Gas Distribution received the American Gas Association's Distribution Achievement Award for 2002. The award is based on the company's outstanding work on joint utility construction and damage prevention.
2. Dufour Petroleum, our trucking services business in the United States, was the recipient of the National Safety Council's Significant Improvement Award for 2002. The business was successful in reducing annual preventable vehicle incidents by 50% over the previous year.
3. Liquids Pipelines received the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association Award for Lowest Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate for companies in its category for 2002.
4. The Lakehead System received the Wisconsin Council of Safety's Wisconsin Corporate Safety Award in recognition of its low lost-time injury frequency rate for the period 2001 to 2003. The operation also received the Minnesota Governor's Meritorious Achievement Award for Occupational Safety from the Minnesota Safety Council for achieving better than average performance in incident rates in 2002. Gas Distribution received the American Gas Association's Leader Accident Prevention Award for 2002. The award is based on a company's total recordable injury and illness incident rate, as compared to the rates of similar AGA member companies.
5. For the fourth consecutive year, Inuvik Gas received an Employee Recognition Award from the Workers' Compensation Board of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The award recognized the company's efforts to promote occupational health and safety activities during the North American Occupational Safety and Health Week.

Employee health and wellness

Enbridge provides a variety of health and wellness opportunities for employees, including:

1. early-return-to-work programs that help employees who are recovering from an injury, illness or surgery to return to work in a safe and timely manner;
2. employee voluntary assistance programs that offer confidential counselling services to employees and their families on a broad range of issues;
3. prevention programs that offer blood pressure checks and on-site flu immunization; and
4. lifestyle education for employees through lunch-and-learn sessions, guest speakers, web-based programs and health awareness fairs.

Industry statistics show that workers in their late teens and early 20s are more vulnerable to risk of injury on the job. During the North American Occupational Health and Safety Week, Liquids Pipelines and Gas Distribution carried out communication campaigns, using posters, lunch-and-learn sessions and intranet articles, to raise awareness of injury prevention among our younger operations workers.

Providing more accessible information to employees was also a focus during the year. Gas Distribution carried out a health awareness "road show," offering health tips and fitness checks to more than 250 operations employees throughout the Greater Toronto Area. In Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota, a mobile health unit visited facilities along our Lakehead System, providing personal wellness appraisals to more than 150 field and office employees. And in Houston, our U.S. Natural Gas Business hosted several health awareness fairs for office employees.

Protecting employees during SARS outbreak

When an outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) threatened the health and lives of Gas Distribution employees in the Greater Toronto Area in 2003, we took special measures to reduce their potential for exposure to the disease.

Working closely with the Toronto Emergency Planning Group, we established an internal team to guide our emergency response. This team established strategies and provided regular communications to employees on precautions to reduce the incidence and spread of illness. Field technicians were provided with protective equipment and procedures for entering locations where residents had been quarantined by public health officials.

A total of 23 Enbridge employees were quarantined during SARS out-breaks in March and May. These employees were monitored during their quarantine by our health staff and later returned to work without developing SARS-related symptoms.

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