Mary Morris
Executive Director/ Employer Advisor
The Employer Advisor Nova Scotia Society is here to assist Nova Scotia employers and employer associations. We are a not for profit society, providing Nova Scotia employers advocacy for key issues.
Many of our services and programs are free to employers and businesses do not need to be registered with WCB in order to access OEA.
Our knowledgeable advisors are here to assist your business and our education programs are tailored to ever changing employer needs. Need assistance and want to speak to an Employer Advisor or schedule an info session for yourself or your management team? Call us today!
The regulatory challenges and complexities faced by Nova Scotia employers make the OEA a necessity. With an ever-changing regulatory and business environment- the timing for such a program couldn't be better. Nova Scotia is one of the last provinces to implement an OEA; having existed in various forms throughout Canada since the early 1980s. After 15 years of lobbying by employer groups, the Office of the Employer Advisor became a reality to employers, as a pilot program, in May 2008. In 2011, the OEA received a commitment from the OHS Division and the Worker's Compensation Board to make the program permanent.
Operating through a funding agreement with WCB, the OEA is administratively separate from government and is a registered not for profit with Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock Companies.
The OEA was designed to:
Executive Director/ Employer Advisor
Mary Morris is the Executive Director and Senior Employer Advisor with the Employer Advisor Nova Scotia Society, a position she has held as the organization's first employee since 2008. Mary brings over 38 years of experience in Human Resources, Occupational Health and Safety and Occupational Health Nursing across both unionized and non-unionized, provincial, and federal workplaces. Her comprehensive roles of senior leadership encompass areas addressing occupational health, safety and environment, occupational health nursing, addictions, disability management and return to work processes, policy development, human resources, and labour relations.
A graduate of Dalhousie University School of Nursing, Mary is certified with the Canadian Nurses Association in Occupational Health Nursing, the American Board of Occupational Health Nurses, the Canadian Board of Registered Safety Professionals, (CRSP), and the Certified Professionals in Human Resources Association (CPHR).
She has received additional intensive education to support her work, in Industrial Hygiene, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Labour Relations certification program at the Rogers School of Management (Ryerson University), addictions treatment and management program with McMaster University and pursued training in Job Demands Analysis at the University of New Brunswick. She is also trained in the development and oversight of drug and alcohol use and testing programs under the US DOT requirements and has built these programs and run them, for employers.
Mary has assisted employers across numerous sectors, including telecommunications, manufacturing, land development, trucking, aviation, home building, construction and more, with program design, implementation, and evaluation. She has extensive experience in the areas of disability management from both health and human resources perspectives. She has also overseen in-house adjudication of claims and been actively involved in issues resolution related to complex and difficult disabilities in the workplace.
Throughout her career, Mary has been actively involved in various boards, committees, and government legislative reviews, contributing to numerous consultations and final recommendations for implementation. She has co-authored articles for professional publications, presented at local and national conferences on a variety of workplace health and safety topics, and was honored with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for Nursing in recognition of her outstanding practice and contributions. Mary was highlighted as a “Nurse to Know” in Canadian Nurse Magazine and has also received the Peer Award of Excellence from HRANS (now CPHR) and Special Recognition Award from the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem (St. John Ambulance) for her contributions to their work and objectives in safety education.
Mary continues to promote the health and safety of Nova Scotians and specific populations though participation on voluntary Boards of Directors addressing the rising issues of homelessness, mental health and workplace health and safety. She is also actively involved in community voluntarism for those isolated and unwell.
Her contributions continue to significantly impact the health and safety standards within Canadian workplaces, the lives of workers and the business efforts of employers.
OEA NS Society President
Chris Ipe joined the OEA NS Society Board of Directors in 2008. Chris is a practicing lawyer in Nova Scotia who has represented Employer interests in workers’ compensation for the past 12 years. He is a founding member of the Office of the Employer Advisor Nova Scotia.
He currently acts as Chair of the WCB Committee for the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, NS Division.
Chris is currently employed as Disability Management Professional with a major corporation. Chris strives for the expansion and permanence of the OEA program in order to better serve the needs of all Employers.
OEA NS Society Treasurer
Elected Treasurer of OEA NS Society in March 2019, William (Bill) Costin has been a Director of the OEA NS Society Board since 2015. Bill began his construction career in Amherst as the eldest son of a construction business family. At the age of 18, he decided to pursue a career in music and obtained a music degree from Mount Allison University and a performance degree from the Folkwang Hochschule fur Musik Ruhr, Germany. He has performed with orchestras and in music festivals throughout Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Before returning to take over the family business in 1986, he was principal horn and general manager of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra.
President of Costin Paving and Contracting since 1987 and presently is a Director on the boards of the Nova Scotia Roadbuilder’s Association, the Nova Scotia Asphalt User Producer Association and the Employer Advisor Nova Scotia Society.
In October 2018, his group won Best Classical Music Group of the Year while performing at the New Brunswick Music Awards.
OEA NS Society Vice President
Alan joined the OEA NS Society Board of Directors in 2010. Alan was born in Digby NS, graduated from University of New Brunswick in 1993 with a BScF. He is a Registered Professional Forester and currently Manager of the Forestry Safety Society of Nova Scotia as well as a small forestry contractor in Annapolis County.
Alan has worked in both the public and private sector, in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and western Washington State before returning to Nova Scotia to begin his own small business in 2000. Much of his career has been working with forestry contractors and workers in skills development and occupational health and safety.
Alan has served as a Councillor and President of the Registered Professional Foresters Association of Nova Scotia.
OEA NS Society Board Director
Jim joined the OEA NS Society Board of Directors in June 2012 representing the Retail Council of Canada - Atlantic Region. Jim Cormier serves as the Director (Atlantic) for the Retail Council of Canada (RCC). Retail Council of Canada (RCC) has been the Voice of Retail in Canada since 1963. We speak for an industry that touches the daily lives of Canadians in every corner of the country — by providing jobs, career opportunities, and by investing in the communities we serve.
RCC is a not-for-profit, industry-funded association representing more than 50,000 store fronts of all retail formats across Canada, including department, specialty, discount, grocery and independent stores, as well as online merchants.
In his role as Atlantic Director, Jim is a strong advocate for retailing in Canada and works with all levels of government and other stakeholders to support employment growth and career opportunities in retail, promote and sustain retail investments in communities throughout the region, and to enhance consumer choice and industry competitiveness. Jim works with the RCC team to provide members with a full range of services and programs including education and training, benchmarking and best practices, networking, advocacy, and industry information.
Jim was raised and educated in Nova Scotia. He has worked as a teacher, an executive recruiter and as a political advisor at both the federal and provincial levels. He has been employed in his current position with the Retail Council of Canada since 2011.
OEA NS Society Board Director
Paul Dubé joined the Board of Directors in 2020. Paul is the president of Merit Contractors Association of Nova Scotia, an industry association that represents the open shop/non-unionized sector of the provinces construction sector. Paul is also the president of Atlantic Contractors Benefit Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merit which provides employee health benefit programs throughout Atlantic Canada. A business graduate from Acadia University, Paul is also a Certified Association Executive and a director of the Atlantic Council with the Canadian Society of Association Executives. Paul is also a director with the Private Training Corporation - Newfoundland Labrador and a business representative on the Nova Scotia Labour Board. Much of Paul’s earlier career was in the advanced technology sector employed with such companies as IBM Canada and Bell Aliant.
OEA NS Society Board Director
Louis-Philippe Gauthier is the Senior Director, Legislative Affairs, Atlantic for the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses. He is responsible for the management of legislative affairs, identifying relevant issues and developing public and government relations strategies to advocate on behalf of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) in the region.
A passionate believer in the transforming effects of the business world on society, Louis-Philippe is an active member of the New Brunswick business community. He completed two terms as president of the Economic Council of New-Brunswick (Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick) and was Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Invest NB, the crown corporation responsible for foreign investment attraction in the Province of New Brunswick. Previous to this position he was Regional Manager in charge of northern New Brunswick newspapers at Brunswick News Inc (Victoria Star, Madawaska, Tribune, Northern Light, Miramichi Leader) and General Manager of l’Étoile, the French provincial weekly newspaper of New Brunswick. For almost ten years Mr. Gauthier was President and partner of Bulmer-Martin-Gauthier (BMG) Consultants Inc a full service Internet systems development firm. Under his leadership, the company was named small business of the year in 2003 by the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick.
Holding a bachelors degree in science and an MBA from the University of Moncton, he held lecturer positions for over ten years teaching information technology management and Interactive Marketing courses in graduate business programs (MBA) of the Université de Moncton and University of New Brunswick in Saint John.
Adept at motivating individuals and teams towards achieving organizational objectives, he has successfully managed dynamic sales environments, marketing, public and government relation initiatives in senior positions.
In recognition of his vision, leadership and achievements, Mr. Gauthier was honored with the title of alumni of the year in 2001 by the business faculty of the Université de Moncton.
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