Someone once said, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” In the case of one CP employee, you might say, “Where there’s fire, there’s Jon Banks.”
Jon is our chief fire extinguisher technician and runs our Mobile Fire Extinguisher Program. As a certified volunteer firefighter with the Anzac Fire Department, he’s well equipped for the job.
Jon joined CP in 2015, batch pigging for Enbridge, and quickly rose to the position of crew foreman. Jon left CP for a stint at Enbridge, but soon returned to help set up the Mobile Fire Extinguisher Program with Ryan Gemmell.
“CP wanted to branch out and do something new,” says Jon. “They hadn’t really ventured into this industry before. CP knew that I would be interested in it, and that it would be right up my alley.”
The Mobile Fire Extinguisher Program offers fire extinguisher inspection, servicing and certification to businesses in and around Fort McMurray.
A native of Nova Scotia, Jon came to the region in 2007 when he took a fly-in-fly-out job in Fort Chipewyan. What was intended as a short two year stint to pay off his loans ended up becoming six, and now Jon is proud to call Anzac home. Around this same time, sparks of a different kind began flying, and Jon married an elementary school teacher. Today, they have a four-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter.
Jon is a self-confessed fitness fanatic. “I work out every morning,” he says with a wink. “Gotta keep up with the young guys at the fire hall!”
CP is a great company to work for, in Jon’s opinion. “It feels like family, and I can’t say anything bad about the CP family,” he says.
The opportunities for growth that CP offers are also attractive to Jon. “CP is a company where you can definitely show potential, and there’s lots of room to grow,” he says. “They saw that I had the background and initiative to help start up the Mobile Fire Extinguisher Program, they saw the value and potential in the service, so they gave me the training and tools to launch the program and make it successful.”
Please pass on to Vern my compliments on his employee, Jon Banks. Jon was up at Woodlands & Norealis for the last couple of days completing our annual fire extinguisher checks. Jon was very organized, efficient and did an outstanding job in getting all of our extinguishers inspected in a timely manner. I just wanted Jon to be recognized for a job well done. It was greatly appreciated. You are fortunate to have an employee such as Jon.
Regards,
Tim Phillips, Enbridge Pipelines
