CANADA Ontario Schedules Review on How to Protect Workers After Several Fatalities

After a string of deaths at industrial sites across the province, the government announced a review into how to better protect workers in Ontario, stopping short of agreeing to a public inquiry into the accidents, according to The Canadian Press.

"Our workplace safety system is one of the best in the world, but we're always striving to improve our system,'' said Labour Minister Peter Fonseca. "We've made some significant strides in the province over the last six years . . . but we've all read and heard about fatalities in the workplace, and one fatality is one too many.''

The province is setting up an advisory panel to improve its occupational health and safety system. A report to the government is expected by the fall of 2010. The panel will be headed by Tony Dean, a University of Toronto professor and veteran civil servant, and include safety experts from labor groups, employers and academic institutions.

The move comes following several deaths, including that of a 69-year-old man in the Ottawa area and a 52-year-old near Schreiber, Ont. In the Ottawa case, the man fell almost five meters from a scaffold as he was repairing a garage heater. The 52-year-old man died when an excavator machine fell off a rail car and plunged 25 meters down a steep cliff onto the Lake Superior shore. A coroner's inquest is expected into the death of four immigrant, non-union workers who plunged to their deaths on Christmas Eve in Toronto when their scaffold collapsed 13 floors above ground.

According to NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, it has taken the province an "extremely long time'' to review its practices, adding what she'd really like to see is a public inquiry into the deaths.

"I will support whatever comes out of the investigations that take place,'' Horwath said. "But let's realize that we have a Public Inquiries Act in this province and I believe that these several tragedies over the last couple of weeks since the new year really speak to the need for extremely broad, effective third party view.'' (workersxzcompxzkit)

In 2008, in Ontario alone, there were 488 fatality claims and 317,031 claims for work-related injuries and diseases reported to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers' Compensation costs, including airlines, health care, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. He can be contacted at: Robert_Elliott@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.

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