A new and surprisingly complex Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Standard may be arriving at and impacting your workplace soon. A proposed Standard has been developed, setting out optimistic goals and processes for achieving “psychological health and safety” in the workplace. Policies, procedures, hazard identification, incident …

Yukon Energy is the primary generator and transmitter of power to Yukoners. Because of this, we are also one of the agencies to respond when emergencies occur.Over the years, our experience in responding to crisis situations has taught us two key things: fi rstly, the …

Your company can avoid liability for environmental violations by proving that it took all reasonable steps to comply with environmental law and prevent the violation—in other words, that it exercised “due diligence.” But nowhere in the law does it spell out exactly what “reasonable steps” …

The oil and gas industry is one of the more hazardous sectors in Canada. For example, in 2010, there were 16 fatalities in the upstream oil and gas industry in Alberta alone and 83 serious injuries in the industry in BC that year. So it’s …

The main purpose of this literature review published by the IRSST (Institut de recherché Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail) was to provide an overview of the main topics and recent trends in contemporary work disability research and to identify potentially successful intervention …

A recent decision of the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) has significantly expanded the scope of entitlement for workplace events that cause traumatic mental stress.Traditionally, traumatic mental stress benefits were only granted when a claimant experienced a traumatic event which presented …

If you like legislation, 2011 wasn’t your year. True, Ontario OHS reform, Bill 160, was the year’s biggest compliance story and BC Bill 14 extending workers’ comp coverage to gradual mental stress, was also a blockbuster. But most of the big compliance happenings across Canada …

Ottawa and provinces working to establish environmental safeguards for shale gas developmentCanada holds large reserves of shale gas locked in shale deposits spread across Western Canada, the Arctic, southwestern Ontario, the St. Lawrence Basin and the Atlantic provinces. As energy companies rush to exploit these …

Workers have the right to: Know about workplace hazards and what to do about them. Participate in solving workplace health and safety problems. Refuse work they believe is unsafe. Know that employers cannot take action against workers for following the law and raising health …

Employers have to: Make sure workers know about hazards and dangers by providing information, instruction and training on how to work safely. Make sure supervisors know what is required to protect workers’ health and safety on the job. Create health and safety rules for …