Ontario Launches New Workplace Safety Plan

According to Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL), the province has reduced its annual rate of workplace injuries by 20% or more than 50,000 incidents thanks to a four-year compliance program. As a result, the MOL claims that Ontario employers have saved about $5 billion in direct and indirect costs during those four years. Although the Ontario government has a penchant for patting itself on the back, the fact remains that the MOL initiative is cutting edge and measurably successful. And now the province has launched a new program hoping to build on its success. The MOL’s new workplace safety plan, Safe at Work Ontario, is another four-year plan that emphasizes both worker safety and the increased productivity that safe workplaces bring to the province’s economy. Although it’s an Ontario initiative, OHS regulators in other parts of Canada could adopt similar strategies. So safety coordinators should be familiar with the new initiative even if their workplace isn’t located in Ontario.

• Improve the health and safety culture of Ontario workplaces;
  
• Reduce workplace injuries and illnesses;
  
• Lessen the burden on the healthcare system;
  
• Reduce costs for employers and the WSIB; and
  
• Provide a level playing field for safety-compliant companies by eliminating the competitive advantage that companies can gain by deliberately disobeying OHS rules.

The Strategy: To achieve these goals, the MOL will continue its strategy of targeted workplace inspections. But the new plan sets more flexible identification criteria for such inspections, including (but not limited to):

• Injury rates and associated costs;
• Compliance history;
  
• Hazards inherent to the work;
• Status as a new business;
  
• Size of the business;
  
• Specific events or incidents, such as critical or fatal injuries, injuries to young workers and episodes of violence; and
  
• Presence of new or vulnerable workers.

The MOL will use these factors to develop sector-specific plans that focus on an industry’s particular hazards and characteristics. It’s already developed strategies for industrial, healthcare, construction and mining based on the new selection criteria.

Improvements from Previous Plan:
Although the MOL is trying to build on the success of its previous plan, the new plan has three key improvements from the prior plan:

• Improved connections with partners, such as health and safety associations;
  
• More flexibility in determining which workplaces to inspect; and
  
• Encouragement of a culture of safety in workplaces.

ANALYSIS
What does this new plan mean for Ontario workplaces? More workplace inspections—and if your company is in a high-risk sector, the increased likelihood that your workplace will be subjected to a targeted inspection, even if it has a solid workplace safety and compliance track record. The MOL is specifically not limiting its inspections to workplaces with injury records. It’s also focusing on workplaces with a higher risk of injury because of the hazards inherent in the work being done there. Plus, the improved connections with health and safety associations is a two-edged sword. MOL inspectors can refer a company to such an association for additional assistance and training. But if the company doesn’t “demonstrate an acceptable response” to the association’s input, the association can refer the company to the MOL for inspection. Ontario is already more aggressive than other provinces and territories in terms of OHS enforcement. Apparently, its 430 full-time health and safety inspectors can expect to be even busier.