LAWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Transportation Safety

Oct 3: Alberta is cracking down on driver training violations in the trucking industry, ordering the closure of 5 driver training schools. The government has also issued 39 disciplinary letters, over $100,000 in administrative penalties, 6 corrective action plans, 12 instructor license revocations and 4 warning letters to driver examiners. In addition, 13 commercial trucking companies have been removed from Alberta’s roads due to poor on-road performance, unsafe equipment or failure to meet mandatory safety standards. Of those, 7 were identified as “chameleon” carriers that try to avoid regulatory oversight by changing names, creating new entities or relocating operations across jurisdictions.

Transportation Safety

Sep 24: Alberta is maintaining the 7.5% good driver rate increase cap for policies up for renewal in 2025 and 2026, as it transitions to a new care-first auto insurance system in 2027. To be eligible for the rate cap in 2026, drivers must have no minor traffic convictions within the past 3 years and meet existing criteria.

Action Point: Find out how far you can go in disciplining workers for distracted and dangerous driving.

New Laws

Sep 16: Alberta’s 2025 budget allocates $185 million in improvements for WorkFirst Alberta services to make it easier for job seekers to get the training, reskilling, consultation, and support necessary to find jobs while enhancing the ability of employers to find and retain talent.

Training

Sep 10: Alberta will contribute nearly $11 million to the construction of a 126,000-square-foot aviation training facility to be located at YYC.  The new Alberta Training Centre of Excellence for Aviation and Aerospace will offer training to Mount Royal University students with an expected 6,000 graduates per year. Other partners in the venture include WestJet and CAE.

Environmental

Sep 16: Alberta says it will give oil and gas, oil sands mining, electricity, forestry, chemicals, fertilizers, minerals, food processing, waste, and other TIER system industries the option of investing in on-site emissions reduction technology to comply with their emission reductions requirements. Options available under current rules include paying into the TIER fund or buying credits. supports local jobs and reduces emissions. The new rules would also allow smaller facilities that currently participate in the TIER system to leave or opt out for 2025 to reduce costs and red tape.

CASES

Material Handling: Crane Company Fined $210,000 for Struck-By Fatality

A construction worker was killed after getting hit by a boom positioned on an improperly certified pipe stand that suddenly collapsed. The employer pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the crane boom was safely contained. Result: A $210,000 fine and 1.5 years of probation [North West Crane Enterprises Ltd., September 23, 2025].

Action Point: Don’t let this happen to you. Use the OHS Insider Cranes/Hoists/Lifting Device Compliance Game Plan to prevent crane fatalities and violations at your workplace.

Workplace Harassment: High Court Nixes Constitutional Challenge to OHS Harassment Ban

Responding to significant criticism from faculty and students, the University of Lethbridge canceled a guest lecture by a controversial speaker on how “woke-ism” threatens academic freedom. The speaker and a would-be attendee sued the University for violating their free speech rights. The University argued that it had to cancel the event to comply with its OHS duties to protect workers and students from workplace violence and harassment. The plaintiffs then revised their complaint to add a claim contesting listing “psychological” and social” hazards in the OHS Act definition of “harassment.” The lower court refused to allow the OHS claim and the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the ruling. According to the high court, the judge didn’t make an obvious legal error in finding that the OHS claim was irrelevant and fundamentally altered the case, which was really about the reasonableness of the University’s decision to cancel the event [Pickle v University of Lethbridge, 2025 ABCA 318 (CanLII), September 23, 2025].

Action Point: Although they lost on the OHS constitutionality front, the plaintiffs in this case might still prevail by showing that the University’s decision to cancel the event was unreasonable. Thus, while the University was doing only what it deemed necessary to prevent violence on campus, the takeaway is the need to implement a Workplace Violence and Harassment Compliance Game Plan that is not only well intentioned but legally sound.

Electrical Safety: Arc Flash Injury Results in $218,000 Fines Against 2 Companies

A construction worker suffered serious injury by an arc flash from equipment that had moved too close to an overhead power line. A construction company and a concrete supplier were fined $132,000 and $86,000, respectively, under a plea bargain requiring each to plead guilty, as employers, to failing to ensure that equipment was operated at a safe distance from an overhead power line [Keller Construction Ltd., and Alberta Concrete Pumping Ltd., Govt. Press Release, September 25, 2025].

Action Point: Don’t let this happen to you!! Find out how to implement a legally sound Electrical Safety Compliance Game Plan at your workplace.

Drugs & Alcohol: Terminating Female for Leaving Testing Facility May Be Sex Discrimination

A company ordered a payroll administrator who had been working from home to begin working at the office. During the pre-access drug and alcohol testing required to return to the safety-sensitive site, the administrator was asked to produce 125 millilitres of urine but couldn’t deliver the necessary quantity. The drug testing facility asked her to stay at least 3 hours to produce the sample in installments, but the administrator said she couldn’t because she had to go to a training session. So, the company fired her for leaving the facility without authorization. The administrator sued for sex discrimination, claiming that being female made it impossible for her to produce such a large sample. The Director pooh-poohed the argument, reasoning that the administrator’s sex in no way factored into the company’s decision to terminate. Normally, the Director’s rejection is the kiss of death for a discrimination complaint. But the Alberta Human Rights Commission deviated from the script by finding that the administrator might be able to make out a claim by showing that the training session she had to leave the facility to attend was actually mandatory. Result: The case had to go back down for a hearing [Complainant v Fort McKay Group of Companies Ltd., 2025 AHRC 93 (CanLII), September 5, 2026].

Action Point: Find out how to create a legally sound Drugs and Alcohol Testing Policy for your workplace.