WE NEED OPENNESS

It is past time for the province of Saskatchewan to allow full access to information uncovered by investigations into deaths that occur on the job, and take seriously its duty to provide meaningful, timely access to other public information.

The results of workplace death investigations should be readily available to families, interested parties and those wanting to understand the safety record of their employer or prospective employer. Other provinces are more transparent when it comes to workplace deaths. Alberta posts detailed reports from investigations into fatalities that occur on the job, including the company name and the circumstances around the death. In Saskatchewan, lobbying efforts and official access to information requests are required to get the same information.

One union rep told Postmedia about the difficulty he had getting details on the workplace death of one of his members. After months of sending requests, he received a redacted copy of the OHS report, more than two years after the worker died.

“… People need to know what happened and how to prevent things from occurring again,” he said. “And so that’s really difficult when you can’t get the information that’s needed.”

Workplace deaths are a subject that needs our attention in Saskatchewan. In 2018, 48 people died on the job in the province. In 2017, there were 27 deaths. As both the public and private sectors need to examine this concerning increase, full access to reports is important.

The public wants access to these reports. In a telephone survey conducted by the University of Saskatchewan’s Social Sciences Research Laboratories (SSRL) this month, nearly nine in 10 surveyed Saskatchewan residents said they thought it was very or somewhat important for incident reports into workplace fatalities to be made readily accessible to the public. This research was conducted in partnership with the Regina Leader-post and Saskatoon Starphoenix as part of the ongoing Taking the Pulse series. This is not the only area where greater transparency is needed.

The Saskatchewan Office of Residential Tenancies has a policy where decisions of hearing officers made under The Residential Tenancies Act are to be posted on the Canadian Legal Information Institution website (CANLII). The most recent uploaded decision is from 2017.

The stated reason was that interns perform this task in the summer months. In 2018, those intern hours were diverted to other tasks. This does not show a commitment to openness.

Transparency is key to good governance, and full dedication to this concept needs to be demonstrated by all ministries and agencies.