Ontario to hire 98 new health and safety inspectors
Aim is to tackle workplace COVID-19 risks after spike in work refusals
Ontario is set to gain 98 new health and safety inspectors — a hiring spree that the Ministry of Labour says creates the largest complement of front-line investigators in provincial history.
It comes as workplaces grapple with the safety risks posed by COVID-19 — and outbreaks that have cost workers their lives at nursing homes, farms and factories
“Our government is taking the steps necessary to protect Ontario workers on the job and keep our economy on the road to full recovery,” said Labour Minister Monte McNaughton.
“By adding more inspectors to our team, we can respond faster to situations as they arise and help make sure that every office, plant, store and job site in this province is safe, during COVID-19 and beyond.”
The ministry has received almost 7,500 COVID-19-related health and safety complaints since the start of the pandemic, a spokesperson said. Over the past six months, ministry staff have conducted more than 19,400 COVID-19-related inspections and investigations across the province, and issued 16,520 health and safety orders.
Specific inspection blitzes have targeted industries like farming and temporary help agencies during the pandemic; according to its list of planned initiatives, the ministry will also conduct inspections focused on occupational illness in the health-care sector.
Last year, the ministry carried out more than 89,000 health and safety field visits and issued almost 130,000 orders.
Inspectors are charged with responding to safety complaints, work refusals and completing accident and fatality investigations; they also conduct proactive workplace inspections. The ministry’s new round of hiring will bring its total number of health and safety inspectors to 507.
Data obtained by the Star earlier in the pandemic showed a spike in work refusals filed by Ontarians concerned by the risk of COVID-19; by the end of April, the Ministry of Labour had not upheld the refusals.
Ontario Federation of Labour president Patty Coates said hiring inspectors was positive — but said the Ministry of Labour must take concerted action when employers are found in violation of health and safety laws. “We know that during the SARS crisis that the government’s failure to enforce its own safety laws had severe consequences for Ontarians. We are seeing the same thing under COVID-19,” she said. “We need that accountability. That’s the role of the Ministry of Labour.”
The ministry’s enforcement efforts have previously come under fire from the provincial auditor general for failing to prevent employers from repeatedly flouting health and safety laws.
The 2019 auditor general’s report found that just one per cent of workplaces across the province were being proactively inspected to ensure compliance. And while employers bear the most legal responsibility for workplace safety, the bulk of the ministry’s fines went to individual workers and supervisors.
While Ontario has one of the lowest injury and occupational illness rates in the country, the report warned that the province should “not become complacent” and noted the need to “increase the accountability of employers that have continued violations of the same hazard and to deter future infractions.”
A spokesperson for the ministry said “appropriate steps” are being taken in response to the auditor general’s findings, including prioritizing proactive inspections and identifying high-risk employers.
Hiring new inspectors, who will begin work in October, will cost $11.6 million over a full year, the ministry said.
“Nothing is more important than protecting the health and safety of our workers,” said McNaughton. “By building the largest labour inspectorate in history, we’re in the best position to do just that.”
The labour ministry has received almost 7,500 COVID-19-related health and safety complaints since the start of the pandemic