Ontario Safety Campaign Will Target Construction Sites
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
The Ontario government recently launched an eight-week health and safety awareness campaign designed to enlighten construction workers and their employers.
They unveiled the campaign at Algonquin College, at the site of the school’s new construction trades building, which will open to about 2,500 construction trades students next year. The new campaign follows a 90-day safety enforcement blitz of more than 2,800 construction sites.
Even though the province’s lost-time injury rate among construction workers is one of the lowest in Canada, the 90-day blitz revealed numerous violations, including improper equipment use and poor supervisor and worker training. As a result, Ontario officials decided that it was time to emphasize the need for the entire construction industry to learn the importance of safety.
The campaign is being run in Canadian cities with the highest construction activity, including Ottawa. It is sponsored by the Ministry of Labour, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the Infrastructure Health & Safety Coalition, and will feature newspaper advertising in the key ethnic languages spoken in the construction sector, and posters will appear on construction fences. Tip sheets for workers will be available on the ministry’s website at www.ontario.ca/ConstructionSafety.
Another aspect of the campaign revolves around a hope that the public can become more involved in providing information to ministry officials. To that end, a toll free phone number (1-877-202-0008) has been established for the public to call in and report safety issues they see. If a follow-up visit deems a jobsite unsafe, the province can issue a stop-work order in the interests of safety.














