Legislative and regulatory amendments

The ministry regularly reviews the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and its health and safety regulations to ensure they are current and reflect changing realities in the workplace. From April 2019 through March 2020, the following changes became effective.

Repeal of section 34 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act

Section 34 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act was repealed in late 2019. This removed the requirement under the Occupational Health and Safety Act to notify the ministry of a person’s intent to manufacture, distribute or supply a new biological or chemical agent in Ontario. Businesses are already required to report new chemicals to the federal government and must comply with the national workplace hazardous material information system for all hazardous products in the workplace. Revoking the OHSA requirement removed an unnecessary burden on these businesses without impacting workplace safety.

Amendments to sections 7.6 and 7.7 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act

Amendments to sections 7.6 and 7.7 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act were made in 2019 to allow the CPO to amend training requirements for certified members of joint health and safety committees, establish conditions that committee members must meet to maintain certification, and allow the CPO to set validity periods for certification.

Amendments to Ontario Regulation 297/13 (Occupational Health and Safety Awareness and Training)

Effective March 27, 2020, the validity period of working at heights training for workers who successfully completed an approved program between February 28, 2017 and August 31, 2017 was extended to help lessen the impact of the reduced number of training classes offered during the pandemic. The validity period for these workers was extended to four years from the original three.

Occupational health regulatory modernization amendments

Effective January 1, 2020, new amendments streamlining and modernizing the occupational health regulatory scheme under the Occupational Health and Safety Act took effect. This includes Regulation 833 – Control of Exposure to Biological or Chemical Agents and Ontario Regulation 490/09 – Designated Substances.

These amendments:

  • replace the nine separate Medical Surveillance Codes with one single consolidated and updated Medical Surveillance Code
  • replace the 16 separate codes for respiratory equipment and measuring airborne substances with new, updated and consolidated respiratory protection and measuring provisions
  • permit businesses to use the Quebec model for calculating exposures to hazardous substances for irregular work shifts
  • add substitution (substituting hazardous substances with those that are less hazardous) to the hierarchy of controls

Changes to medical surveillance provisions for asbestos – exposed workers subject to Ontario Regulation 278/05 – Asbestos on Construction Projects and in Buildings and Repair Operations

Effective January 1, 2020, Ontario Regulation 278/05 – Asbestos on Construction Projects and in Buildings and Repair Operations was amended by Ontario Regulation 450/19. This harmonizes the frequency of medical surveillance for asbestos-exposed workers subject to Ontario Regulation 278/05 with the provisions that apply to asbestos-exposed workers subject to Ontario Reg. 490/09 – Designated Substances.

Temporary stairs regulatory amendment

The MLTSD clarified existing requirements for temporary stairs (section 75-77) as set out in the Construction Projects regulation (Ontario Reg. 213/91) under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. A regulatory amendment was made to clarify when temporary stairs are required and not required on a construction project so employers can better comply with the laws and workers are better protected from the hazard of falls. The amendments came into effect on January 1, 2020.

Electrical utility safety rules

The reference in the Construction Projects Regulation (Ontario Reg. 213/91) to the Electrical Utility Safety Rules (EUSR) was updated to the most recent version published in 2019 by Infrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA).

Industrial establishments regulation amendments

Effective July 1, 2019, amendments to Regulation 851 – Industrial Establishments helped modernize workplace health and safety requirements that apply to Ontario industrial establishments, including offices, factories, arenas, and shops.

They increased flexibility by:

  • allowing the use of alternative procedures if worker health and safety is at least as well protected
  • allowing workers to wear personal flotation devices instead of lifejackets when appropriate
  • allowing the use of antidotes, flushing fluids or washes instead of eyewash fountains or emergency showers, where appropriate, to prevent permanent injury to the eyes or skin

Oil and gas, offshore regulation amendments

Amendments to Regulation 855 – Oil and Gas, Offshore modernized requirements for life jackets and specific electrical equipment that is installed and used on offshore oil and gas rigs. The amendments came into effect on July 1, 2019.

Automobile manufacturer regulation amendments

In 2019, changes were made to regulations that apply to auto manufacturers. One was to Regulation 297/13 – Occupational Health and Safety Awareness and Training. This amendment results in an exemption for workers performing construction work at a factory that manufactures or assembles automobiles and are directly employed by an employer that operates such a plant, so they are no longer required to have working at heights training that is approved by theCPO. Another change is to Regulation 213/91 – Construction Projects. Before the amendment, the ministry needed to be notified of a construction project at an auto plant if the construction project had an estimated cost of $50,000 or higher. Now, the project cost threshold for construction at auto plants is $250,000. The intent of these amendments is to reduce red tape and costs for auto manufacturer employers.

Mines and mining plants regulation amendments

Amendments to Regulation 854 – Mines and Mining Plants that help modernize mining regulations came into effect on July 1, 2019.

The amendments:

  • harmonized the definition of non-destructive test with Ontario Regulation 213/91 – Construction Projects and amended related requirements
  • reduced regulatory burden by revoking several redundant or duplicate provisions
  • updated references to recognized industry standards
  • increased flexibility by amending requirements relating to the maximum height of working faces at surface mines and transportation of oxygen and acetylene containers underground
  • updated terminology and clarified certain requirements

More information on recent and past regulatory amendments is available through the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development Notices page.

Statistics

Ontario’s workforce

As of April 2020 there were about 7.4 million workers employed in Ontario – 6.8 million of these workers were employed in workplaces under provincial jurisdiction.

 20152016201720182019
Total number of workers in Ontario (in millions)6.97.07.17.27.4
Number under provincial jurisdiction (in millions)6.46.46.66.76.8

Fatalities

In 2019, there were 73 fatalities from traumatic injuries in Ontario, as well as 117 fatalities from occupational disease that were compensated by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board

The sectors with the most traumatic fatalities were construction (32%), transportation (16%) and manufacturing (10%).

For occupational disease, the sectors with the highest numbers are construction (26%), manufacturing (20%) and primary metals (12%).

Injuries

Compensated injuries

Since 2009, Ontario has had the lowest frequency of lost-time injury claims in Canada.

In 2019, for workplaces under Schedule 1 (employers that must contribute to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) insurance fund), there were 49,029 allowed lost-time injury claims (0.98 per 100 workers) and 115,787 allowed no lost-time injury claims (2.32 per 100 workers). The sectors with the most allowed lost-time claims are services (32%), health care (17%) and manufacturing (15%). The sectors with the highest rates of allowed lost-time injury claims are transportation (1.87 per 100 workers), agriculture (1.78 per 100 workers) and municipal (1.64 per 100 workers).

In 2019, for workplaces under Schedule 2 (self-insured businesses), there were 16,635 allowed lost-time injury claims (2.2 per 100 workers) and 15,316 allowed no lost-time injury claims (2.03 per 100 workers).

Critical injuries

Critical injuries at the workplace must be reported directly to the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development.

In 2019, 2,398 critical injuries were reported to the ministry. Of those, 2,050 of those were in industrial, 307 were in construction and 41 were in mining sector workplaces.

Training

Between April 1, 2015, and March 31, 2020, CPO-approved training providers have trained over 877,000 workers on working at heights for the construction sector. In the 2019-2020 fiscal year alone, over 204,000 workers completed working at heights training or refresher training.

Up to March 31, 2020, over 59,000 individuals have been fully certified as joint health and safety committee members, meaning they successfully completed their Part 1 and 2 training. During the 2019-2020 fiscal year, over 18,000 people completed their Part 1 training, more than 16,000 completed Part 2 to become fully certified and over 4,500 completed refresher training.

The Prevention Office also digitized CPO-approved training records and made them securely available via the Certification Management System (CMS). Over 228,000 new learner accounts were created between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020. In the 2019-2020 fiscal year alone, over 255,000 new certifications or records of completion were issued. From April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020, the CMS received over 1,400 requests for new employer accounts.

From April 2019 through March 2020, the health and safety associations provided over 1,077,075 participant hours of training on a variety of workplace health and safety topics.

Enforcement

Occupational health and safety inspectors visit workplaces to provide information and conduct inspections to ensure that the workplace is in compliance with health and safety legislation. If a workplace is not in compliance, the inspector may issue an order and the employer must correct the problem within a certain timeframe. If the problem poses an immediate threat to worker health and safety, the inspector may issue a stop work order, which means that work stops until the problem is corrected.

Inspectors also do consultations, which may happen before a workplace inspection. An inspector may discuss the purpose of their visit with the employer and/or joint health and safety committee members/worker health and safety representative and may request information from the workplace parties to prepare for their next visit.

Total inspections

In 2019-2020, ministry inspectors made a total of 81,000 visits to 39,000 workplaces and issued 110,000 orders. Of those orders, 7,000 were stop use or stop work orders.

Proactive inspections

Proactive inspections are unannounced field visits conducted to improve safety and prevent injuries or fatalities. At proactive visits, inspectors:

  • monitor compliance with occupational health and safety legislation
  • promote the internal responsibility system
  • advise workplace parties of their rights, duties and responsibilities
  • discuss requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and its regulations

In 2019-2020, 55% of the field visits (45,000) were proactive visits.

There were 76,340 orders issued during proactive visits, which accounted for 69% of all orders issued.

Reactive inspections

Reactive inspections are field visits conducted to investigate a fatality, critical injury, work refusal, complaint, occupational disease or other health and safety-related event in the workplace. Reactive visits are a critical part of inspectors’ work.

In 2019-2020, there were 36,500 reactive field visits where inspectors issued 34,000 orders. Over the past decade, the number of reactive field visits has increased from 23,979 in 2009-2010 to 36,500 in 2019-20.

Data on occupational health and safety field visits, workplaces visited and orders issued can be found here.

System finances

Investments – By category

In 2019-2020, the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development and system partners continued to invest approximately $300 million to support the implementation of the integrated health and safety strategy.

Occupational health and safety investments ($ millions)

Occupational health and safety investments ($ millions)
Investment category20152016201720182019
Transfers to health and safety associations90.891.9293.6190.8680.67
Health and Safety Association Self-generated revenue27.928.3728.2928.3727.6
Enforcement96.796.2103.1103.497.9
Legislation/regulation development2.22.52.944.0
Agencies15.315.515.515.615.9
Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development Prevention Organization14.413.312.713.113.8
Prevention grants243.252.921.20
Research9.68.758.387.276.87
Workplace Health and Safety Services334.24.97
Small Business Health and Safety Programs – rebates0.80.910.50.3
Safety Groups Program   rebatesfootnote 539.328.829.42932
Total302293.24302.33299.92287.24

Sources

Transfers to Health and Safety Associations (HSAs): Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development Transfer Payment Agreements (TPAs) with HSAs 2015-2016 to 2019-2020.

Health and Safety Association Self-Generated Revenue: HSAs audited financial statements 2015-2016 to 2019-2020.

Enforcement, Legislation and Regulation Development, Agencies, Ministry of Labour Prevention Organization: Government of Ontario IFIS Database 2015-2016 to 2019-2020.

Prevention Grants: Transfer Payment Agreements between the ministry and the grant recipients 2015-2016 to 2019-2020.

Research: Figures are based on the TPAs between the ministry and the grant recipients 2015-2016 to 2019-2020.

Workplace Health and Safety Services: WSIB Prevention Program Statistics for 2015 to 2019.

Small Business Health and Safety Programs, Safety Group Program Rebates: WSIB Prevention Program Statistics for 2015 to 2019.

Notes

Other than Legislation and Regulation Development and Health and Safety Association Self-Generated Revenue, all investments in occupational health and safety are funded by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board through a portion of employer premiums.

Agencies includes investments associated with the Office of the Worker Adviser, Office of the Employer Adviser and the associated administration.

Health and Safety Association Self-Generated Revenue are those generated by the health and safety associations through the sale of occupational health and safety products and services, bank interest income and investments of future benefits funds. These revenues are reinvested into the health and safety system.

Health and Safety Association expenditures

The chart below states total actual spending by health and safety association. For each health and safety association, most expenditures are directed to training, consulting and clinical services.

Health and Safety Association expenditures, 2019-2020 ($ Millions)

Occupational health and safety investments ($ millions)
AssociationInfrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA)Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW)Public Services Health and Safety Association (PSHSA)Workers Health & Safety Centre (WHSC)Workplace Safety North (WSN)Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS)Total
Training15.13N/A3.568.823.3115.4146.23
Consulting8.01N/A3.73N/A2.9613.6928.39
ClinicalN/A6.45N/AN/AN/AN/A6.45
Products2.57N/A1.61N/A0.104.108.38
Mine rescue programN/AN/AN/AN/A5.95N/A5.95
Occupational diseaseN/A1.27N/AN/AN/AN/A1.27
Priority focus0.38N/A0.72N/A0.572.263.93
Corporate services3.741.081.242.191.707.7017.65
Capital investmentsN/AN/AN/AN/A0.23N/A0.23
Total29.838.810.8611.0114.8243.16118.48

Sources

Health and Safety Associations’ 2019-2020 Financial Reports to Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Delvelopment.

Notes

Totals include expenditures from self-generated revenue.

Numbers provided for Workers Health & Safety Centre (WHSC) are based on unaudited financial reports.

Mine Rescue Program is established pursuant to the direction of the Minister of Labour under Section 17 of Mines and Mining Plants, Revised Regulations of Ontario 1990 – Regulation 854

Data limitations

The occupational health and safety data in this report is limited, as:

  • ministry enforcement data may change as a result of ongoing enforcement activities and investigations
  • additional records could be added to the source databases after extraction, which would not be included in this report. This report is accurate as of the date the data was extracted

System partner annual reports

More information on the work done by the system partners can be found in their annual reports through the links below.

Contact information

Ontario provides a toll-free province-wide telephone number to report unsafe work practices and workplace health and safety incidents. Call the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development Health and Safety Contact Centre at Toll-free: 1-877-202-0008.

Call any time to report critical injuries, fatalities or work refusals.

For general inquiries about workplace health and safety, call between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

In an emergency, always call 911 immediately.


Footnotes

  • footnote[5] Back to paragraph The bottom three categories (Workplace Health and Safety Services, Small Business Health and Safety Programs – rebates and Safety Groups Program – rebates) are reported by calendar year (January 1 to December 31). All other categories are reported by fiscal year starting in the year listed in the header (April 1 to March 31).