Canadian Workplace Safety & Health Standards ROCK!

October 10, 2014 No Comments

Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time in Canada.  I’ve worked with dozens of factories in B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba.  I lived in Toronto for three months in 2005 while managing safety at my employer’s Etobicoke manufacturing plant during a union strike.

One thing I learned during my first trip to Canada – the Canadian federal and provincial governments are much more serious about employee safety and health than the United States federal and state governments are!  In Canada they send executives, managers and yes even employees to jail with regularity for disregarding or violating workplace safety and health standards.  While in the USA, criminal prosecutions for safety violations are extremely rare (unfortunately).  Because of this tougher enforcement policy, Canadian CEOs are more serious about and committed to their employee’s safety and health than are American CEOs!

Unfortunately, until now, the various Canadian federal and provincial workplace safety and health standards have been hard to find on the Internet.  Recently, my Canadian friend Jonathan Brun from Montreal gave me this link that takes you to a single webpage that has free downloadable copies of all of the Canadian occupational safety and health standards.  

While you do have to register to access these standards, registration is free and quick. After registering, you will have to navigate through a few webpages before you eventually end up on the page that has all of the standards.   To make navigation easier, just remember that on each page you visit to click on the below graphic –

Some of the Canadian safety standards are more protective and up-to-date then the USA OSHA standards.  As a safety director for a multinational company, I would sometimes adopt a Canadian safety and health standard as our corporate EHS standard because it was better then the USA OSHA standard.  

Canada is a beautiful country with friendly people.  When it comes to workplace safety and health, the world can learn much from my many friends in the “True North”. Most non-Canadian readers would benefit by getting to know the truly world-class Canadian safety and health regulations.

 

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