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Workplace Safety
A Call to Ontario’s Workplace Leaders to Prioritize Health and Safety Workplace health and safety now encompasses mental health, addiction, and the creation of truly supportive work environments for all.
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f you’re a CEO, director, or senior manager, you already know how important financial performance, quality, and service are for your business. It’s time to set the same high standards for health and safety. Health and safety standards come from the top down. Your organization relies on its employees, and so protecting their well-being, both physical and psychological, should be viewed as a core business priority. Employees should be supported to come to work physically and psychologically well and to leave at the end of their shift in that same state. With Canada in the midst of a growing mental health and addiction crisis, it’s critical that modern workplace safety extend beyond physical hazards. Today’s leaders must address psychological health and respond to mental health
and substance use challenges without stigma, combining compassionate support and appropriate accommodation with clear safety expectations.
Investing in health and safety This type of leadership requires bold decision-making, thoughtful investment, and organization-wide accountability. Managers need training and resources, and employees need to know they can share concerns, seek help, or report hazards without fear of reprisal. Wilkens Health & Safety Solutions (WHSS) helps organizations turn these commitments into measurable action by providing practical guidance, leadership support, workplace assessments, training, and program implementation tailored to each workplace's unique needs. By helping employers strengthen their health and safety culture, WHSS
supports organizations in creating safer, healthier, and more compliant work environments. The WSIB Health and Safety Excellence program helps reduce workplace injuries and illnesses, improve employee well-being, and demonstrate an organization's commitment to health and safety. As a WSIB-approved Health and Safety Excellence Program provider serving Kingston and the surrounding areas, WHSS guides employers through the program's requirements, helping them achieve meaningful improvements while potentially earning rebates on their WSIB premiums. Visit whss.ca for a more in-depth look at this boutique, nationally recognized organization and how their expertise can assist your business.
Wiebke K. Wilkens Owner & Principal Consultant, Wilkens Health and Safety Solutions
To learn more about creating safe and compliant workplaces, visit whss.ca. This article was sponsored by Wilkens Health & Safety Solutions.
Written by Tania Amardeil
Your Four Health and Safety Rights As trade unionists, it is our responsibility to continue the fight to protect workers. All workers need to know about the four workers’ rights enshrined in every health and safety law in the country. 1. The right to know Workers have the right to know what health and safety hazards are related to their work. It is an employer’s legal obligation to tell workers of any hazards they may encounter, the likelihood of being exposed, and the severity of harm if they are exposed. Additionally, employers must ensure that workers know how to keep themselves safe when they deal with hazards that cannot be avoided.
2. The right to participate Workers have the right to participate in the decision making that impacts their health and safety. This is done by workers selecting a union health and safety representative to discuss health and safety issues with the employer, or by having worker committee members on the Health and Safety Committee. The right to participate also means that workers must report hazards they become aware of to their supervisor, health and safety representative, or committee member.
3. The right to refuse Workers have the right to refuse to perform work that they believe is unsafe either for themselves or for their co-workers. While procedures and circumstances around the right to refuse may be different between provinces and jurisdictions, just about all workers have the legal right to say no to dangerous work.
4. The right to no reprisal
Workers have the right to know what health and safety hazards are related to their work.
All jurisdictions have language in their laws that makes it illegal for employers to punish workers when they are following the occupational health and safety laws in good faith. This includes reporting hazards, participating on a committee, and exercising the right to refuse dangerous work. This is an important right because a worker who fears punishment for protecting their health and safety will be less likely to participate in the employer’s system.
For more information on occupational health and safety, visit cupe.ca/health-and-safety.
This article was sponsored by CUPE.
Publisher: Kiyana Ferguson Business Development Manager: Luca Bidini Country Manager: Samantha Taylor Content & Client Success Manager: Nicole Kansakar Creative Director: Kylie Armishaw Digital Traffic Manager: Vansh Chandwaney All images are from Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve The National Post or its editorial departments. Send all inquiries to ca.editorial@mediaplanet.com
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How Workplace Safety Needs to Evolve in an Increasingly Complex World As workplace health and safety risks become more complex in an ever-changing world, BCRSP helps safety professionals keep pace with the challenges.
A Larry Masotti Governing Board Chair, Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP)
dynamic geopolitical environment and increased global opportunities are changing how organizations manage and measure workplace health and safety. “Historically, safety was measured in terms of risks and hazards like slips, falls, and pinch points on machines, as well as basic regulatory compliance,” says Larry Masotti, Governing Board Chair of the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP). “While these historic compliance fundamentals remain critical, today’s landscape is much broader and is driven by both technological and human-centric aspects.”
The need to move beyond compliance Today’s occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals are expected to go beyond compliance and to participate in leadership discussions related to organizational culture, workforce sustainability, business continuity, and emerging risks. With OHS evolving into more of a strategic discipline rather than a compliance function, OHS professionals require a tremendous knowledge base. “In addition to understanding the complexities of technologies like artificial intelligence, drones, and robotics, they need a good grasp of the effects of shifting demographics on the workplace, mental health, diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, and
Learn more about BCRSP’s safety professional certifications to ensure that your workplace or career is future-ready by visiting bcrsp.ca.
environmental sustainability,” says Masotti. “Unless someone is trained in a systematic approach to managing all While these these risks and challenges, it historic compliance can be overwhelming.” fundamentals remain To help them deal with critical, today’s landscape increasingly complex workis much broader and place safety risks, employers is driven by both are seeking greater confia global skill level,” technological and dence in the competence of adds Masotti. To human-centric t heir OHS professiona ls. maintain their BCRSP aspects. Increasingly, they’re turning to certification, individuals BCRSP’s nationally recognized cerare required to earn continutification standards, ethical requirements, ous professional development and ongoing professional development points through various BCRSP-approved expectations for their safety practitioners. activities. Having recently celebrated 50 years of Continued professionalization of the advancing professional excellence, BCRSP field recognizes that workplace complexity is “Our Canadian Registered Safety Professional likely to continue. Canadian employers will and Canadian Registered Safety Technician need to ensure that their OHS professionals certifications provide a strong foundation have the necessary skills to help guide their and baseline for understanding modern-day organizations through this more complex risks and challenges,” says Masotti. “A person workplace safety landscape. who holds either of these certifications has “Canadian legislation puts the onus on the skills to go beyond compliance and to the employer to demonstrate due diligence in contribute to change management, employee keeping workers safe, and having BCRSP-cerengagement, operational efficiencies, and tified health and safety professionals on ultimately profitability.” board is a good way to show your commit“In addition, both certifications align ment to managing OHS risks,” says Masotti. with the two ISO international standards, Written by Anne Papmehl 17024 and 9001, which ensures relevance on
This article was sponsored by Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals.
required — and recommends defined skills, experience, and training, with measurable performance indicators. In plain terms: competency you can measure.
Counting what counts
Workers Don't Die from Missing Rules. They Die in the Gap Safety is a promise that the person who leaves for work comes home. The quality of instruction decides whether it is kept.
W Dr. Sarah Wilson, PhD, MSc Founder & CEO, Canadian Safety Group
orkplace safety runs on a circle: premiums fund prevention, regulators approve providers, certificates return as proof. Every layer counts what's easy to count. Competency is hard to count. A worker can die trained, every box checked. “When a fatality report says the worker was trained, that line frequently closes the file,” says Dr. Sarah Wilson, PhD, MSc, founder and CEO of Canadian Safety Group. “It should ask the next question instead. Trained by whom? Assessed by whom? And could they do the work safely?”
Where the circle breaks The circle breaks where information meets the worker. The most dangerous work is done by people who take in information differently, yet safety information is written for auditors, regulators, and lawyers — not the apprentice learning with their hands, the worker who deserves plain language, the new Canadian working in a second language, the gig worker with no safety department, or the small employer running safety out of their truck.
When information doesn't land, work doesn't stop. Workers guess, improvise, or copy someone nearby. Compliant on paper, unprepared in the field. Wilson calls it masked compliance. The evidence is on the record: Ontario's Construction Death Review found 77 per cent of the fall deaths it examined involved trained workers. Only 16 per cent were properly protected.
A structure from 1976 The Ham Commission gave Ontario the Internal Responsibility System in 1976, and it was right — for deep mines, large industrial employers, stable long-term workforces. That workplace no longer exists. Today's projects are multi-trade and multi-employer, with rapidly transitioning workforces with both union and non-union workers blended on the same site. Responsibility designed to flow through one employer now has to survive a subcontracting chain. The principles still hold. The structure they were built for is gone. The system is starting to agree. The second annual Construction Death Review, released in June 2026, devotes a chapter to competent persons and workers — deaths of people who lacked what the law already
Canadian Safety Group works at the point the circle never measures: did learning become protection? Competency can be measured — watch the worker do the task. CSG's programs are built on current research and field practice, taught by mentored instructors who apprentice under supervision until a senior instructor signs their name to it. “A twoday train-the-trainer course — or worse, an instructor certificate purchased off the internet — taught to workers whose lives depend on it serves nothing and no one,” Wilson says. It tests the rules themselves: when its review of published Canadian research showed a wood guardrail post can pass inspection and still fail under a falling worker, it took the evidence to the Ministry. They hold themselves to the standard they ask of others. Information entrusted to them is handled with the due diligence they demand; ISO certifications are underway in safety management, information security, and AI governance. A computer is never the last check. A person always makes the final call. Their vision is simple: every worker, in every trade, in every province, deserves safety knowledge built for them, in language they own, at a standard that predicts survival. Safety is not a paperwork exercise. It is a promise that the person who leaves for work comes home. A circle that counts paper protects paper. Theirs protects people: “If we're going to be wrong, we would rather apologise to you than to your family.” Written by Emily Hellam
Before your next training dollar is spent, ask who trained the trainer — and how they were assessed. Learn what competency-based training looks like at canadiansafetygroup.com.
This article was sponsored by Canadian Safety Group.
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Blackline Safety Helping Organizations Take Proactive Approach to Worker Safety
I Sean Stinson President, Blackline Safety
You can’t improve what you can’t see. Through connected worker visibility, Blackline Safety helps organizations see more, respond faster, and continuously improve.
n many industries and professions, workers operate in hazardous environments, remote areas, and confined spaces where they are not directly visible to coworkers or supervisors. The risks to these lone workers or crews aren’t limited to exposure to noxious fumes or combustible gas but also include falls, losing consciousness, encounters with aggressive people or animals, becoming trapped, or having a medical emergency. Despite having established safety protocols and safety technology, many companies are unable to see or monitor these workers. Without appropriate monitoring capacity, companies have no way to ascertain whether their workers are safe, need help, or are following the safety protocols correctly. This is reflected in the number of reported incidents. In a recent study commissioned by Blackline Safety, a Calgary-based technology company specializing in connected safety, lost time incidents remain stubbornly high, with 64 per cent of the respondents saying they see a disconnect between safety protocols and real-world behaviours.
There are two components to creating a proactive safety culture. One is having all the controls in place to protect against an incident or ensure it doesn’t escalate to a serious injury or fatality (SIF) and to be able to verify those controls will work when they need to. The other is the ability to look at all the historical field data to help identify trends before they become future problems that can lead to incidents, serious injuries, or fatalities. One of the main challenges to creating this proactive safety culture is technology. While many companies invest heavily in safety training, technologies, and systems, these three pillars aren’t always talking to one another. With each pillar operating on its own, gaps can persist even when investment increases. When these pillars are connected, and communicating with one another, the safety culture improves.
From reactive to proactive safety
Why is it crucial for the three pillars of a safety culture to be connected in real time?
Closing the gap between stated safety protocols and real-world behaviours requires a shift in organizational culture. In many organizations, the safety culture is still reactive, with safety and incident data used to respond after an incident has occurred. The real opportunities for improving worker safety, however, lie in transforming to a proactive safety culture. Instead of treating safety as a compliance function, leaders should view it as a holistic, enterprise operating system.
Mediaplanet spoke with Sean Stinson, President of Blackline Safety, to learn more about how his company’s connected solutions support a proactive safety culture.
The main reason is they inform one another and having real-time connectivity can save a life. Blackline’s training, tools, and data visibility are all tied into one singular stream. This allows safety managers to see what the risks are in real time at a given location, have immediate awareness of safety incidents to enable quick response and reduce the risk of SIF, and then easily gather and analyze all the data so it can
be turned into actionable insights for the next training cycle.
How is Blackline Safety helping to move workplace safety from a compliance function to a holistic, enterprise-wide operating system? For companies that already have a strong safety culture, Blackline helps to reinforce it by offering some of the most advanced and reliable tools on the market. For clients that are less far along on the maturity path, our tools give them tactical solutions to connect those critical safety pillars and rapidly transition the safety culture into that of a leading company.
What are some of the tools that Blackline offers?
Closing the gap between stated safety protocols and real-world behaviours requires a shift in organizational culture.
We have two main products — G8 and Blackline Live. The G8 is a wearable device that connects workers to realtime monitoring, provides instant alerts, and allows them to communicate with safety managers if they find themselves at risk. Blackline Live is the software product that accompanies G8. It’s a cloud-based software platform that allows safety managers to have real-time visibility of the wellbeing of their teams, get critical details during an incident, and interact with their connected safety fleet. It can be used from anywhere you have internet access. Written by Anne Papmehl
WEARABLE PROTECTION
LIVE VIEW OF YOUR WORKSITES
24/7 MONITORING
G8 with Push-to-Talk
Blackline Live
Safety Operations Center
A portable gas detector, lone worker monitor, and radio in a single connected safety wearable for multiple layers of protection.
The software behind G8 that makes it easy to see what’s happening across your worksites, manage your device fleet, and understand what workers are exposed to and if they’re okay.
You can find more detailed information on the current state of worker safety and how to create a proactive safety culture in Blackline’s Keeping People Safe Report.
This article was sponsored by Blackline Safety.
Professionally trained agents who receive alerts instantly, respond in under a minute, and dispatch emergency services when needed.
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