TORONTO -

There will be a review into how to better protect workers in Ontario after a string of deaths on industrial sites across the province, the government said Wednesday, although it stopped short of agreeing to a public inquiry into the accidents.

"Our workplace safety system is one of the best in the world, but we're always striving to improve our system," said Labour Minister Peter Fonseca.

"We've made some significant strides in the province over the last six years ... but we've all read and heard about fatalities in the workplace, and one fatality is one too many."

The province is setting up an advisory panel to improve its occupational health and safety system that will report back to the government by the fall.

It will be headed by Tony Dean, a University of Toronto professor and veteran civil servant, and include safety experts from labour groups, employers and academic institutions.

The move comes on the heels of several deaths, including that of a 69-year-old man in the Ottawa area and a 52-year-old near Schreiber, Ont.

In the Ottawa case, the man fell almost five metres from a scaffold as he was repairing a garage heater. The 52-year-old man died Jan. 19 when an excavator machine fell off a rail car and plunged 25 metres down a steep cliff onto the Lake Superior shore.

A coroner's inquest is expected into the death of four immigrant, non-union workers who plunged to their deaths on Christmas Eve in Toronto when their scaffold collapsed 13 floors above ground.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said it has taken the province an "extremely long time" to review its practices, adding what she'd really like to see is a public inquiry into the deaths.

"I will support whatever comes out of the investigations that take place," Horwath said.

"But let's realize that we have a Public Inquiries Act in this province and I believe that these several tragedies over the last couple of weeks since the new year really speak to the need for extremely broad, effective third party view."

Speaking at an unrelated event in Mississauga, Ont., Wednesday, Premier Dalton McGuinty said he was "absolutely committed" to ensuring the safety of workplaces.

"I would be eager to receive any recommendations to see what more we may do to make sure that our construction sites are safe," he said.

Patrick Dillon of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario welcomed the announcement and said his organization would work with the panel to help identify areas that need fixing.

"It is important the McGuinty government's review look at the underlying issues in how we can make workplaces safe and what role government, employers and workers have in reaching that goal," Dillon said.

"We need to make sure that our safety, training, monitoring and enforcement provisions and structures are up to date and able to address a changing workplace."

In 2008, in Ontario alone, there were 488 fatality claims and 317,031 claims for work-related injuries and diseases reported to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.