TORONTO - Ontario will name a new health and safety czar within the Ministry of Labour to prevent workplace accidents like the one that claimed the lives of four immigrant workers who plunged to their deaths from a Toronto highrise last Christmas Eve.
The chief prevention officer is among 46 recommendations contained in a report released Thursday calling for a major overhaul of Ontario's workplace safety system.
Tony Dean, a veteran civil servant who headed up the yearlong review, urged sweeping changes in his report, from more inspections and better enforcement to tougher penalties for those who put workers at risk.
Even if those measures were in place a year ago, it's difficult to say whether those four men would still be alive, Dean said.
The probe uncovered some "obvious areas" for improvement, such as more prevention and rigorous training for employees who are working at heights and tougher penalties where "obligations are avoided consciously," he said.
"We believe, if implemented, these changes would minimize the likelihood of those things happening in the future," Dean said.
"But this is a large and complex system and it's not easy to prevent fatalities and serious injuries, unfortunately."
In addition to a chief prevention officer, the report recommends a provincial prevention office that will have the power to implement the changes, including mandatory safety training for every construction worker and supervisor, especially those in entry-level positions.
That would shift responsibility for prevention activities from the Workplace Safety Insurance Board to the Ministry of Labour, but they would still be funded by WSIB premiums, the government said.
Dean's report also urged the government to combat underground activity in the construction industry with after-hours inspections, and ensure students from elementary school to university are well-schooled on workplace safety. He even recommended that it be a requirement for high school graduation.
Labour Minister Peter Fonseca said he sees the "merits" in all 46 recommendations, but wouldn't definitively commit to making safety training mandatory for all workers and supervisors.
Fran DeFilippis, whose husband died in a scaffolding accident eight years ago, said she wants to see more supervisor training and safety education for young people before they join the workforce.
But it's hard to say whether these measures could have saved her husband's life, she said.
"We can't go back to the past and try and say what's right or wrong, but we can look to the future to make changes for people," she said.
"That's where I have to stand. In the future, we can save people because I can't change the past."
The New Democrats say they're behind the much-needed changes, but expressed concern that the government won't provide enough resources to implement them.
"If there's not one more dollar going into implementing any of this, one is highly suspect that any worker in Ontario, at the end of the day, will be much safer," she said.
"We've been asking for more frequent, proactive inspections for years, particularly after the deaths of these workers. Surely that's the hub of what needs to happen here."
Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, said there's still money for training.
"There's no less dollars going into the system than what's going in today," he said.
"So dollars will still be there, it's a matter of how do you deliver that training more efficiently and with a greater focus on delivering in a uniform way across the system to ensure that everybody receives the same basic type of training."
But Ryan said he was "taken aback" by Thursday's leaked reports that Fonseca is jumping ship to run federally in the next election.
Fonseca confirmed that the federal Liberals have approached him, but wouldn't say if he's accepted the offer.
"If the minister's not there to champion the legislation through the cabinet, and the implementation and enforcement of it, that concerns me," Ryan said.
The government announced a review of workplace safety last January 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.
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 the four non-union workers who died after plunging 13 floors from a Toronto highrise when their scaffolding broke. A fifth man was seriously injured.
