$29.8M To WSIB And Mayor Not Aware Of Problem

$29.8 million is just a drop in the bucket to Mayor Miller and his concept of fiscal responsibility and the fact that it is being caused by his union supporters probably explains why he is looking for scapegoats on the bureaucracy side.

Province brands city a high-risk employer
Designation baffles staff; Miller wants safety record facts
February 26, 2007
John Spears
CITY HALL BUREAU

The City of Toronto has been declared a "high-risk" employer by Ontario's Ministry of Labour because of its poor health and safety record, the city's employee and labour relations committee has heard.

The designation means the city is subject to more intensive and more frequent safety inspections, and pays higher premiums to the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB).

But city staff said they can't find out precisely how much extra the city is paying, and said the ministry won't tell them what other cities share the high-risk designation.

The city paid $29.8 million in WSIB costs in 2006, a figure that's almost unchanged in the past three years.

Among city staff, those working at homes for the aged racked up the most time lost due to accident or occupational illness in 2006, followed by Toronto Water staff, firefighters and paramedics.

A staff report says the high-risk designation was "unexpected, as the city saw a significant decrease in lost time injuries in 2005 relative to 2004: approximately 4 per cent."

Statistics show that the city has 1,840 lost-time accidents in 2006 – about the same number as 2003, but fewer than in 2004 and 2005.

High-risk employers make up about 2 per cent of Ontario's employers, but account for 10 per cent of lost-time injuries in the province and 21 per cent of workplace safety insurance claims costs, according to the ministry.

Toronto was designated a high-risk employer last June, but most members of the employee and labour relations committee said they found out only at, or shortly before, Friday's meeting.

Mayor David Miller asked city staff for a full briefing on the city's health and safety performance before the committee agrees to ratify its health and safety policy, which by law must be reviewed each year.

"It's my personal view that if you have problems with health and safety, it indicates other problems with management oversight," Miller told the committee Friday.

Miller said he was informed last year, when the ministry took the action.

But the designation was made June 28, and since the labour relations committee didn't meet again until last month, no public report surfaced until background material was distributed for the meeting.

The city currently faces one charge under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in the death of a building inspector in 2003. He fell to his death through an unguarded stairway opening.

The city faces a charge of failing to provide the worker with sufficient instruction and training.

"My goal is simple: Zero workplace accidents," Miller said in an interview.

If that's not the goal, he said, then managers are essentially lining up their workers and asking: "Who volunteers to be hurt?"

As an interim step, the City of Toronto and its unions have set a goal of cutting workplace injuries by 20 per cent by 2008.

Miller said some "enormous strides" have been made in improving safety, but more needs to be done.

Councillor Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre), who has just joined the committee, said he only recently discovered that the city is considered a high-risk employer.

It's another instance where the city is pleading for more funding from Queen's Park, but where it could reduce its own costs by having a safer workplace, Holyday said in an interview.

"It's not just a matter of dollars and cents; it's a matter of lives and injuries," he said.

The committee has asked for a further briefing, including how Toronto's safety performance stacks up with other cities.

It also wants to know whether poor safety performance impacts the bonuses of senior managers.