Canadian Safety Reporter

JANUARY 2014 the workplace safety source for ohs managers and hr professionals Nova Scotia OHS needs improvement: Auditor general More than a dozen recommendations made to shore up safety practices | By LIZ FOSTER | ensure efforts are concentrated on highrisk industries. Auditor general Jacques Lapointe The report found variation in inspecprobed Nova Scotia's occupational health tors' reports. Some were comprehensive, and safety practices in his latest report, while others only included the bare miniand found plenty of room for improvemum of information employers needed in ment. order to address deficiencies. Of the 3,754 The Department of Labour and Adorders issued between April 2012 and vanced Education's Occupational Health March 2013, more than one-third were and Safety Division is responsible for not complied with by the date required. investigations and inspections related to Lapointe recommended the department workplace safety. It conducts worksite develop and implement checklists to creinspections to ensure compliance with ate consistency among inspections and in the Occupational Health and Safety Act inspectors' follow-up procedures. (OHSA), as well as carryIn total, Lapointe's ing out investigations into office made 16 recomserious workplace-related related to "Some of these mendations health and incidents. occupational Lapointe's office found safety. The majority of things can the department adequatethese recommendations be done to ly responded to serious are simple solutions that incidents, but reported will provide consistency, improve the evidence found in inspecLapointe said. tion files was insufficient "Some of these things quality of the to determine whether incan be done to improve work very spections were being adthe quality of the work equately carried out. very quickly," he said. quickly." The information avail"By simply improving able illustrated inconsisthe work the inspectors tencies within the departare doing… it could have ment's practices. a multiplier effect. It spreads out so that The department does not set inspecpeople don't need an inspector coming in tion targets for inspectors, such as the telling them how to do things, they talk to amount of time that should be spent their colleagues and I would hope the reon targeted industries, the report found. sult of that should be that you have fewer Only 27 of the 100 most high-risk workaccidents and fewer deaths." places — as calculated using information Lapointe said this ownership of occufrom the Workers' Compensation Board pational health and safety is crucial, as of Nova Scotia (WCB) — were inspected the government is only a guiding force in in the last year. Lapointe recommended Continued on page 8 the department set inspection targets to IN THIS ISSUE ARRESTING MENTAL HEALTH Ombudsman makes 34 recommendations to Ontario Provincial Police . . . . . . . . . . 2 Lessons from fatal TTC accident Track inspector killed after being struck in Toronto's subway system . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Disability in the workplace: Perception matters Employers can be liable for discrimination for a perceived disability whether one exists or not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Reassessing rail safety Rules for train operators changing in wake of high-profile incidents in Quebec, Alberta | By LIZ FOSTER | In the wake of derailments in Quebec and Alberta, Canadians are questioning the safety of transporting dangerous goods by rail. In July 2013, unattended tank cars carrying crude oil rolled into the town of Lac-Mégantic, Que., resulting in the death of 47 people and the loss of the majority of the community's downtown area. In October, the derailment of a train carrying crude oil and gas near Gainford, Alta., resulted in a massive fire. As a result, regulators have imposed emergency directives for the transporContinued on page 4

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