Canadian Safety Reporter

Safety Reporter Canadian www.safetyreporter.com May 2014 Further research required for WiFi safety Panel recommends Health Canada continue to research potential health risks BY LIZ FOSTER WITH GREAT power comes great responsibility — and one non-profit is calling on Health Canada to keep up with the times when it comes to the safe- ty of wireless signals. "Technology is constantly changing, getting more and more powerful," explained Frank Clegg, CEO of Canadi- ans 4 Safe Technology (C4ST). "As these things become more powerful and are used more in society, Health Canada has a re- sponsibility to stay on top of the technology." C4ST is a not-for-profit or- ganization working to inform Alberta cracks down on health and safety offenders OHS officers to issue tickets, hefty fines under new system BY SABRINA NANJI ALBERTA IS beefing up its health and safety codes by giv- ing inspectors more power and overhauling its ticketing system. Last month, the first class of occupational health and safety officers graduated from peace officer training. OHS peace offi- cers will be able to write on-the- spot tickets and dole out fines to employers and employees that violate labour codes. The new ticketing system is twofold. An on-the-spot ticket, similar to a traffic ticket, is an immediate penalty that ranges between $100 and $500 for Oc- cupational Health and Safety Act violations. Officers will also be able to recommend an adminis- trative penalty, which would go to the justice system and, if the parties are found guilty, could set an offender back up to $10,000 per day, per violation. "If you are one of the play- ers or an employee who thinks you know better, thinks that the law doesn't apply to you, then I would start worrying because your pocketbook is going to get hit quite heavily and quite often," said Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta's labour minister. Elevating OHS inspectors to peace officer status will send a message to would-be offenders to take health and safety more seriously, he said. "The problem was that a situ- ation would arise where an OHS officer would be working with an employer and found that the message simply wasn't getting NEWS BRIEF NEW > pg. 6 BE > pg. 5 CONSIDER YOUR SAFETY IN TERMINATIONS After shocking stabbing in Toronto, an HR professional and police officer look at ways employers can minimize potential risks when terminating an employee pg. 2 INTERN SAFETY pg. 3 Ontario has introduced a bill that would broaden the definition of "worker" under the province's OHS legislation, giving unpaid interns the same protection as fully employed workers WCB ELIGIBILITY FOR FEDERAL WORKERS Canada's top court has upheld an Alberta workers' compensation decision around a stressed Parks Canada employee pg. 7 INSIDE New look, same great content WELCOME TO THE new Canadian Safety Reporter. We've given your favourite occupational health and safety newsletter a fresh look — but you'll still get all the great content you've come to expect. In addition to a new typeface, we're also making more use of co- lour and graphics throughout the is- sue — all without reducing the over- all word count, so you'll get more information than ever before. Plus, don't forget that your subscription to Canadian Safety Reporter also includes unlimited access to the online archive at www.safety- reporter.com. It features more than 1,100 articles from past issues, plus you can also view videos and webinars. We hope you like the new look. Have feedback? We'd love to hear it. Email us at todd.humber@thom- sonreuters.com Credit: maradonna 8888/Shutterstock.com

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