COCA Lobby Day Follow Up

Back on May 27, COCA members organized at Queen’s Park to ask the government and the Ministry of Labour Immigration Training and Skills Development to give serious consideration to the implementation of the 16 recommendations that had been forwarded to the Minister over the past ten or more years by the Provincial Labour Management Health and Safety Committee (PLMHSC).

The PLMHSC is the committee established under Section 21 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act to advise the Minister on workplace health and safety matters in the construction industry. The recommendations seemed to have fallen into the black hole of government bureaucracy and had been given little or no attention.

I’m pleased to report that under the leadership of former Minister of Labour Immigration Training and Skills Development, David Piccini, and the recently appointed Assistant Deputy Minister Kirsten Cutler, significant progress is being made. All sixteen recommendations have been prioritized into three categories: Green Light for immediate attention; Yellow Light for not now but next in line; and Red Light for not never but need more work.

Here’s a brief update on the progress:

• An Ontario Regulatory Registry consultation on rope access was recently completed, and the ministry is reviewing the 62 submissions that were received: all submissions supported or did not oppose the use of rope access. There may be some technical changes to the proposal before it comes into force
• The recommendations with regard to formwork-falsework (dismantling of scaffolding), skylights (make explicit that skylights are an “opening”) and rod worker (require the use of a full body harness) are at the top of the list and could come into force in the new year.

Many thanks to Minister Piccini and ADM Cutler and her TEAM for accelerating their work on these recommendations to make construction workplaces safer.