Ontario appoints occupational health and safety advisory panel

Written by Workplace Staff

Monday, 05 April 2010

An expert advisory panel has now been appointed to conduct a comprehensive review of Ontario’s occupational health and safety system. Under Tony Dean, Chair of the Workplace Safety System Review, the panel includes: Bud Calligan - retired Secretary-Treasurer, Carpenters District Council of Ontario Carmine Tiano - Director of WSIB Advocacy and Occupational Services, Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario Vernon Edwards - Health and Safety Director, Ontario Federation of Labour Joan Eakin - Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health Carolyn Tuohy - Senior Fellow, School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto H. Allan Hunt - Senior Economist, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Michigan, U.S. Domenic Mattina - Vice-President of Sales and Estimating at Mattina Mechanical Ltd. Jattinder Dhillon - VP Health, Safety, Wellness and Business Continuity, Corp. HR, Loblaws Canada John A. Macnamara - Vice President - Health, Safety and Environment, Hydro One The panel will report back to the Minister of Labour in Fall 2010 with recommendations and options for operational, policy and structural improvements to the province's workplace safety system. Since 2005 Ontario has doubled the number of full-time occupational health and safety inspectors, bringing the total to 430. The Ministry of Labour compliance program that ran from April 1, 2004, to March 31, 2008, helped to reduce the workplace annual injury rate by 20 per cent, or more than 57,000 incidents (as a result, employers have avoided about $5 billion in direct and indirect costs).