IS THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR ALSO A TOOTHLESS TIGER?

Today's Waterloo Region Record advises us that "Firm cited nine times for violations before accident". The firm involved is Maison Canada and Nick Lalonde fell to his death on their site in Waterloo on October 11/13. These nine Orders were issued in two batches namely in January and July 2013. To date I have not seen the details of these nine Orders but it certainly gives the impression of an unsafe work site, at first blush.

According to the Record "Dozens (Orders) have been issued since the incident.". I have spent twenty plus years watching the Ontario Ministry of the Environment play games with polluters including Control Orders, Certificates of Approvals and other instruments that were as much smoke and mirrors as actual documents in the public interest. While my experience with the Ontario Ministry of labour is less, it is far from non-existent. I've seen them change rules in mid stream for the benefit of companies and I've seen them issue Orders for financial compensation to fired employees that were sucessfully ignored.

This folks is why unions came into being. One of the Orders after the accident was for the company to establish a joint Health & Safety Committee. Why wasn't this done long ago? This is supposed to be standard practice and it does save lives. This province has a shameful track record when it comes to job related deaths and injuries. A large part of that is due to an intentionally impotent Ontario Ministry of Labour. Politicians craft legislation that gives the appearance of protecting workers while in reality it is toothless and spineless.