Many workplace injuries and deaths that occur in Canada are completely preventable. Sadly, they are also predictable, as the following statistics indicate.
In a given year — 2008 — on every day of the year, three occupational fatalities occurred. In that same period, one out of about 13,895 workers who were covered by territorial or provincial compensation systems were killed in occupational incidents.
There was a 45 per cent spike in work-related deaths from 1993 to 2005, with the number of on-the-job fatalities jumping from 758 to 1,097. Considering that Canadians on average work 230 out of 365 days per year, almost five workers lose their lives while at work each day.
These deaths only reflect a certain percentage of fatalities in the workplace. Those not covered by unemployment compensation benefits, like the 22 farm workers who lost their lives in 2010, are not included in the totals.
The location of jobs in Canada has an effect on the workplace fatality rate. Ontario held the number five spot in one given year, with 6.5 fatalities for every 100,000 workers, hovering beneath the national average of 6.8 workplace deaths the equivalent number of workers. The Territories had the highest on-the-job fatality rate of 27.4 fatalities for each 100,000 laborers. Prince Edward Island was the safest place for employment — only 1.5 deaths to every 100,000 workers.
Aside from these workplace deaths, annually a million Canadian workers suffer on-the-job injuries, and thousands of others are exposed to diseases and sickened by workplace contaminants. Workers who get sick or injured and the families of those who died are entitled to seek compensation for their losses through the civil court system.
Source: SafeThink, "Some Canadian Workplace Injury and Fatality Facts," Art Deane, accessed Oct. 16, 2015