Alberta hands out $3.4 million in OHS fines for 2011 • New, young worker safety blitz results in 9,799 orders in Ontario industrial sector • New, young worker safety blitz results in 456 orders in Ontario health-care sector • Treatment of depression can increase productivity • WorkSafeBC extends hours of teleclaim centre
Alberta hands out $3.4 million in OHS fines for 2011
EDMONTON — Alberta courts handed out workplace health and safety penalties of more than $3.4 million in 2011, double the $1.7 million collected in 2010. More than $2.3 million of the $3.4 million in penalties in 2011 was in creative sentences paid to third parties, such as post-secondary institutions, training programs, rescue societies and other organizations that advance workplace health and safety. Individual creative sentences in 2011 ranged from $29,000 to $355,000. A creative sentence provided the Fort McMurray/Wood Buffalo office of St. John Ambulance with more than $330,000 for a new classroom training facility and to certify about 1,000 high school students in standard first aid. In 2002, occupational health and safety legislation in the province was amended to allow for creative sentences. Since 2006, more than $10 million has been directed to organizations that promote workplace health and safety.
