Manitoba and Saskatchewan have the highest workplace injury rates in Canada and have shared that dubious distinction for years. And those lost-time injury statistics do not include the agriculture sector, where 1,769 workers were killed between 1990 and 2005, according to the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.
Looking at workplace injury statistics across all Canadian jurisdictions, “Saskatchewan and Manitoba stick out like a sore thumb,” says Phillip Germain, executive director for prevention at the Workers’ Compensation Board of Saskatchewan.
Manitoba and Saskatchewan share the top two spots for having the highest lost-time injury rates (LTI) in all of Canada. Despite a decreasing trend in these prairie provinces’ LTI per 100 workers — dropping from 5.6 to 3.8 between 2000 and 2009 in Manitoba, and from 4.9 to 3.44 between 2002 and 2009 in Saskatchewan — these rates are still high compared to the national average of 2.12.
“We certainly see that as something that needs to change,” says Mike Carr, Saskatchewan’s associate deputy minister, labour, employee and employer services division, Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour.
Saskatchewan is the province that pioneered occupational health and safety legislation in Canada in 1972. Carr believes that Saskatchewan’s regulatory regime still stacks up with the best in North America.
“But we need to engage in some positive social marketing about the hazards of work, and about the obligations that employers and employees have to ensure their safety,” he says. “We don’t intend to be a leader in the highest injury rate category, but a leader in the lowest injury rate. We take that very seriously.”
In Manitoba, there has been a shift as injuries in the manufacturing sector dropped by 35 per cent from 2000 to 2006 and continue to improve. Manufacturing represents the major influence in overall trends observed in recent years, but now the service sector has surpassed manufacturing for the first time.
The increase in service sector injuries, according to the WCB’s 2009 annual report, was driven by health care and its ongoing problem with musculosekeletal injuries (MSIs). These are being addressed with a direct marketing campaign for health care professionals, including web-based videos on how to transfer patients.
Even as Manitoba’s LTI improves along with that of other Canadian jurisdictions, the number remains steady for one group of workers — those over the age of 45. The WCB has recently identified and is in the process of researching different tactics to address the issue.
“We’re still trying to figure out why exactly that is,” says Warren Preece, director of communications for the Manitoba Workers Compensation Board, “but it’s becoming clear that older workers are going to become an important demographic. It could be because of many factors — older people re-entering the workplace, people staying longer than they used to, or simply more older workers.”
Manitoba and Saskatchewan face the same workplace health and safety challenges as the rest of Canada. As for why Manitoba has the country’s highest LTI rate and Saskatchewan is a close second, there are theories.
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