Federal and Provincial jurisdictional obligations and regulations
Small Business Obligations (Ontario)
A further benefit to getting responses from employees is that the responses would produce documentation for health & safety committees. Small business employers must not only develop and have policies, create a program to implement these policies, and review them on an annual basis, as well as:
- do everything they reasonably can to protect their workers in each situation
- inform, instruct and supervise workers to protect their health and safety
- make sure that every worker takes the required training, including basic occupational health and safety awareness training, and keep records of that training
Workplaces with 6 or more workers must have:
- a health and safety policy
- a workplace violence prevention policy
- a workplace harassment prevention policy
Workplaces with 6 to 19 workers must have a health and safety representative, and should post their name.
Workplaces with 20 or more workers …Are required to have a joint health and safety committee.
Westray Bill (Bill C-45)
The Westray bill or Bill C-45 was federal legislation that amended the Canadian Criminal Code and became law on March 31, 2004. The Bill (introduced in 2003) established new legal duties for workplace health and safety, and imposed serious penalties for violations that result in injuries or death. The Bill provided new rules for attributing criminal liability to organizations, including corporations, their representatives and those who direct the work of others.
“217.1 Every one who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task.”