Hazards on the farm

Saturday, May 7, 2011

by PAT CURRIE

Glacially slow and badly focused? Or a boon to farm safety?

Since Ontario extended its Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) in June 2006 to cover hired workers on Ontario farms opinions on its inspection program have run the gamut.

Stan Raper, co-ordinator for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Canada (UFCW), questions figures in documents obtained under Access to Information legislation that reveal in 2010, inspectors in the Industrial Health and Safety Program issued orders to improve conditions on only 71 farms but issued orders on 681 non-farm businesses such as farm equipment dealerships, pet clinics and landscaping companies.

"It became clear to us that the number of farms they actually visited was pretty small," he said Friday.

"I’m sure the majority of farm workers killed are working on large farm or food-processing operations with hundreds of workers, not in a pet clinic with three employees," he said. "It would be common sense for inspections to start with the biggest operations and work their way down," he said.

Asked for a response, Labour Ministry spokesman Matt Blajer quoted the following answer from ministry operations staff:

"The number of orders and visits are not the only indicators of the safety of a workplace. Issues that are seen in those specific workplaces may not be representative of the sector as a whole. Not all farming operations are covered by OHSA. We conduct inspections and investigations in workplaces and may determine that the OHSA does not apply. Where it is determined that the MOL does not have jurisdiction, these visits would still be recorded as part of the inspector’s activity."

Labour Minister Peter Fonseca has defended his inspection system, saying he had doubled the number of inspectors in 2010. Inspectors made 375 field visits to 228 crop and animal farming operations and 131 to greenhouse operations, he said.

"That is, on average, a farm visited every single day of the year," Fonesca said.

Raper noted it would take 164 years, at that rate, to visit all 60,000 farms in Ontario.

Dr. Don Voaklander, head of the school of public safety at the University of Alberta and a lead researcher into many fields of industrial and farm labour, credits the legislation for prompting improvements in farm machinery, such as roll-over cages, and encouraging the establishment of play-safe areas to keep kids out of areas where farm machinery is operating.

Human Resources Development Canada statistics show that about 120 Canadians die and 1,200 people require hospitalization as a result of farming accidents annually, and that farmer and farm worker deaths represent 13 per cent of occupational fatalities in Canada.

Voaklander said Thursday that elderly farm owners are "the highest-risk group" in terms of farm injuries and fatalities.

Not only do they suffer from aging effects such as loss of muscular strength and senses of sight, hearing and balance but many work alone and are a greater risk of dying while lying undiscovered and untended, Voaklander said.

Wayne De L’Orme, provincial co-ordinator of the Ontario Labour Ministry’s Occupational Health and Safety program, said five years’ of experience has shown that deaths among "non-workers" (farm owners and their families are not under his jurisdiction) far outnumber deaths among paid farm "workers."

He cited these statistics: (Note – "events" are reported incidents; the fiscal year runs April 1-March 31.)

•    2006-7, 75 events investigated, two worker fatalities,

•    2007-8, 91 events investigated, three worker fatalities, eight non-worker fatalities,

•    2008-9, 138 events investigated, two worker fatalities, 11 non-worker fatalities,

•    2009-10, 105 events investigated, two worker fatalities, seven non-worker fatalities,

•    Partial 2010-11, 107 events investigated, four worker fatalities, nine non-worker fatalities.

Not all non-worker fatalities are reported to his office, De L’Orme added.

No farmer in Ontario has ever gone to jail for breaching the OHSA or the orders issued by its inspectors, De L’Orme said.

Penalties for violations include up to $25,000 in fines or 12 months in jail for an individual and a fine of up to $500,000 for a corporation. BF