Ontario’s Ministry of Labor Proposes to Mandate Construction Hazard Awareness Training

by Brittany Tofinchio Palmer

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The Ministry of Labor has proposed amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Awareness and Training Regulation (O. Reg. 297/13) under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS Act). These amendments would apply to employers who engage in “construction” as defined under the OHS Act, and those that perform work, as defined under the Construction Projects Regulation (O. Reg. 213/91), to ensure workers have completed a construction hazard awareness training program.
 
The proposed amendments offer two approaches to employers that would enable them to meet the aforementioned required training program:

• Approach 1: Successfully complete a training program that has been approved. An approved training program will meet the criteria of a construction health and safety awareness training program as well as a provider standard that is established by the Ministry’s Chief Prevention Officer (CPO); and
• Approach 2: An employer, after consulting with the Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC), would develop a training program of their own based on the learning outcomes set out in the proposed regulation. Workers would be required to complete this program. This approach is only available to employers who are already required to have JHSC under the OHS Act.

 
The proposal provides a two-year transition period to ensure that employers have all existing workers complete the training before the amendment goes into force.
 
The Ministry of Labor is seeking public and stakeholder feedback on the following:

• The proposed amendments to the Regulation;
• A draft Construction Health and Safety Awareness Training Program Standard that would provide requirements that a training program under Approach 1 must meet; and 
• A draft Construction Health and Safety Awareness Training Provider Standard that would provide requirements for training providers seeking to deliver their own approved construction health and safety awareness training program.

 
The deadline for comment submissions to the Ministry of Labor is August 12, 2016.