From Dean to the CPO, what’s in and what’s not!

The Expert Advisory Panel on Occupational Health & Safety (The Dean Report) was published in December 2010 making many significant recommendations to improve the responsibilities, procedures and regulations for H&S in Ontario. Then Bill 160 - more properly called ‘Occupational Health and Safety Statute Law Amendment Act, 2011’ - was passed on June 1, 2011. Bill 160 captured some, but not all, of the Dean panel recommendations.

Then again some clauses of Bill 160 are in the Act but not yet implemented in law. They will be included on ‘a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor’. Conversations with his office elicited the response that this would be ‘when the Ministry of Labour tells them to do so’.

So anyone trying to assemble a complete picture is left with a complicated task. Luckily OSG customers don’t need to do it! We have obtained a useful table taking you all the way from the Dean Report to the present time. It was written by Cheryl A. Edwards (CEdwards@heenan.ca) and Samantha Seabrook from the Labour & Employment practice of Heenan Blaikie, the Toronto based Law firm - www.heenan.ca. This table is reproduced with their kind permission.

What next?
George Gritziotis began work last Monday as the new Chief Prevention Officer and is meeting with the Interim Prevention Council to review progress on their activities. We spoke to Mr. Gritziotis the other day and will meet him soon to discuss how OSG can help him meet his objective of creating safer and healthier workplaces across the province.