WorkSafe Saskatchewan, the partnership between the Saskatchewan WCB and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, has challenged its traditional approach to fatalities and serious injuries. The 2019-2021 three-year Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy reflects the complexity of these issues.
Digging deeper to help high-risk industries
W
orkSafe Saskatchewan (WorkSafe), the partnership between the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, has challenged its traditional approach to preventing fatalities and serious injuries by focusing on high-risk industries and occupations. From 2010 through 2018, the Saskatchewan WCB accepted 354 fatalities for Saskatchewan workers who died while on, or as a result of, their job. Approximately 2,500 Saskatchewan workers are seriously injured every year. The province’s serious injury rate has remained flat for the past several years, although it dropped marginally to 2,243 in 2020.
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By WorkSafe Saskatchewan
“From 2010 through 2018, Saskatchewan had an average of 39 workplace fatalities and roughly 2,500 serious injuries every year. Our new approach looks to tackle both of these complex injury trends,” says Kevin Mooney, vice-president of prevention and employer services at the WCB. The statistics over that nine-year period reinforced what leadership at the WCB already knew – a new approach was required to stem the tide of injuries and fatalities in the province. This is why WorkSafe Saskatchewan launched its three-year Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy in December 2019 to hone in on the industries and occupations where the bulk of fatalities and serious injuries occur.
“We need to better understand the root causes of those injuries,” says Mooney. Asbestos exposure, motor vehicle crashes, firefighter cancer exposure, and falls from heights are among the leading causes of work-related deaths in the province. The serious injury priorities are in the industries of health care, transportation, construction and manufacturing, and also focus on the first responder occupations. A number of impactful initiatives are underway to reduce fatalities and serious injuries, some of them include: • Improving general asbestos awareness and abatement controls. From 2010 to 2018, approximately 37 per cent of fatalities were from occupa-
