July 12, 2010

Alberta’s auditor general criticizes immigration ministry’s occupational safety record

STEPHEN DAFOE

correspondent

EDMONTON

Alberta employers with open Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Act non-compliance orders for more than a year, originally mentioned in April’s auditor general’s report, may not be as numerous as originally reported.

But while the numbers may not be accurate, Alberta’s Auditor General, Merwan Saher, is standing behind his original assessment about weaknesses in the province’s Department of Employment and Immigration when it comes to OH&S compliance.

He said that the inaccurate records only support his assessment.

“The department does not systematically identify and track persistent non-compliance and does not have a clear decision ladder for escalating compliance action from promotion and education to enforcement,” he said in the report.

To illustrate this point, the auditor general sampled the department’s records and found 63 Alberta employers that had open orders for more than a year.

After reviewing its own records, the department found that many of the orders Saher found open were only still open because of administrative error.

The files had not been updated to reflect compliance.

However, the department hasn’t determined just how many of those 63, if any, still had open orders.

Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta’s Minister of Employment and Immigration, said his department’s compliance officer’s were following up on compliance orders and making reports, but sometimes the compliance changes weren’t being entered into the data system.

“On the computer that employer looks like he still has an outstanding order,” Lukaszuk said.

“Admittedly, the auditor found, and I found as well, that that was the case. Orders have been removed, employers were compliant and yet that wasn’t reflected on the database.”

But while the department’s figures may disagree with the auditor general’s original numbers, Lukaszuk isn’t arguing the assessment that the system needs improvement.

Lukaszuk said he was glad to see the auditor general recommending that a clearer process be established to transition between education and enforcement of compliance, something the minister said he began working on before the report went public.

“Obviously the most effective manner, which one can prevent injury from occurring, is education, educating employers, educating employees and create safe work environments,” he said.

“But there comes a point in time (and I can tell you this as a teacher) that sometimes coaxing and educating maximizes on its efficacy and enforcement has to come into play.”

Lukaszuk said he agreed with the auditor general’s assessment that there wasn’t any clear conduct of engagement as to just when the department’s employees should escalate from education to warning and from warning to fining.

The minister said he has directed his department to put a process in place within the next few months.

And while he accepts that there is still considerable work to be done within his own department, Lukaszuk said he believed the province has done exceptionally well on the education front.

“You have to keep educating and reminding,” he said.

“But, I’m also of the opinion that if there are employers or employees who choose to ignore the message, who choose not to comply with prevailing legislation, then there has to be a definitive way of sanctioning that individual in a manner that is expedient, effective and, in turn, that will serve as an educational component to others.”

The government isn’t the only group offering OH&S education in the hopes of preventing compliance problems.

Glen Leddy, Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) manager for Alberta South said that his organization had 35,254 in-class course attendees in the province in 2009, in addition to the more than 37,000 students who took the Construction Safety Training System (CSTS) course, a CD-ROM-based program that encompasses a wide-variety of OH&S topics.

Leddy said some of the courses offered by the ACSA are those essential for a company receiving their Certificate of Recognition (COR).

However, to maintain its COR standing, the company needs to have an annual audit to ensure it is maintaining the standards.

With Lukaszuk directing his department to ramp up the process of sanctioning non-compliant companies, the minister said that part of those sanctions could include removing a company’s COR certification. This is something that has been done in the past.

Lukaszuk said he is also having the province’s COR system reviewed.

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