The Ontario Ministry of Labour has announced the members of its new Prevention Council:
Labour representatives
- Patrick Dillon, Business Manager and Secretary Treasurer, Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario
- Colin Grieve, Occupational Disease Worker Advocate, Hamilton and Ontario Professional Firefighters Associations
- Nancy Hutchison, Secretary Treasurer, Ontario Federation of Labour
- Bryan Neath, Regional Director – Ontario, United Food and Commercial Workers Canada
Non-Union Worker Representative
- Linda Vannucci, Director, Toronto Workers’ Health and Safety Legal Clinic
Employer Representatives
- Michael Oxley, President and Chief Financial Officer, DuPont Canada
- Gloria Rajkumar, CEO, SIMAC
- Roy Slack, President, Cementation Canada Inc.
Occupational Health and Safety Expert
- Graeme Norval, Associate Chair and Undergraduate Coordinator, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Toronto
Of particular note, perhaps, is the appointment of the the presidents – not human resources or safety managers – of large, well-known companies to the Prevention Council.
The Ministry notes that “one employer representative and a representative from the WSIB are currently being finalized and will be announced in the near future.”
The concept of the Prevention Council was created by the Bill 160 amendments to the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act that resulted from the Expert Advisory Panel’s report on occupational health and safety, which was released in December 2010.
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Prevention Council’s mandate is largely to provide advice to the Chief Prevention Officer on the prevention of workplace injuries and occupational diseases, and for the purposes of the provincial occupational health and safety strategy and the Chief Prevention Officer’s annual report on occupational health and safety.
We will provide further updates on the activities of the Prevention Council and Chief Prevention Officer, and the impact of their activities on Ontario employers.
