Keynote Speech by S. Len Hong
NAOSH 2004

REGINA, SK
MAY 3, 2004

On behalf of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, I am very happy to be joining you here today for the launching of this year’s North American Occupational Safety and Health Week.

Bienvenue du CCHST à l’occasion de l’ouverture de la semaine nord américaine de la sécurité et de la santé au travail 2004.

This is the seventh year we have marked NAOSH Week. It has been a very challenging year on many fronts, ranging from issues of economics to public health. Despite this, the excellent attendance here today reflects the commitment to occupational health and safety that is in evidence across Canada.

This year’s theme as always, is timely and significant. To me, “Build a Safe Beginning” means identifying health and safety as a core value from the very first day that a young or new worker begins . . . and, ideally, even before that first day. By establishing a strong foundation right from the beginning, our working community can strive for and move on to achieve workplace safety excellence that will result in the prevention of injuries, illnesses and fatalities.

New workers and young workers comprise a larger segment of our workforce than ever before. Here in Saskatchewan, for example, the 15 - to 24 year-old age group comprises 14% of the population . . . and about 17% of the workforce*. Yet, the only way that Canada will ever fully protect this group – and other cohorts – is to recognize that health and safety must be part of all we do in every endeavor, at all life stages and all experience levels.

While the overall situation has improved in recent years, we still have a long road to travel when it comes to our young and new workers. It is reported that about 1 in 7 workers aged 15 to 29** are injured on the job annually – that’s over 110,000 in Canada every year. Studies show that when workers of any age – but especially young and new workers – are given thorough safety training, they experience about half the injury rates* of those who do not receive proper training.

Although we are not at the optimum stage yet, it is encouraging to know that health and safety has increased its profile and the breadth of its range to include all aspects of life – at home, in school, in recreation and, of course, the workplace. It is especially encouraging to note that health and safety education is now a part of many high school curriculums.

In school, young people are introduced to concepts of health and safety that will be key to assisting them throughout their lives. They will develop analytical and critical thinking skills and the confidence to accept the role of maintaining and improving health and safety conditions for themselves and co-workers on the job and beyond.

Another key part of early health and safety education is to make parents aware of their important role in: talking with their children about part-time job choices and the nature of their tasks; alerting them to potential dangers; and encouraging them to ask questions or seek help if they are uncertain about job site practices. In addition, parents know that they can prepare their children for work by sharing their own valuable practical knowledge and experience about health and safety on the job.

In their influential role, teachers, too can help ensure that health and safety is embedded in many facets of the curriculum, and is taught as a core academic requirement in order to prepare our future workers for their role in the workplace.

Integration of health and safety into every course is a positive educational development that has been growing steadily in Canada in recent years. I am confident it will be an integral part of all of our classrooms within a few years and result in safer working lives for all Canadians.

As well, many new workers – for instance, many immigrants of all ages who arrive in our country – are facing the challenges of language and of new workplace cultures, both at entry-level work and in higher positions. At some point, these young and new workers may become supervisors, where they will face a new dimension of health and safety responsibilities and where training must not only continue but in fact intensify.

Young and new workers are vulnerable for many reasons, all of which are preventable. Young workers often do tasks outside of their normal work scope; they may lack the experience and physical and emotional maturity needed for certain tasks; and they may experience rapid physiological growth that can make them more likely to be harmed internally by exposure to hazardous substances or to develop cumulative trauma disorders.

And, both new and young workers often do not know their legal rights or even what questions to ask their employers about safety; and may be unfamiliar with safe operating procedures for some tasks.

Fortunately, there is a growing body of resources to help young and new workers. The federal, territorial and provincial governments and worker compensation boards, and non-governmental organizations offer excellent online and print resources. For example, the Saskatchewan Government’s “Ready For Work” website – with its rich content for students, teachers, workers and employers – is very good. And there are a host of other information services, including the National Youth Web Portal – jobsafeCanada.ca - developed by CCOHS with input from many safety partners across Canada.

A key challenge is for all of us to better promote these worthwhile resources so that more Canadians, become aware of and use these services more often.

In my opening remarks, I mentioned that “Build a Safe Beginning” means starting with health and safety as a core value well before the first day of work. By core value, I mean that health and safety consciousness must be an essential value, not just a priority, so that it is constantly thought of and actively used. I emphasize this point because when safety – or any workplace activity – is a “priority”, it can be shifted. For instance, we’ve all seen the slogans about “safety being number one” and so on; however when workplace financial pressures get bad and there are cutbacks, or conversely, even when times are good and workers are overly busy, focus on safety may be short-changed.

However, if safety - or anything - is a core value, then it is part of the mandatory elements of the functioning of the organization - an automatically assumed and ingrained business consideration that is not debated or compromised because it is truly at the core of workplace endeavours . . . like payroll. Safety then becomes more than merely “required” - it is, in fact, endemic to the enterprise as much as breathing is to a human. Safety as a core value is what we must all continue striving for, so at the end of the working day, all Canadians come home safe.

Thank you and I wish every success to the NAOSH Week initiatives in this province, across Canada and throughout North America.


* Based on Statistics Canada Labour Force Review, 1998
** CCOHS’ Young Workers section on CCOHS website