A team of 44 provincial offences officers, and 11 local by-law officers, conducted a Covid-19 workplace safety campaign from February 25-27 in Durham Region.
The officers visited 339 businesses, based on recommendations from the local public health unit. Of these, 61% were personal care services and 93% were small businesses, with 25 employees or fewer.
Inspectors found that 50% per cent of businesses were in compliance with public health requirements under the Reopening Ontario Act, according to a spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development.
One Ticket
Officers issued one ticket in Durham, 47 occupational health and safety orders, and 34 formal warnings. Follow-up visits to certain businesses where contraventions were found will be conducted in the coming weeks. Three of the most common contraventions were that:
- Businesses were not actively screening everyone who works on site before they entered
- They were not adhering to capacity limits and
- People weren’t wearing masks
The Durham initiative was part of the government’s small-business-focused Covid-19 safety campaigns, and many of the businesses visited had been closed to the public during the provincial shutdown. For that reason, most officer visits focused on providing education and compliance assistance to businesses that were reopening after a long closure. Prior to the February campaign, Durham saw three Covid-19 workplace safety campaign in early December and January.
Results to date have demonstrated that the majority of businesses are doing the right things and those that need help can be coached into compliance without penalties. Officers promote and enforce the public health requirements with regards to things like: screening requirements of workers and essential visitors entering workplaces, wearing of masks and PPE (when required), workplace safety plans for businesses in the public health levels required by the new Covid-19 Response Framework, the spokesperson said.
The February campaign in Durham included officers from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and the following ministries:
- Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
- Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development
- Ministry of Transportation
- Ministry of Finance
To date, Ontario’s provincial offences officers have conducted more than 13,374 Covid-related workplace inspections and investigations across the province since the beginning of 2021, issuing 9,480 orders and 373 tickets, and stopped unsafe work 15 times.
“Our business community and especially our small business owners are very appreciative of these collaborative workplace safety campaigns with the Durham Region Health Department,” said Dr. Robert Kyle, Durham Region Medical Officer of Health. “Throughout the pandemic, we have been actively working with our business community to educate owners and operators about their responsibilities to ensure that all public health measures are in place and rigorously followed to protect public safety. When workers and employers learn how to stop the spread of Covid-19 in their workplaces, our entire community benefits.”