April 25, 2008

Resource Information for 2008 Day of Mourning

Data from the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada show that there were 976 workplace fatalities in Canada in 2006.

798 deaths in 1998
835 deaths in 1999
882 deaths in 2000
920 deaths in 2001
934 deaths in 2002
963 deaths in 2003
928 deaths in 2004
1,097 deaths in 2005
976 deaths in 2006

Since 1984, 19,805 workers in Canada have been killed on the job and over 18 million have been injured. Almost 6,000 deaths and over a million injuries since 2000. In 2005, the numbers showed a significant rise due almost entirely to an increase in occupational disease, which rose from 1.5% to 3.4% per 1,000 workers between 1996 and 2005. This increase represents over three work-related deaths for each day of the year or one death for every 15,000 workers.

We continue to see alarming numbers in the deaths in certain industries. Manufacturing and Construction continue to top the list.

A frightening thought is the inaccuracy of these numbers. As anyone who has the misfortune of making a claim through their Worker's Compensation Board can attest, it is extremely difficult to prove injuries or deaths due to diseases that have been contracted through the workplace. A study done earlier this year points to the
significant increase in fatalities caused by occupational diseases mainly asbestos related. Asbestos-related deaths alone account for a significant percentage of the increase in occupational disease with the fatality rate rising from 0.4 % per 100,000 workers in 1996 to 2.1% in 2005. In addition, because there are industries and
businesses that are not covered under a workers' compensation act, the federal Department of Labour believes statistics the department was gathering up until 2000 on injury and fatality rates could have been underestimated by as much as 19%.

Even worse, is the fact that many of these deaths and injuries are attributable to employer actions or negligence and were entirely preventable had the employer adhered to current health and safety laws.

Canada also rates poorly in International terms with the fifth highest incidence of workplace fatalities out of 29 OECD countries. Only Korea, Mexico, Portugal and Turkey showed worse rates than Canada. Following are some yearly statistics from the Association of Worker Compensation Boards of Canada so that you can clearly see the increase.

Province	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
NL	27	38	26	23	23	23	25	18
PEI	3	0	5	1	-	1	1	0
NS	17	16	8	14	18	41	27	12
NB	20	7	15	17	7	12	12	12
QC	164	180	180	188	175	176	223	206
ON	283	301	328	383	378	365	412	373
MB	23	19	25	19	24	14	26	27
SK	34	31	35	23	35	30	27	30
AB	114	118	118	101	127	124	143	124
BC	147	157	168	158	170	136	189	160
NT/NU	2	13	11	6	5	5	10	8
YT	1	2	n/d	1	1	1	2	3
Total	835	882	919	934	963	928	1 097	976

n/a: Statistics unavailable

Source: Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada

NUMBER OF ACCEPTED TIME-LOSS INJURIES BY PROVINCE
	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
NL	6 640	6 609	6 173	5 517	5 247	4 834	4 821	4 577
PEI	2 099	2 066	1 779	1 347	1 241	1 037	876	812
NS	8 547	9 232	9 082	8 724	8 849	9 173	8 998	8 339
NB	5 170	5 354	5 162	4 685	4 604	4 185	4 439	4 261
QC	116 797	119 135	112 887	110 244	107 160	104 209	99 067	93 886
ON	100 727	104 154	98 359	95 568	93 234	90 397	89 734	83 179
MB	18 979	19 721	18 544	17 919	17 586	17 260	17 785	18 134
SK	13 720	14 945	15 065	15 623	15 135	13 880	14 170	14 148
AB	35 393	39 393	38 755	38 426	37 335	35 969	36 305	37 577
BC	70 090	70 661	66 076	59 530	56 946	58 289	60 340	63 042
NT/NU	871	835	889	968	936	817	950	908
YT	417	397	445	495	442	452	445	494
Total	379 450	392 502	373 216	359 046	348 715	340 502	337 930	329 357

Source: Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada

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Date Modified : 2008/07/30

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