The decline in lost time injuries has been an ongoing, and welcome, phenomena here in the US for over fifteen years. Now news comes that our friends in the Great White North have also seen a substantial drop in lost time injuries (known in Canada as time-loss injuries). Since 1994, there has been a 23% decline to an all-time low of 340,500 in 2004.
And total injury rates have also declined in several provinces, with Alberta reporting a very slight increase that may be related to a jump in employment in the oil-rich province. Provincial Workers Comp Board officials credit workplace , improvements, better communications about safety, and financial incentives for the improvements.
Canadian employers pay WC premiums directly. Thus, they are financially motivated to keep injuries, and therefore costs, low.
Mar
8
