During the 27th annual Mining Health and Safety Conference in Sudbury, Ontario, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) announced C$6.78 million in funding to protect people in Ontario’s natural resources sectors. 

In a strategic, province-wide collaboration, the WSIB has partnered with Workplace Safety North (WSN) and the Institute for Work and Health (IWH) to lead a proactive campaign aimed at enhancing hygiene monitoring practices and reducing exposure to harmful workplace hazards. 

“We’re not satisfied with the status quo so we’re putting up investments to find ways to improve health and safety,” WSIB chief service excellence officer Janine Dyck said in a news release. “This partnership will help create lasting change in Ontario’s natural resources sector and provide people confidence that they’re working in healthy and safe environments each day they come in to work.” 

Spearheaded by WSN, the initiative focuses on high-risk sectors like mining and forestry, where workers continue to face some of the highest rates of occupational illness fatalities in Ontario. 

“This collaboration is about empowering Ontario workplaces to take proactive control of the invisible health hazards workers face every day,” WSN CEO Mike Parent said. “We’re proud to lead this important work alongside our health and safety partners.” 

WSN has developed a suite of specialized training materials and will work directly with employers and workers through hands-on coaching and real-time use of hygiene monitoring equipment, it said, adding that the initiative aims to build capacity in workplaces, enabling front-line teams to actively identify and mitigate exposure risks. 

The IWH will support the initiative by applying its expertise in health and safety research to assess the effectiveness of the training programs and their impact on improving worker safety.