News

This is full copy from a Memorandum to Health and Safety System Partners by Dr. JOEL MOODY. Chief Prevention Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, issued November 15, 2022.   Earlier this week, the Chief Medical Officer of Health strongly recommended the use of masks indoors. I support his recommendation and would like to remind everyone of the importance of use of masks as preventive measure in workplaces. Although viruses spread between people in the same ways whether at work or elsewhere, many settings and activities in workplaces have a higher risk of transmission and workplace control measures should be designed to...

The March 24th budget announcement contained a commitment to develop an “Online COVID‐19 safety plan builder that makes it easier and faster for small businesses to develop custom COVID‐19 safety plans".The Workplace Safety Plan Builder (the builder) has now been released. The builder is an online, interactive platform that will make it easier and faster for employers to create a workplace safety plan to address the risks of exposures to workplace hazards like COVID-19.The workplace safety plan builder can be found at Ontario.ca/COVIDSafety, along with the existing safety plan guide and other helpful resources for businesses.In developing the builder, we...

As of January 1, 2021, legislation will come into force to ensure employers prevent harassment and violence in federally regulated industries and workplaces See the link below for the full announcement from Employment and Social Development Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/workplace-health-safety/harassment-violence-prevention.html 

The Ontario government has stated under the –Covid-19 response framework—that all businesses in the Yellow, Orange, and Red zones are required to have a “Safety Plan” in place. All businesses that are in Stage 1 that are open.. are required to have the Safety Plan in place by November 30th. Inspectors are out checking, and asking companies/employers to produce a copy of their Plan. Fines for not being compliant range from $500.00 to $500,000.00 under the government’s  “Reopening Act".You can find a template for the Safety Plan by clicking here.For more information of the requirements put out by the Government...

There are now a lot of face masks out there, both medical and non-medical. For guidance on non-medical masks, please see the following link to the instructions from Ontario Public Health:https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/factsheet/2020/05/factsheet-covid-19-non-medical-masks.pdf?la=en Reusable face masks made of cotton, polyester, lycra, etc. suffice the requirements for face coverings in public places (put in place by local health agencies) – they are washable and therefore very economical. However, to attain the same level of protection as a hospital setting, masks labelled "medical", "procedural", and "surgical" masks are rated in a 3 tier system as outlined below.  There are masks that look identical to...