Workplace Accidents in Canada

"Suncor, a large company, is continually looking at quality control and improvement and yet there continues to be tragedies."

"So what happens to the small employer who doesn't have the same resources as a Suncor? There's more and more promotion around workplace safety so what is that puzzle piece that we're missing?"

 "If a worker sees something that they feel is unsafe, they have to feel free to bring that to their supervisor. [Many workers are still reluctant to be the] squeaky wheel."

"And if they're not being heard, they have to have the confidence to step aside -- or, if necessary, leave their job. But that is hard to do."

Shirley Hickman, founder, executive director, Threads of Life

Suncor Canada

 

Shirley Hickman's son Tim, almost 22 years old, working part-time for the City of London, Ontario in March of 1996 was fatally injured in an arena explosion. It is her belief that many organizations still struggle with embedding safety in their workplace culture. The rules may be there and procedures written and accessible, but nothing seems to stop shortcuts on the job.

In 2011, Wynny Sillito of Calgary was a 23-year-old paramedic with a team responding to reports of an accidental chemical release at an oil and gas site near Grande Prairie, Alberta.She was exposed and suffered chemical burns all over her upper body while attempting to come to the assistance of the worker who had been injured on the call her team was responding to. She recovered physically from injuries sustained but was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder that has lingered to this day.

"You don't have to be the one who loses a limb or loses a piece of themselves to have your life forever changed."
"Oil and gas is this big, broad industry and so many people are connected to it in some way."

"Every time there's a fatality, it doesn't matter what caused it -- anyone who loves someone who works in oil and gas will end up feeling that stress."

Wynny Sillito, Calgary

 

 

Canada has some of the most stringent occupational health and safety laws in the developed world. Despite which workplace accidents and deaths have seen no meaningful decline over the years. This, in view of ever-increasing awareness campaigns, improved technology and corporate protocols. In 2008, 1,035 workers died of work-related causes in Canada according to statistics from the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada.

On average, since then, 945 workers have died from workplace injuries or illnesses yearly in the country. One of those victims was Kevin Grocutt, 40, who had been working for ten months as a heavy duty mechanic contracted to Suncor Energy Inc. The broken-down haul truck he was attempting to repair rolled, catching him under a tire.

"I often hear people say 'Oh, with new technologies, we must be seeing these numbers go down'. But we're not."

"When we look at it over time, we're seeing these numbers either stable or increasing"

Alyssa Grocutt, 11 years old when her father was killed, is now working toward her doctorate at Queen's University researching the impact workplace injuries and fatalities have on the family of the victim, on colleagues, and supervisors. 

A high-profile number of workplace deaths have occurred in recent months at Suncor with resulting criticism of the company by U.S.-based activist investor Ellott Investment Management. The Calgary-based company has had at least a dozen fatalities at its oilsands facilities in northern Alberta, accounting for a greater number of fatalities than all of its industry peers combined. The company's former CEO pledged to address the problem.

An independent safety review was carried out for Suncor. The resolve was to cut these accidents out of the workplace environment. Those efforts were deflatd when anothr Suncor contract worker died on the job in July. The CEO resigned the following day.

Alyssa Grocutt poses with pictures of her father Kevin who died when she was 11 years old in a workplace accident at Suncor Energy Inc., in Kingston, Ont. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

"Oil and gas is this big, broad idustry and so many people are connected to it in some way. Every time there's a fatality, it doesn't matter what caused it -- anyone who loves someone who works in oil and gas will end up feeling that stress."

"It's hard hearing of another fataiity, especially when it's in a similar location to where my dad was."

"Some are even in similar situations. Always I think about the families that are left behind and also the co-workiers who had to witness it."

Alyssa Grocutt