The City of Greater Sudbury’s lost-time injury frequency is below the municipal average, and has consistently ranked low for at least the past few years.
This, according to a municipal report discussed by city council last week, which further clarified misleading data shared on the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board Safety Check website.
The incorrect data made rounds during last year’s civic election cycle, which some candidates used as alleged evidence of inefficiencies.
Inaccurate WSIB data made its way to council chambers in September 2022, when Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti presented a successful motion for staff to present a report to city council to clarify what the city’s health and safety performance has actually been.
The resulting report noted that Greater Sudbury’s lost-time injury frequency was 3.38 in 2020, which falls well short of the 13.48 cited in the WSIB Safety Check web tool.
WSIB was extrapolating incomplete data, and have since removed the overall injury rate graph for organizations containing Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 accounts, such as the City of Greater Sudbury.
“We are committed to transparently reporting data so that all Ontarians can see how safe any employer is and keep a sharp focus on health and safety in every workplace,” a WSIB representative wrote in emailed correspondence to Sudbury.com.
When it comes to the actual lost-time injury frequency rankings, Greater Sudbury’s rate was one of the lowest among the 16 municipalities that participate in the Municipal Benchmarking Network of Canada data collection service, which averaged 5.56. These municipalities include Calgary, Durham, Halton, Hamilton, London, Montreal, Niagara, Regina, Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vaughan, Waterloo, Windsor, Winnipeg and York Region.
This number represents the number of people off work due to a lost-time incident per 100 full-time equivalent employees at any given time.
The municipal report did not include the 2021 lost-time injury frequency, but the city has calculated it to be 3.5.
As for 2022, the report notes that “a significant increase in the number of lost-time injuries has occurred to date in 2022,” with 239 lost-time injuries reported between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31.
In the preceding four years, the average annual number of lost-time injuries has been 82, with the jump attributable to COVID-related occupational illnesses at Pioneer Manor due to multiple outbreaks, plus exposures in Paramedic Services.
Greater Sudbury’s lost-time injury frequency from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, 2022, was 11.1. Excluding COVID-related incidents, the rate was 3.2, which falls within the municipality’s average.
Following a review of the number of employees requiring modified duties since 2018 and other variables, the city has estimated that occupational injuries carry an indirect cost of approximately $650,000 per year.
In 2022, the city counted four critical injuries and one workplace fatality. Two critical injuries were the result of a slip, trip and fall in the Community Safety and Community Development departments.
Two critical injuries were a result of the loss of consciousness determined to be a result of a medical condition.
The fatality took place on May 6, 2022, and involved an employee working in Growth and Infrastructure Services, at a salt and sand yard in Levack.
With a goal of hitting an incident rate of zero, the city is currently looking at a project which CAO Ed Archer said will “comprehensively review our entire approach” to health and safety.
Growth and Infrastructure general manager Tony Cecutti said all employees and levels of the organization will work on the project, which he described as an upcoming effort he’ll have more to tell city council about in a few months.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
