Sudbury MPP Jamie West, who is also the NDP labour critic, said he favours the new Ontario government initiative to track job-related illnesses.
Ontario announced Tuesday that the government has created Canada's first ever Occupational Exposure Registry. The purpose of the initiative is to track harmful exposure levels, help diagnose workplace diseases faster, improve worker compensation, and reduce costs to the healthcare system, said the government.
Many workplace illnesses currently go undiagnosed or unreported because of the delay between exposure and symptoms, making it difficult to identify occupational disease risks and for workers to get financial support when they fall ill, said the province. The new registry would include comprehensive exposure records, identify at-risk workers, help with earlier diagnoses, and potentially contribute to expanding the list of presumptive illnesses in Ontario to improve worker compensation, said the Ontario news release.
West, who issued a joint news release with WSIB and injured workers critic Lise Vaugeois (Thunder Bay—Superior North), said he was happy with the concept.
“New Democrats applaud any genuine effort to track the extent of occupational illness in the workplace, with the goal of making Ontario workplaces safe for workers,” West said.
“Workers in the province who’ve been made ill from workplace exposure to toxic chemicals and carcinogens have waited too long for recognition of what they and their families have endured.”
The New Democrats also made reference to the infamous episodes involving McIntyre Powder, where for many years sick workers and their families had to fight to have their illnesses formally recognized by WSIB.
McIntyre Powder was a black aluminum fine powder substance that miners in Timmins and Elliot Lake were forced to inhale before their shifts in the mistaken belief the powder would prevent silicosis from happening. It would turn out that many of the miners suffered neurological diseases.
"The long struggle of the McIntyre Powder families to have the illnesses the miners experienced should never have to happen again," said the NDP news release.
“I hope that the government will establish an occupational disease registry independent of the WSIB and government, with input by labour and community groups,” said MPP Vaugeois.
“The Occupational Disease Reform Alliance has long been tracking clusters of occupational disease that have yet to be acknowledged by the WSIB. The government must immediately expand the list of work considered at risk for certain cancers. Wildland firefighters currently do not receive the same coverage as other firefighters. This should be corrected immediately," she added.
The NDP release also stated it is hoped the province will recognize and act on the 2020 Demers Report that addressed the issue of cancer in the workplace.
