Canada has a patchwork of different policies in place regarding the public disclosure of COVID-19 outbreaks in workplaces, and expert opinion seems as divided as the regulations on whether making outbreaks public helps or hinders the spread of the virus.
“Across Canada, workplace reporting is not being done nearly enough,” said Joe Cressy, the chair of Toronto’s Board of Health and a councillor in Ontario’s capital.
In Quebec and Ontario, workplace outbreaks surpassed those in long-term care facilities for a time before the new year arrived.
CBC News looked at how provincial and territorial governments disclose COVID-19 workplace outbreaks across the country — and the pros and cons of making them public.
Who names companies and who doesn’t
In Newfoundland and the rest of Atlantic Canada, workplaces are only named publicly if health officials cannot identify and contact people who may be at risk of infection and should isolate and monitor themselves for symptoms or get tested.
This means workplaces that are not open to the public are rarely named, while grocery stores and transportation services, such as ferries and flights, for instance are common on Nova Scotia’s published list of exposure risks.
Newfoundland does publish a list of workplace outbreaks at industrial sites in Alberta and B.C., because so many of its residents travel for work to those provinces.
In Canada’s North, territorial governments will publish the locations where there was a risk of public exposure, which can include workplace names.
Manitoba’s policy mirrors the practice in Atlantic Canada, with businesses named only if health officials are not able to complete contact tracing.
Canada’s largest provinces Quebec and Ontario, however, do not publish the names of specific workplaces experiencing outbreaks.
WATCH | Why Toronto has decided it needs to disclose workplace outbreaks:
The City of Toronto will start releasing more information about COVID-19 outbreaks in workplaces after weeks of lockdown haven’t brought case numbers down. 2:04
In a statement, Ontario’s Ministry of Health said disclosing the names of companies or workplaces “is within the purview of local public health units.”
Though Toronto just began publishing workplace outbreak names, Hamilton has been doing so since last spring.
Meanwhile, some disclosures come from companies themselves, or from workers or union officials publicizing the issue.
Naming brings accountability
While standard public health practice is to only name outbreak locations for communicable diseases when there’s a risk of exposure for the public, Cressy believes the best way to make government and companies accountable for protecting workers is to name every workplace outbreak, everywhere.
“COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting low income frontline workers,” he said. “In a pandemic, information is power. And information can also provoke change.”
Dr. Nitin Mohan, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at Western University in London, Ont., thinks naming workplaces could lead to changes that would protect essential workers.
“Understanding how government is responding to a once-in-a-generation pandemic requires us to have the available data. So if we’re seeing workplace outbreaks, and we know that a government is not supportive of providing paid sick leave, essentially, folks are armed with more information for the next election cycle.”
Dr. Nitin Mohan thinks naming workplaces could lead to more public awareness and changes that would protect essential workers, such as paid sick leave. (Submitted by Nitin Mohan)
For Mohan, naming workplaces would also “provide us with a lot of data about community spread.” However, he said the privacy of individual workers must be protected, which would mean some small companies couldn’t be identified.
Naming could backfire
Cynthia Carr, an epidemiologist with Epi Research Inc. of Winnipeg, says naming businesses could backfire.
She says it could actually scare employees into not reporting feeling sick if they fear being blamed for bad publicity from an outbreak.
At the same time, she worries it could create a stigma around businesses that might have good safety practices, but still had an outbreak.
“My concern is always that we don’t make that mistake of equating shaming with accountability. It’s not the same thing.”
Cynthia Carr, an epidemiologist with Epi Research Inc. of Winnipeg, is concerned naming businesses with COVID-19 outbreaks could scare employees into not reporting feeling sick if they fear being blamed for bad publicity at their company. (Submitted by Charlotte Falck)
Carr supports public health transparency when it helps give people the power to make choices or take action.
Publicizing outbreaks at long-term care facilities and hospitals, she said, “has an associated action people need to understand,” like: “I can’t visit my loved one.”
She thinks workplaces should be named when COVID-19 could be spread in the community, but naming every single workplace with an outbreak doesn’t give the public useful information about whether they need to self-monitor or go for testing.
Keeping workers safe
In Alberta, where workplace outbreaks are published, a union spokesperson says the naming policy is mostly a public relations issue for employers.
“On the ground, on the shop floor, in the workplaces … it hasn’t meant a whole lot,” said Micheal Hughes of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 401.
“Certainly not enough to stop outbreaks from happening.”
Before Alberta started naming workplaces, it was workers and UFCW that exposed what became the largest COVID-19 workplace outbreak in Canada at the Cargill meat packing plant in High River, Alberta.
WATCH | Family of Cargill worker who died of COVID-19 pushed for police investigation:
A CBC News Investigation has found at least 33 workers across Canada have died after getting COVID-19 on the job. Police are now investigating the death of a man who worked at the Cargill meat processing plant in High River, Alta., where 950 people got sick. 4:15
At least 950 workers, almost half the plant’s staff, tested positive for COVID-19 by early May 2020.
Recently, the RCMP launched an investigation into possible criminal negligence by the company in the death of Benito Quesada, a 51-year-old Cargill worker who died from COVID-19.
Hughes believes the best way to keep workers safe is to have “a worker-centred, robust kind of regulatory system” including clear and mandatory guidelines for workplaces and more inspections by labour officials.
The $77.5-million emergency fund is meant to help the sector implement measures to fight the coronavirus, including acquiring more protective equipment for workers.
Epidemiologists say meat plants present ideal conditions for the COVID-19 virus to spread, because workers are in close contact, windows can’t be opened for fresh air and the temperature is cool.
Hughes said while naming businesses as workplace outbreaks continue may help “motivate a company to do things,” the focus of the UFCW is to continue the push for safety measures and benefits like paid sick leave.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
