of owner-clients, contractors, and workers.
“Ontario, in comparison to other jurisdic-
tions, is doing fairly well [in terms of its
safety record], but is still a long way off
from where we need to be and can be:
zero injuries and zero fatalities,” says Dil-
lon. “I sit on the Prevention Council where
we discuss ways of improving health and
safety outcomes. The best way to do that
is to change the safety culture and mindset
of workers and employers so that safety
issues are dealt with head-on, not ignored
or repressed as they usually are.”
“There’s been a lot of bureaucratic and
legislative restructuring over the years but
not a lot of improvement in Prevention out-
comes,” he continues.
‘Accident’ is not a word Dillon uses. “When
you look at the construction industry—or
any workplace—when an incident takes
place, whether the worker was killed or in-
jured, you see right away that if the proper
procedures had been followed that inci-
dent would not have happened. With that
thought, you look up the word accident
and the scenarios do not fit the definition.
It’s why we push for proactive prevention,
not reactive.”
Examples of regulations and enforcement
working—and not—are everywhere. “Take
the $4 billion, highly complex Muskrat Falls
project in Newfoundland, where
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