A massive sweep of the commercial construction industry across Alberta discovered what both labour groups and political parties are calling a shocking number of violations.
According to results announced last week, inspections of 146 commercial construction employers across the province lead to 214 orders for troubling safety conditions.
Those orders included 39 stop-work orders, indicating a serious risk based on the working conditions.
Barrie Harrison, a spokesperson with Alberta Employment and Immigration, said the government has never done such a large-scale operation and did not know what the results would be like.
Even with the uncertainty, this goes beyond anything the department imagined, he said.
“We weren’t sure what to expect, but the numbers we saw were not in line with what we expected.”
Harrison said the government even went so far as to give employers a warning, which makes the numbers even more shocking.
“Not only did we warn them, but the numbers still weren’t very good.”
Harrison said the stop-work orders mean there were serious problems at some of these job sites.
“When you are issued a stop-work order our inspectors feel there is something of imminent danger and you need to shut down and get this fixed.”
Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said the numbers only indicate the government has allowed unsafe workplaces because the regulations have been lax.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t surprised by the findings of the audit. What I did find surprising was that it took the government so long to initiate random inspections,” he said. “Those numbers don’t shock me because I have been hearing about the problem from construction workers who are members of our affiliated unions for years.”
McGowan said the province needs more inspectors and those inspectors should be empowered to dole out fines on the spot.
“If the government is really serious about improving safety on construction work sites then they are going to have to put more tools in the arsenal of their inspectors.”
Harrison said administrative fines are something minister Thomas Lukaszuk has been considering, something the ministry will look into.
“The minister has asked his department to see what the feasibility of doing on-the-spot fines might be,” he said. “No question the results of this commercial inspections has added fuel to his fire.”
Harrison said the government is also going to continue with more targeted inspections as the year rolls out. Next on the list is employers who use forklifts, followed by employers with young employees and then the residential construction sector, he said.
He said they would also look to return to the commercial construction sector to make sure things are changing.
