The deaths of two workers after a scaffolding collapsed at a Toronto construction site last week prompted the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario to renew its calls for more meaningful rules to prevent these types of tragedies.

“Construction shouldn’t be a dangerous job if safety rules are properly followed,” said Patrick Dillon, business manager at the trades council. “This is yet another tragic reminder of why we need tougher prevention and enforcement of safety rules.”

The incident occurred days before Ontario’s new working at heights training requirements — designed to improve worker safety on construction sites by setting a consistent, high-quality standard — took effect April 1. The requirements respond to the tragic Kipling Avenue swing stage collapse that claimed the lives of four workers the day before Christmas in 2009.

The 2009 incident led the Ontario government to strike an expert panel, headed by former cabinet secretary Tony Dean, which made 46 recommendations for improving worker safety in the province in a December, 2010, report.

“Prevention was the focus of the Dean report and nearly five years later we continue to see industrial and construction deaths at the same level with no real decrease,” said Dillon. “If we haven’t been able to make a dent in the number of worker deaths in the province, then we need to shake things up.”

Highlighting organized labour’s ongoing calls for the provincial government to give safety legislation teeth, the trades council’s business manager pointed out that no owner or director has been jailed in Ontario over the death of a worker. This, he said, despite the fact that many of the close to 100 workplace deaths that occur each year are attributed to safety violations.

“We need leadership and effective laws that will ensure workers who arrive for work in the morning go back home at night to their loved ones,” said Dillon.