Construction sector

The feds say reducing immigration will alleviate housing demand, but with a chronic worker shortage, the construction sector has increasingly relied on immigrant labour to build new homes, writes Inori Roy, drawing on data compiled for The Local by IWH.

Published: The Local, January 2025

An innovative new survey tool is being used by the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA) to help companies identify hazards and prompt them to take steps to reduce injury risks, reports Grant Cameron. The tool was developed by the SCSA in collaboration with EHS Analytics, a Calgary-based company that specializes in health and safety data, research and machine learning. The survey is an eight-item questionnaire developed by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and Ontario’s prevention systems partners to assess values and beliefs around a company’s workplace culture. Data collected can be used to help identify where improvements need to be made.

Published: Journal of Commerce, October 2024

Published: American Journal of Public Health, January 2024

An IWH study on the effectiveness of Ontario's mandatory training was helpful to the labour ministry in several ways—including in reinforcing the value of program evaluations.

Published: November 2023

Among recent organized efforts to make jobsites safer, working-at-heights training has been effective, reports an Institute for Work & Health (IWH) study. As Adam Freill reports, in the three-year period after Ontario made working-at-heights training in the construction sector standardized and mandatory, study authors explain that the rate of fall-from-height injuries leading to time off work fell by 19 per cent.

Published: On-Site Magazine, November 2023

Published: November 2023

In 2015, the Ontario government implemented a working-at-heights (WAH) training standard to ramp up fall prevention efforts. An IWH study team has now gathered two additional years of data on the effectiveness of this training requirement—both on work practices and injury rates.

Published: November 2023

A follow-up study looking at the impact of Ontario’s mandated working at heights training confirms standardized training results in safer work.

Published: Workers Health & Safety Centre, January 2023

In 2015, the province of Ontario implemented a working-at-heights (WAH) training standard requiring most construction workers to take a specific day-long training in fall prevention. A 2019 study conducted by the Institute for Work & Health found the training had positive impact on construction workers' safety knowledge, work practices and injury rates. In this presentation, Dr. Lynda Robson shares new findings on the longer-term impact of the training, drawing on two additional years of follow-up data.

Published: December 2022

Published: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, April 2022