Fall
2015
Grains
West
40
months and years ahead. But, if Alberta’s two provincial
neighbours to the east are any indication, Alberta’s agriculture
industry should be able to manage the transition without too
much upheaval.
In Manitoba, agriculture was rolled into provincial workplace,
health and safety rules in 2009. Although there’s no clear
evidence yet of a decline in provincial accident and fatality
rates, farmers and ranchers seem to have adapted just fine.
“I have to give the province credit,” said Doug Chorney,
former president of Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP),
Manitoba’s provincial farm policy association. “They’ve
actually been very patient with us, and helped us come into
compliance. They haven’t pushed hard enforcement intensely
at us. Certainly, if there’s an incident on a farm, there are no
exceptions made, but, by and large, the province has tried to
work with us.”
Chorney points to the province’s regional agricultural safety
officer based in Brandon, who has made a point of interacting
with local farmers rather than just showing up at the gate
brandishing a clipboard and a red pen. “He’s been really good
to work with,” said Chorney. “He is a really down-to-earth,
farm-background person. He’s been attending meetings and
just sort of showing farmers that there’s not a big monster
coming to see them.”
The shift to OHS in Manitoba was easier for large operators,
Chorney said. “For a lot of our more sophisticated farm
employers—people running intensive livestock operations, for
example, and sometimes affiliated with a company like Maple
Leaf Foods—this was not a big step to take, because they were
doing a lot of things in their processing plants already, and
they had the HR capacity to help their farm operations adapt
quickly.”
Like Axelson in Alberta, many in Manitoba were concerned
about the prospect of mandatory workers’ compensation. “We
felt the private sector offered us a lot of alternatives to [workers’
compensation] that were competitive and appealing to many
of our members. However, around January 2009, we went to
mandatory inclusion,” said Chorney. Once the decision was
made, KAP and others shifted their efforts to negotiating a fair
rate—which was then locked in for the first two years, to give
the sector a chance to adjust. “We did a pretty good job—our
rates have been pretty stable.”
MEASURED CHANGE:
The government
of Alberta is taking steps to work with
farmers and ranchers to improve on-farm
safety conditions.
