BY SHARON MCKINNON
FACE-
OFF
Educationnot regulation
THE CROPPING AND LIVESTOCK
sectors have been working with senior
staff from Alberta Agriculture and Forest-
ry (AF) and Jobs, Skills, Training and La-
bour (JSTL) for over a year on farm safety
issues. There have been three industry/
government policy discussion meetings in-
volving representatives from Alberta’s ag-
ricultural boards and commissions. A Safe
and Healthy Farms and Ranches Working
Group with representatives from the crop-
ping and livestock sectors as well as senior
staff from AF and JSTL has been looking
carefully at the exemption from Occupa-
tional Health and Safety (OHS) oversight
that farming and ranching has in Alberta.
Much of the discussion has been around
how the exemption doesn’t allow OHS
inspectors past the farm gate. Most of the
farm groups involved with these discus-
sions have agreed that allowing OHS to
investigate serious incidents and fatalities
on farms is an important move.
Removing the OHS exemption for farm-
ing and ranching is relatively easy as it’s
under regulation. However, OHS technical
rules (regulations in the OHS Code of Prac-
tice) that exist for other industries would
not apply to farming and ranching under
the scenario discussed with the industry—
that is the removal of the exemption. How
current best practices could become part
of the technical rules for our industry has
been discussed in general but not in depth.
In our Working Group discussions, we have
been clear that the industry must have
input into developing technical rules if they
are going to be required. That is as far as
we have gone in the discussions.
The new NDP government has farm
safety in its sights, and specifically farm
worker safety. This is a big issue for
farming operations that employ many
farm workers, like intensive livestock and
vegetable operations, but also for crop
farms run by owners and their families,
who may employ even one or two occa-
sional workers.
At the most recent industry/government
policy discussion meeting on June 29, gov-
ernment staff introduced the issues of la-
bour relations, employment standards and
workers’ compensation coverage. These
go far beyond the removal of the OHS
exemption for farming and ranching. The
agricultural boards and commissions have
had no opportunity to discuss these farm
labour issues with their members. There
are a lot of concerns in Alberta about what
this means for farmers. Some voiced with-
in the crop commissions include:
• How soon will the OHS exemption be
removed and what does that change
look like at the farm level?
• What about farm kids working on their
family farm learning how to farm?
Will they be prohibited from working
for pay?
• What about neighbours’ kids hired for
farm work?
• What about hours of work? There are
rules in other industries but agriculture
is seasonal and weather dependent. Will
hired workers just go home after eight
hours during harvest because OHS
rules say so?
• Will OHS inspectors come on farms and
shut down operations at critical times if
there is an injury? Will they be allowed
to do unannounced audits? Will they
have any practical or specialized knowl-
edge of farming operations?
In Ontario, OHS covers all farming
operations with paid workers but there are
no technical rules. Instead, there is a set
of flexible guidelines for farms; farmers
and farm operations are expected to
practice due diligence in the protection of
farm workers.
Saskatchewan’s
Farm Safety Guide
provides advice about training, clarifies
employer and worker roles and responsi-
bilities, and identifies workplace hazards
on the farm. There are also specific
regulations that apply to farming and
ranching in the OHS legislation—the
technical rules noted previously. For the
most part, Saskatchewan farmers are
generally unaware that they are subject
to OHS. A Saskatchewan farmer with a
number of employees who has experience
with OHS noted that OHS hasn’t been a
hindrance for farmers. However, if OHS
were to become intrusive and legalistic,
and if they start doing unannounced farm
audits, then farmers will have a problem
with them.
Farmers support safe working condi-
tions and don’t want to see their workers,
families or themselves get hurt. Regu-
lations alone won’t make farms safer.
Awareness and education must be the
foundation of farm safety policy in Alber-
ta. Farmers and ranchers need to be at the
table through formal consultations before
any regulatory changes come into play.
Sharon McKinnon is the Policy Program
Coordinator for the Crop Sector Working
Group, a partnership of Alberta crop com-
missions that addresses environmental and
sustainability issues for the crop sector in
Alberta.
Fall
2015
Grains
West
42
