Canadian Occupational Safety

U P F R O N T Saskatchewan invests $2.5 million for school safety Saskatchewan is investing $2.5 million for independent schools that have experienced an increase in enrolment due to the pandemic. The funding comes from the $150 million that has been made available in the COVID-19 contingency fund for education from provincial and federal funding, as well as school division savings from the suspension of in-class learning in the spring, according to the government. The next intake for school division and independent schools funding applications for the remaining $23.7 million in the contingency fund will be in March 2021. New flight crew fatigue regulations now in effect Changes to the Canadian Aviation Regulations to strengthen rules addressing flight crew hours of work for large Canadian passenger and cargo operators came into effect on Dec. 12, 2020. Under the new rules, flight crew can work for a maximum of 1,000 hours per 365 consecutive days. Workers can also work for a maximum of 300 hours in any 90 consecutive days and 112 hours in any 28 consecutive days. The maximum flight duty period has also been set for nine to 13 hours, based on start time of day/sectors flown. "Ontario's public health system continues to take extraordinary efforts to contain COVID-19. Public health units have shown incredible commitment and dedication to protecting our health during this challenging time." Dr. David Williams Chief Medical Officer of Health of Ontario AS part of its Fall Preparedness Plan, the province has hired more than 700 contact tracers and case managers. This adds to the 600 Statistics Canada employees that are assisting with contact follow-up. Ontario is also onboarding an additional 300 case managers in the coming weeks, bringing the provincial workforce to 1,600 and the total number of case and contact management staff across the province to approximately 5,600. "Our government continues to use every resource at its disposal to fight COVID-19 and keep Ontarians safe," said Christine Elliott, deputy premier and minister of health. "By expanding our case and contact management capacity, we are significantly boosting our ability to respond to the rising number of COVID-19 cases across the province. We are immensely grateful to our public health units and this provincial workforce, who are all working to keep Ontarians safe and healthy and stop the spread of this deadly virus." Due to high rates of transmission in Toronto, the Ministry of Health is currently providing 180 case managers and contact tracers to support Toronto Public Health. The ministry plans to up that number to 280 over the next few weeks. The provincial workforce also assists 12 public health units across Ontario, providing extensive supports to Windsor-Essex, Ottawa, Hamilton, Halton, Toronto, Waterloo, Peel and York. Newly onboarded staff will be made available to additional health units. Public health units in the province have started using the Virtual Assistant tool to reach cases and contacts faster. The tool uses text messages to connect health-care workers with individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 or have been identified as close contacts. The text messages link to safe and secure web-based forms with questions that help case managers assess symptoms and general health and identify close contacts. It also provides important information to individuals such as guidance on how to self-isolate. This tool is available to all public health units and provincial workforce staff that are supporting public health units. Currently, this is being adopted by public health in Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Waterloo and York. It will soon be adopted throughout the entire province, according to the government. "Ontario's public health system continues to take extraordinary efforts to contain COVID-19," said Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health. "Public health units have shown incredible commitment and dedication to protecting our health during this challenging time. We will continue to work closely with them and support the important services they provide to Ontarians." ONTARIO ADDING MORE FRONTLINE PERSONNEL TO FIGHT COVID-19 The province is adding thousands of workers to assist with contact tracing and case management amid COVID-19 threat www.thesafetymag.com/ca 5 W O R K P L A C E N E W S

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