A lot of statistics, largely out of the U.S., indicate that as soon as you have a random alcohol testing program in place, use goes down by more than 50%. Allowing testing will reduce the risk for everybody, period, but then you get to the problem about somebody who is being tested. Is the employer going to pay for it? Generally, yes they are, if they want it.
Should they be authorized to test everybody? Our suggestion is no, it's just in the case of a safety sensitive position, in other words, a position in which somebody such as a TTC bus driver or a pilot can injure themselves seriously, or others, or the public.
The Sunwing case, which has been very public, is a disturbing one, because it took flight attendants to turn in a drunken, incapacitated pilot who was not otherwise subject to testing. None of us wants to think of getting on a flight when we don't have confidence in the flight crew.
In terms of the mechanism, I think it's going to be a choice that employers make, when they have dangerous workplaces with safety sensitive positions. Employers, however, will probably choose to invest and bear that cost because of the cost of injury in workers' compensation costs, the moral imperative, the loss of a good worker, but also the risk of prosecution.
I'm not sure whether you're aware of the Metron Construction case in which four workers died, three of them impaired heavily with THC, on Christmas Eve 2009. The employer was punished by a trial judge; they received a large fine of $200,000. They were further punished because they failed to prevent workers from being stoned on the job. That's what the court of appeal said; that was one of the three reasons in the Metron case. I've given you the citation.
In other words, an employer who doesn't prevent workers from coming to work when not sober and safe has a real financial risk. That's part of the motivation of a good employer: they care about their workers; they care about the public; they don't want to be harmed. They also care, however, about their bottom line: it's bad business for workers to come to work under the influence of cannabis or other drugs and cause accidents, injuries, or worse.