Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank our witnesses for joining us today.
I think that your comments are raising so many questions, especially when it comes to the changes made to the definition of danger. In fact, two criteria are being explained again—that of “imminent threat”, which is a temporal notion, and that of “serious threat”. Those two terms are supposed to help determine whether a workplace involves danger.
I have two concerns about that. First, the definition of long-term dangers—such as exposure to a dangerous substance—is eliminated. The danger would not be imminent, but that exposure may be really dangerous over time. What is done in such cases?
Second, I think this is opening the door to too many loose interpretations of the term “serious”. Depending on the workplace, an employer may simply say that they consider an issue to be serious, while another employer, who may be faced with the same type of problem with a different employee, may say that the issue does not seem serious at all to them.
Some clarifications should definitely be made. However, that restriction may be taking away all the elements that play a part in the true protection of workers.
What can you tell me about that?