Mr. Speaker, the motion before us today calls for the flag on Parliament Hill to be
lowered to half mast on April 28 of each year the commemorate a national day of mourning for people killed in the workplace.
I am pleased to speak in support of this initiative. I commend the hon. member for The Battlefords-Meadow Lake for bringing it forth today.
There probably is not anyone in the House who has not known someone who has been killed on the job. While driving through my constituency a few weeks back I came across a procession of people who had gathered at the site of where a friend of theirs, a taxi driver, had been killed. While on a call he was struck by another vehicle. The road conditions were icy at the time. Those people put up a large cross at the site of the accident. They covered the cross with flowers and left it there. As far as I know it is still there.
I suppose they did this for various reasons. One was to commemorate this person who was simply doing his job and who met with a very untimely and costly accident. Another reason would be to remind other motorists who travel along that route that they have to be ever vigilant.
I am sure that is what the member for The Battlefords-Meadow Lake is trying to accomplish today. I commend him for that.
Before being elected to the House in 1993 I was a farmer. As a matter of fact, I still am. Generally I suppose people would assume farming is a very placid way of life, a laid back lifestyle with not much danger involved. However, farming is the most hazardous occupation in Canada.
From information provided to me by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture based on a survey done by the United States and adjusted to the Canadian agricultural population, the average death rate among industries is something like 11 per 100,000, but the farm death rate is five times higher. It is 55 deaths per 100,000. That surpasses mining with around 50 deaths per 100,000. Construction is in the neighbourhood of 37 per 100,000.
Between 1990 and 1994 in my home province of Alberta there were 82 farm fatalities. Farming also has the dubious honour of topping the list with the highest incidence of disabling injuries of all industries in Canada with 58 per 100,000.
In my youth I spent some years trucking. It may not be well known, but truckers will take evasive action to avoid collision with other vehicles to the point that they put life and limb on the line, so to speak, to avoid collision with other vehicles. In so doing, truckers have often avoided a vehicle full of people but they have paid very dearly. They have driven off the road, upset their vehicles or collided with approaching vehicles and paid with their lives.
When we are asked to reflect on the loss of life in the workplace we automatically think back about four years to May 9, 1992 when Canadians from coast to coast watched heroic attempts to rescue 26 trapped coal miners from the Westray mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia. Twenty-six Canadians lost their lives in one of the worst workplace disasters in recent memory.
The conditions at the Westray mine that led to the explosion are currently the subject of an inquiry. One of the questions being asked is whether or not health and safety laws had been enforced.
I take exception to my colleague from The Battlefords-Meadow Lake who suggests that private enterprise makes conditions unfavourable or unsafe for workers. If we look at the more socialized countries, their workplace death rates are nothing to brag about either. While I agree with the general thrust of the member's bill, I admonish him for dragging that kind of politics into it.
The federal government is on the right track in some areas. It has put these jurisdictions under provincial control. I believe that is a move in the right direction. There is probably unnecessary duplication and overlap by provincial and federal jurisdictions. I would encourage this government to divest itself of areas in which it is not needed and to turn these areas over to the provinces where they may be administered better than they are now.
Workers in federally regulated industries are bound by the provisions of Part III of the labour code. Provinces have their own laws for occupational health and safety which differ from place to place. As I said, the federal government should take the initiative and divest itself of those areas.
The Canada Gazette of April 17, 1996 outlines the government's plan to extricate itself from setting the minimum wage rate which is a step in the right direction. More effort is needed to harmonize federal-provincial labour regulations.
For the past year a review of Part I of the labour code has been under way and amendments are expected this fall. I hope a review of Part II and Part III will soon follow. Yesterday we debated the possibility of severance pay for older workers, an issue brought forward by my colleague from the Reform Party. The debate indicated that Part III could use some review. As a result of my colleague's efforts, the subject matter has been referred to a committee. I am sure we will make some headway in that area.
Preliminary statistics for 1994, which is the last year available, show that there were 709 workplace related fatalities in that year. Seventy-four of those occurred in my province of Alberta. Whether workplace fatalities claim one life or twenty-six, they are devastating not only to family and friends of the deceased but to their co-workers and employers as well.
Workers make this country productive. We have to do our utmost to ensure that workplace health and safety standards are not compromised. Lowering the flag is not only a symbolic gesture. I am sure, as I said at the beginning, that what the hon. member intends to accomplish is to provoke thought and to bring about prevention.