moved:
That, in the opinion of this House, the flag on Parliament Hill be lowered to half mast on April 28 each year to commemorate the National Day of Mourning for those killed in the workplace, a policy that is permitted under paragraph 13(d) of the general rules for flying and displaying the Canadian flag and other flags in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to present for debate Motion No. 73 which calls on the House to express its will in support of flying the flag on Parliament Hill at half mast on April 28 each year to commemorate a national day of mourning for those killed in the workplace.
I point out that this important day, April 28, is only three days away. I cannot think of a better opportunity for parliamentarians to see immediate and direct results of our work here in this Chamber. Should we agree today that the flag should be flown at half mast then this weekend it is possible that our will shall be done.
I do not have to tell any member of the House that this is a very serious issue. Deaths in Canada from traumatic injury in the workplace are approximately 1,000 every year. If the number of deaths which occur from industrial diseases are added in, which by the way are not measured by Statistics Canada or Labour Canada, then the number of deaths jump to between 6,000 and 10,000 a year.
On the job injuries recorded by provincial workers compensation boards run between 80,000 to 100,000 a year. Of course the numbers do fluctuate from year to year. They are probably dropping right now, not because the workplace is any safer but rather because of the general drop in employment.
For all intents and purposes, on average one Canadian worker out of every thirteen is injured at work. Unfortunately, close to 17,000 workers between the ages of 15 and 19 are injured each year. Young people within our economy who we expect so much of in the future are finding themselves injured in the workplace due to circumstances beyond their control.
We have to understand that worker health and safety means money to the economy and our communities. Time lost injuries rose 1.4 per cent from 1993 to 1994. At the same time, Canadian workers were increasing the number of hours they were on the job. Experts tell us that longer hours lead directly to deteriorating safety standards.
This even is noticeable on the farm where many farm safety programs are run every year to alert people to the fact that long hours during seeding and harvest can sometimes lead to injuries in that workplace. Obviously the experience there carries over into the industrial workplace as well.
In 1993, workers compensation boards in Canada paid out $5.2 billion in benefits. That shows this means money. With the addition of indirect costs, such as training replacement workers when a worker has been killed or injured on the job, loss of productivity, damage to equipment and materials and lowered morale, the annual total cost of occupation injuries to the Canadian economy could be closer to $10.5 billion every year.
Members should recall that April 28 is already the national day of mourning. Royal assent of this act of Parliament took place in February 1991. Members will realize that I am not asking for April 28 to be declared a national day of mourning. It has already been declared a national day of mourning by Parliament. I am simply asking that in recognition of the day that the flag on Parliament Hill be lowered to half mast on April 28.
For the last six years there have been some attempts to have the flag on this building lowered to half mast to ensure that there is a visual representation of this important day. Over the years there has been a small problem in achieving that goal and that is why this motion is before us today.
Just to back up for a moment, we should thank a former NDP member of Parliament, Mr. Rod Murphy of Manitoba, whose private member's bill did lead us to this official declaration of a day of mourning. Mr. Murphy worked very hard to get this legislation passed in 1991. Now that it has been passed, we have the responsibility and obligation to take the inevitable next step.
I also want to mention that April 28 was chosen as the day of remembrance because it was the day that third reading took place for the first comprehensive workers compensation act in Canada. That first workers compensation act was proclaimed in Ontario on April 28, 1914.
The movement toward the official national declaration began in 1984 when on behalf of all Canadian workers, the Canadian Labour Congress executive council formalized the matter and began to work toward the national declaration which was finally achieved in 1991.
The aim of the day of mourning is to remember our commitment to fight for those in the workplace, as well as to mourn for those who have died.
It should be noted that the reason for this motion today is that despite the intention of Parliament to recognize the importance of the day, those who interpret the rules or protocol for flying the flag tell us that it cannot be flown at half mast unless we specifically ask for it.
I researched the issue and studied it closely. I have looked at the official protocol for flying the flag and discovered that according to the general rules for flying and displaying the Canadian flag and other flags in Canada, the flag can be lowered to half mast if we collectively ask for it to be done.
Let me just read from the protocol rules so that all members of the Chamber and the public watching will know exactly what I mean. Originally published by the Department of the Secretary of State, the document is called "General Rules for Flying and Displaying the Canadian Flag and other Flags in Canada" .With regard to half masting, section 13(a) of the protocol reads in part: "subject to (c) and (e) or special instructions listed under (d)"-which I will come to in a moment-"the flag on the Peace Tower of the Parliament Buildings, Ottawa is flown at half mast on the death of-". The protocol goes on to list a number of individuals for whom the flag can be flown at half mast, for example, the death of the sovereign or a member of the royal family, the Governor General, a member of the Senate or a member of the House of Commons, et cetera.
However, section 13(d) of the protocol says: "Flags flown at federal buildings and other locations are also half masted subject to special instructions on the death of-some other person whom it is desired to honour". That is the specific section I refer to in the motion before us.
The key words are the flag can be flown at half mast "on the death of some other person whom it is desired to honour". We in this Chamber would be proclaiming that "some other person" could refer to those who were killed in the workplace.
Therefore, I ask that Parliament recognize this important distinction. If the Parliament of today agrees, we would have a declaration which would result in a visible illustration of our feelings.
There are many examples throughout the country of how worker health and safety has been overlooked or abused. It is very important that as members of Parliament we express the feeling both verbally and visually that lack of worker health and safety protocol can no longer be condoned.
In this regard I have also followed the public inquiry into the the Westray mine disaster in Nova Scotia. With every news report of that inquiry, my resolve to deal with this issue increased. The Westray story shows us in a most unfortunate but dramatic way that everything the deregulators and the right wing in this country tell us about business can result in loss of life.
When an industry is deregulated and the people responsible do not take these matters seriously and do not act quickly on health and safety issues, people in this country can die. In fact, they have died. As those numbers at the beginning of my presentation today indicate, too many workers in Canada lose their lives in the workplace doing the jobs that we want to have done because they increase the productivity of our economy.
I look at other news and view the world around me with this in mind. I cannot help but notice a lot of other things that affect this issue. I see in the quest for deficit reduction and in reaching international trade agreements, a constant move toward less government regulation, less involvement of government inspectors within workplaces and less enforcement.
Many workers, hammered by the constant threat of job loss through plant closures, privatization, restructuring and layoffs, are reluctant to speak out against unsafe working conditions simply because they are afraid of losing their job or losing the jobs of all of the people they work with. We must ensure those people feel comfortable with saying this is an unsafe workplace, we have to do something about it. Government has to be prepared within a more regulated system to step in and say: "This has to be improved. We cannot afford to allow these unsafe conditions to continue".
In this regard, Canadians need to continue to work together to gain better protection in the law. We have to be better informed about what presently exists. I want to quote briefly from Rod Murphy's comments in the House of Commons in October 1990 when he first introduced the motion that made April 28 the national day of mourning. Mr. Murphy argued that economic progress in Canada could not be achieved at the expense of the health and safety of workers and that by recognizing the day of mourning we were reminding ourselves of that fact regularly.
Mr. Murphy said: "I am sure that hon. members will agree with me that we are no longer in the era of the beginning of the industrial revolution. We no longer accept sweatshops. We no longer accept child labour and we can no longer accept unsafe working conditions for our citizens. We must all take the steps we can to promote safer working environments. We believe that the health and welfare of our people matters a great deal to all of us. Let us ensure that on April 28 every year we prove that".
As members can see, it is not a day of celebration. It is a day to look around to see what we can do to ensure that those who have died or who have been injured in the workplace have taught us the appropriate lessons. What can we be doing to reduce the number of people who die or are injured in the workplace? What can we do to ensure that our workplaces are safer? We can answer those questions as we look at the workplace with those questions in mind.
If we know that April 28 is the day of mourning, we can think about it. If we do not know the significance of April 28, if we or our friends in the media notice that the flag on the Peace Tower is flying at half mast, we may ask why. By answering the question as to why the flag is flying at half mast, more people will understand and perhaps will be motivated by the purpose of the day of
mourning. That is why it is not only important but also useful to fly the flag at half mast this Sunday and on every April 28 thereafter.
In this regard and in concluding my remarks today, I ask members to give their complete attention to this issue and to support it if they can. Perhaps at the end of the allotted hour today we could by unanimous consent pass this motion as presented.