Mr. Speaker, I am somewhat surprised by the speech of our friend, the parliamentary secretary to the minister. I also want to make it clear that the Bloc Quebecois supports the hon. member's motion. It is not enough to wish to review the Canada Labour Code, as the government pledged to do. As a society, we must strive to achieve a balance between legislation and symbols.
The NDP member is asking us to remember that people who were working in a workplace that was not as safe as it should have been lost their lives.
Let me tell you about a personal experience. Before becoming an MP, I was executive assistant to the current Quebec minister of employment and consultation. Barely one week into my new job-and still very much excited about it-I met a mother whom I will never forget. I had never seen her before. She was in her early forties. A single mother, she told me that her 18 year old son-he could have been your son or the parliamentary secretary's son-was dead.
He had died at work. I clearly remember that he worked on Notre-Dame street, for a company that builds frames for paintings. He was driving a lift truck. This was in January. On the way to the shipping department, the lift truck tipped and the worker was killed.
This is not a rare occurrence. I got interested in this issue because, in Quebec, we asked for a coroner's inquest. An inquest was held and we realized that the whole issue of handling and driving lift trucks in the workplace needed to be regulated. If these regulations had been in place earlier, working conditions would have been safer and Mrs. Poulin's son would probably still be with us.
The parliamentary secretary says that the government will proceed with a review of the Labour Code. This is fine and we are looking forward to participating in this exercise. How should a potential revision of the Labour Code prevent us from making a highly symbolic gesture and expressing in very practical terms our solidarity with workers who have been killed on the job?
I think some effort must be made, mathematically, to try to understand this phenomenon, because, once again, it is not exceptional. It is all very well to be in a society with labour laws. It is all very well to be in a society with occupational health and safety committees. It is all very well to have part II of the Labour Code, which governs the whole area of occupational health and safety. The figures remain very disturbing indeed.
I looked for a more in-depth analysis of the type of accident and of the sort of people at risk or who lose their life at the workplace, and I came up with the following figures. Every five working days, in other words every week, in areas of federal jurisdiction, because this is what we are talking about, a worker dies. So, in this particular week, there is a statistical chance a worker who got up this morning and went to work will die, because he is in an unsafe workplace or because of a whole lot of other factors. However, the
fact remains that, in Canada, in 1996, once a week a worker will lose his life at the workplace.
Every two minutes, again in Canada, in federal jurisdiction, a worker is injured. Obviously the extent of the injury varies, but the fact remains that, every two minutes, in Canada, in businesses under federal jurisdiction, a worker is injured. As a result, 57,000 workers are injured or killed in accidents every year.
Is it too much to ask ourselves as members of Parliament to make a gesture, to remind ourselves that we, as parliamentarians, have not made every effort, taken every step so that we can rise today and say that there are no work accidents in Canada, that no one has died because of a disregard for safety in the workplace.
As the hon. member from the NDP pointed out, it is not only a matter of life-although it is, of course, our first concern. Work accidents also have an impact on a country's economic health.
According to the Department of Labour, which is headed by the hon. member for Saint-Léonard, a total of $100 million-which is a substantial amount of money; it is not an epiphenomenon or marginal reality-is paid in compensation to workers who cannot earn a salary as a result of an accident. We must do something about this.
There is another figure I find interesting: reducing by one day the average amount of time lost per accident in an area of federal jurisdiction-this should be of interest to the President of the Treasury Board and the Minister of Finance-could save $2.6 million a year in compensation costs.
Of course, one of the merits of the motion tabled by the member from the NDP is that it makes us realize we still have some way to go to make the workplace totally safe.
It also reminds us that people lose their lives while trying to earn a living and that, as a society, we cannot tolerate such a situation. One of the means suggested to us for showing that we will not tolerate it to keep it fresh in our minds.
One of the means of keeping it in our fresh in our minds is, of course, through some visible sign. It has great significance for a country-as you know, in this country there are many nations-it really means something to have a flag at half mast. Flying a flag at half mast means that, instead of an isolated action, we are inviting people collectively to remember.
And what we have to remember is that still in Canada-although in the past too there were people who lost their lives while trying to earn a living, even before the days of industrialization-still in 1996, not a week goes by, according to the Department of Labour-not the NDP member, not the Bloc, not the CSN, not the FTQ, but the Department of Labour, under the direction of the hon. member for Saint-Léonard-not a single week goes by without a workplace death.
There are financial repercussions to all this. The estimated amount of payments to injured workers, not unemployed workers, is $100 million. This reality of work related accidents and fatalities affects the private sector particularly, yes, but it also affects crown corporations and the various federal departments.
I have a few figures to submit to you concerning the reality in the federal workplace. According to the Department of Labour, every 50 working days, one worker in a crown corporation or a federal department dies. Every nine minutes, one worker in a crown corporation or a federal department is injured. This means an annual total of 12,800 workers involved in accidents, sometimes fatal ones. This amounts to $23 million.
Twenty-three million dollars is exactly the amount of the deficit in the government's current operating account. Twenty-three million dollars are paid out in benefits to replace lost income as the result of accidents. In total, this represents 239,000 working days lost due to accidents.
Have you ever considered that, in Canada, the greatest cause of days lost at work or of lack of productivity at the workplace is not strikes. It is in fact accidents on the job that, once again, in too many cases mean people lose their lives.
We support this motion. This does not prevent us from mentioning for the benefit of our listeners that we are not starting from scratch. Part II of the Labour Code sets out employers' obligations. It provides very clearly that employers must ensure the health and safety of their employees.
It also provides that employees are not to handle dangerous products and are to advise their immediate superiors of any situation that might compromise workers' safety.
We must remember, nevertheless, despite these clear provisions in part II of the Canada Labour Code that-and we must not forget this; I cannot say it often or long enough-every week in Canada a worker dies as the result of an accident on the job. The costs are very high in economic terms, and we as parliamentarians must do everything in our power to put a stop to this situation.
One particular way, as the member is proposing, is to remember. One way to remember is to lower the flag to half mast-a very powerful symbol.