Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for inviting us. I am happy to be appearing before you as the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Labour Program. I am joined by my colleague Brenda Baxter, Director General of the Workp

Human Resources committee  I think it's an important point you raise, that our officers are out there working, and as part of their process they discover other things. Part of the change is that they can do more of that proactive work and discover the problems before they happen. It's often very difficult

Human Resources committee  I'm not sure I follow your question, Madam Sims.

Human Resources committee  I think it's important to start by saying that the right to refuse dangerous work remains in the code, so it's not going to take away from people their ability to have that refusal process. The rights of employees to know about hazards in the workplace, the rights of employees to

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for that. Moving to this model where the minister will be conferred with the authority to delegate powers and duties to a health and safety officer is not different from what we see in different practices within the federal public service programs. As an exec

Human Resources committee  Brenda is looking up the exact numbers. We average somewhere between 150 to 200 cases of refusals. It's important to note that sometimes the refusal is a single employee and sometimes it's a group one, so the numbers don't—

Human Resources committee  I don't think that's the terminology we would use.

Human Resources committee  No. I think it's important.... Start off with our compliance continuum. Workplace hazards exist as the very nature of just the workplace—

Human Resources committee  I'm sorry.

Human Resources committee  I don't have the number in terms of that within the 20% that I think you're driving at.

Human Resources committee  As a danger—

Human Resources committee  Eighty per cent—

Human Resources committee  There are times when our officers will deal with ones where they'll go out and say, “But I've noticed this.” I think that's what you're driving at—

Human Resources committee  That's precisely why we're trying to make these changes.

Human Resources committee  Yes, and it's working with—