Health committee  Yes, that would be the bottom line in my recommendation. Thank you.

Health committee  In the McLennan report, on page 29, it reads, “Employer groups called for more guidance from federal, provincial and territorial governments about appropriate workplace, drug use and drug testing policies.” I think the request has been out there for awhile.

Health committee  It's not just so that employers can find out who's using drugs or drinking on the job; it's to make sure that workers are safe at work. With the absence of any federal or provincial definition of a safety sensitive position, it's left to workplace parties to work it out and, ulti

Health committee  No. That's a really good point you raise. The Association of Workers' Compensation Boards across Canada, which collects the most reliable data that covers most, but not all, workplace accidents and fatalities, measures on a number of collection criteria but they don't collect the

Health committee  Yes, absolutely.

Health committee  The coroner has that information and it's estimated between 38% and 40%. It's sad and tragic.

Health committee  Correct. Causation is always a complex analysis.

Health committee  Definitely keep the lawyers out. Safety sensitive positions are defined in employer policies in industries across Canada and around the world. The problem is that different interest groups and different industries are going to have a different approach to defining “safety sensit

Health committee  That's a very good question and a very good comparison. There are two different kinds of advice I give to employers who ask questions about people with a medical authorization, also known as medical marijuana. The first is that, through a benefit plan, if it's employer-paid then

Health committee  There is more attention. The companion legislation to Bill C-45—Bill C-46—is moving towards dealing with a framework for public safety, in particular motor vehicle safety, and as technology advances and law enforcement concerns are understood and reflected in legislation, that wi

Health committee  No, you're mistaken. The TTC policy, as I mentioned before, addresses that issue. There is a medical consensus on what impairment is. They've doubled that consensus and have said that anything below that is a negative test. There would thus be a negative test for somebody who smo

Health committee  That's a hypothetical suggestion. Let me respond partly with an example. I have a formwork contracting client, who is the largest formwork contracting client in the province of Ontario. They estimate anywhere from 45% to 55% of their workers are using cannabis illegally right no

Health committee  Of course, and there are two answers to that. There is building that into the legislative framework, but there is also the counterbalancing human rights aspect from a person who is disabled or an addict. We may not know, and this answers the question in a different way. As soon

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  That, of course, is not any of my five suggestions. What I'm suggesting is that if they're in a safety sensitive position, and the random cannabis and other drug testing takes place, once there's a positive test, there be an inquiry into whether or not there's a medical authoriza