Ontario Enhancing Workplace Health and Safety

January 4, 2018

Ontario is enhancing protection for workers by increasing the maximum fines for individuals and businesses that don’t meet workplace health and safety standards. 

As of December 14, 2017, the maximum fines for an offence under the Occupational Health and Safety Act increased from:

• $25,000 to $100,000 for an individual or unincorporated business (which had not changed since 1979)
• $500,000 to $1,500,000 for corporations (which had not changed since 1990) 

Ontario also changed the time limit to allow for prosecution, from one year from the date of the offence, to one year from the date an inspector becomes aware of an alleged offence. 
Protecting workers and supporting business is part of Ontario’s plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of Medicare in a generation.

https://news.ontario.ca/mol/en/2017/12/ontario-enhancing-workplace-health-and-safety.html