Safety and health law harmonization in Manitoba

In November of 2018 the Manitoba government implemented a variety of changes to the Workplace Safety and Health Act to harmonize regulations with all other provinces. The most notable changes relate to hearing conservation. Employers are now required to conduct hearing tests on workers every two years, versus annually in the previous regulation.

As well, there is an updated hearing-protection standard. Others include changes to requirements in first aid kits, first-aid training, personal flotation devices, respiratory protection and high visibility apparel. Several of the harmonized changes are to match Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards. These standards can be purchased on the CSA website or viewed for free by creating an account at https://community.csagroup.org/welcomehttps://community.csagroup.org/welcome.

Companies have a year from the November 2018 passage date to bring their policies and procedures into compliance with the amended WSH Act. Moving toward that, this season is a good time to begin conforming your policies and procedures, and be especially mindful of the changes when you are working in other jurisdictions. If companies have any questions, they can contact their WORKSAFELY regional advisor or visit https://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/safety/wsh_harmonization.html for more explanation and “frequently asked questions”.