November 10, 2011

Ontario chief prevention officer Gritziotis speaks at trades council convention

VINCE VERSACE

news editor

The early days of Ontario’s newly appointed chief prevention officer’s tenure have already left him with a lasting impression about the work he is tasked with tackling.

“After first my first five days the key thing I learned from are the daily email alerts about injuries and tragedies on the job,” explained Gritziotis. “I have to tell you, it was putting knots in my stomach and actually magnified the importance of this role.”

Gritziotis recently spoke at the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario’s convention in Niagara Falls, Ont. This public speaking engagement was among Gritziotis’ first in his official capacity as Ontario’s chief prevention officer. The impact of those numerous email alerts in just his first few days on the job cannot be ignored, he said.

“Thinking of someone getting up in the morning, having a shower, then breakfast and saying goodbye to a family member, then not coming home at the end of the day, leaves quite the impression in your mind about the importance of being able to address prevention,” he said.

The chief prevention officer role was a key recommendation in the Tony Dean expert panel review of Ontario’s occupational health and safety system the provincial government commissioned in 2010. The catalyst for the review was the 2009 Christmas Eve swing-stage tragedy in Toronto in which four construction workers died and one was critically injured. The men plunged 13 storeys at an apartment building renovation site when their swing-stage broke in half.

Gritziotis said he alone cannot make all the assessments and changes necessary to improve workplace safety in Ontario. He is looking forward to working with all stakeholders of all industries to identify and create solutions to make improvements.

“This is the challenge I am prepared to take on. No one person can make the changes on their own,” he said. “We want to interconnect and have a strategy in place to push out our prevention implementation as soon as possible.”

Three key areas Gritziotis is responsible for are developing a provincial occupational health and safety strategy; coordinating and aligning Ontario’s workplace health and safety prevention system and providing advice on prevention, worker safety and occupational diseases.

“One of the big goals is establishing a good relationship with health and safety associations to provide some clarity and focus,” he noted. “This is all about safety outcomes. My desire is to work collectively and create a culture of health and safety in this province.”

Pat Dillon, business manager of the Ontario building trades, is confident Gritziotis will deliver results and stressed that prevention improvements in Ontario are paramount.

“We need to bring all the players to the table,” he said. “This is all about lives and we have to move forward. If people are putting principled positions on the table, obviously it has to be looked at, but it cannot be anecdotal.”

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