From using heaters in hog barns to farm workers shaving their facial hair or going to the toilet in a field, the government wants Albertans to weigh in on potential changes to farm safety rules.
It stems from Bill 6, the controversial farm safety legislation passed in December 2015. The law made Workers’ Compensation Board insurance coverage for paid farm and ranch workers mandatory as of Jan. 1, 2016.
Bill 6 sparked outrage in rural Alberta. Hundreds of opponents descended on the legislature to protest rules they said would hurt family farms across the province.
“The introduction of (Bill 6) saw our government learn some tough lessons,” Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said Thursday.
The backlash prompted the government to introduce an amended bill exempting family farms without employees and to set up six working groups to look at how OHS legislation applied in agriculture.
Carlier said those working groups were an important step in building relationships with the agriculture sector.
Recommendations from the first two reports were adopted earlier this year.
The province received the final four reports into occupational health and safety changes in March, but only released them Thursday for 11 weeks of public input.
Labour Minister Christina Gray said that’s because the government didn’t want to dump the reports on farmers at the busiest time of year.
The recommendations
Many recommendations boil down to a simple argument: Farms are remote and unique, and shouldn’t be subject to the same rules as the average city building site.
For the most part, recommendations list exemptions from current OHS laws.
The reports also highlight the cost of implementing OHS rules on farms and recommend government explore how to support that work.
Safety working group chair Donald Mallon said Thursday he saw a lot of healthy skepticism at his table when the process began.
“These were not people picked for their politics; they were people who volunteered because they had an interest,” he said.
“But I think they’re satisfied with the process this far and … are waiting to see what happens.”
Education chair Kelly Williams-Whit said the initial anger about Bill 6 tended to take a back seat once people explained their perspectives.
“There certainly sometimes were challenging conversations, but, by and large, it was interested, capable people at the tables who were there for the right reasons,” she said.
Questions over OHS minutia
The reports delve into the minutia of OHS rules and how they would apply on a farm or ranch. They cover the general areas of health, safety, best practices and OHS education.
Gray faced repeated questions from reporters about how everyday Albertans are expected to digest about 200 pages of highly technical language, compare them with even more detailed OHS legislation, then give feedback in a limited period of time.
In response, Gray committed to summaries of each report to help the consultation process along. That could also mean a timeline extension.
Carlier said he would meet personally with a range of agriculture groups to walk them through potential changes.
