The Women in Safety Summit moves to Toronto's Exhibition Place with a keynote, roundtables and several sessions
The Women in Safety Summit Canada 2026 will run at the Automotive Building, Exhibition Place, in Toronto on October 21, 2026, its first year in the city and its first as part of COS Live, Canadian Occupational Safety's national safety experience. The one-day event opens with a keynote from senior executive Stephanie Benay and pairs main-stage discussion with peer roundtables, an inclusive showcase of personal protective equipment (PPE) designed for women, and sessions on psychological health, artificial intelligence (AI) and life-stage health in occupational health and safety (OHS) roles. Registration is open now, with Supersaver pricing available until July 19, 2026.
A national stage: the summit joins COS Live
Previously held in Calgary, the Women in Safety Summit comes to Toronto for the first time in 2026 and becomes part of COS Live, a two-day national programme running October 21 and 22 that also takes in the Canadian Safety Summit and Canada's Safest Employers Awards on the same COS Live stage. Delegates can buy an individual pass for the Women in Safety Summit, an individual pass for the Canadian Safety Summit, or a combined COS Live pass covering both days.
Organizers expect more than 350 attendees and over 20 speakers across more than 10 content sessions and 10 discussion topics. The program carries five hours and five minutes of continuing professional development (CPD) hours; delegates submit their own CPD applications to the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP).
Four themes and the leaders behind them
The program is built around four ideas that reflect where the safety profession is heading.
The first is women leading on their own terms. The opening keynote, "Unapologetic: How Women Lead on Their Own Terms," draws on Benay's three decades in male-dominated industries to offer practical tools for navigating bias, managing relational dynamics and leading with clarity. Her book publishes in September 2026, making the October date an early opportunity to hear her as the wider conversation around her work begins.
The second theme is psychological health as a workplace safety issue. A candid session, "The Hidden Hazards in Your Workplace," examines how safety leaders identify psychological risks rooted in workload, leadership and organizational change, and how they build the business case for psychological health rather than passing it to human resources.
The third is artificial intelligence in safety. A case study, "AI in Safety: What Happened When We Tried It," features a safety leader on how their organization used digital tools to strengthen reporting, spot trends and manage risk, along with the lessons learned from adoption.
The fourth is life-stage health. The panel "The Career You Almost Lost: Life Stages, Performance and the Workplace's Blind Spots" treats menopause and other life-stage health changes as performance and retention issues rather than private matters. According to the summit program, unmanaged menopause symptoms alone cost the Canadian economy an estimated $3.5 billion a year.
The main-stage line-up puts named practitioners behind those themes. Speakers include Jody Young, president and chief executive of Workplace Safety and Prevention Services; Candace DiCresce, director of enterprise and operational risk at OMERS; Hager Ibrahim, director of aviation safety, regulations and performance at the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA); Jasmine Amini, senior accident investigator at Metrolinx; Angelica Rotundo, director of health, safety and environment at OEC Energy and Infrastructure; and Jackie Davis, safety and health director at Tri-M Electrical and Construction.
What can you expect on the day?
The summit runs from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. and blends main-stage sessions with formats built for participation.
After registration and breakfast, the day opens with Benay's keynote and an executive panel, "Getting a Seat at the Table," on how women have earned credibility with senior leaders and connected safety to business performance.
A centrepiece is the discussion tables, billed as "The Conversations You Actually Want to Be In." These peer-driven roundtables let attendees choose from ten topics, including building safety culture under operational pressure, leading through burnout and workload, difficult conversations around accountability and buy-in, managing safety across multiple sites and contractors, and sustaining performance through perimenopause and menopause.
The morning also features the inclusive PPE showcase, highlighting protective equipment designed to fit women's bodies from Canadian manufacturers, a persistent hazard for women on work sites. The afternoon turns to harder conversations, including a panel, "Enough Already: Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in the Safety Profession," on harassment across infrastructure projects and remote work camps and what accountability looks like in practice. Two closing fireside chats, on protecting safety when budgets and timelines are stretched and on the career decisions that shaped senior leaders, round out the day, with built-in breaks, lunch and closing networking positioned as part of the value.
How to register before the July 19 deadline
Supersaver pricing for the Women in Safety Summit Canada 2026 ends July 19, 2026, giving safety professionals a short window to secure the lowest rate. Registration is handled through the event site at womeninsafety.ca.
