Ontario giving workers extra year to renew working-at-heights training

Ontario has amended the Occupational Health and Safety Awareness and Training Regulation (which is under the Occupational Health and Safety Act) to accommodate workers who have been impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Normally the working-at-heights training of around 120,000 Ontario-based workers will be expiring over the next six months. However, despite the fact that this training is mandatory, many training providers have had to temporarily shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak.

This affects workers who would have completed their working-at-heights training between Feb. 28, 2017 and Aug. 31, 2017. For these workers, their training would have ended this year as it is valid for three years at a time.

As a response to this exceptional situation, the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development has decided to grant workers in the construction sector an additional year to renew their working-at-heights training. This means that the training will now expire in 2021.

In this current climate, Ontario is keen for construction workers to be able to continue working and this extension gives them the possibility to do so. Additional information can be found here (and here in French).