Day of Mourning reveals need for regulatory changes

Posted on May 8, 2025 by admin

By Cal Braid
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On April 28, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) observed the annual Day of Mourning with a ceremony at its Edmonton headquarters to honour workers killed or injured on the job.

 Just before the ceremony began, AUPE Vice-President Bonnie Gostola made time for an interview that revealed a disturbing trend in the health and safety for Alberta workers.

 “Alberta saw a record number of worker fatalities in 2024,” said Gostola, who is both the VP of AUPE and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) committee chair. “These 203 preventable worker deaths raises the alarm for occupational health and safety in Alberta. It is a reminder that the fight for stronger OHS legislation is far from over.”

 AUPE has been honouring the Day of Mourning since the 1990s and was the first union to actually have a full-time officer dedicated to occupational health and safety.

 In 2024, the workplace death toll hit its highest peak since 2013. In 2023, Gostola said fatalities were in the 150s before the “huge jump in fatalities” in 2024.

 “And those are recorded fatalities,” she said. “where there is a direct correlation between a workplace incident and a fatality.”

 However, that doesn’t include occupational related illnesses or diseases. That number is on the rise too. It also doesn’t include workers who have committed suicide from stress, exhaustion, or mental health disturbances.

 “So it’s really kind of a false number, even though it’s extremely high,” she said.

 Gostola pulled back the curtain when asked what the spike in 2024 could be attributed to. She said some of it can be attributed to the mechanisms for reporting, which have changed for the worse. In 2017, the NDP government installed more protections for workers, but those protections were reversed in 2019 by the UCP. Those legislative mechanisms included reporting protocols and the investigation process for OHS issues and incidents.

 “There were a lot of changes that happened in the regulations,” she said of the UCP. “Just a real heavy hand towards employer rights, as opposed to worker well-being.”

 Her assessment was that the NDP crafted legislation that gave workers the right to assess issues and speak up to refuse dangerous work, but those regulations ultimately shifted back again to the employer’s favour under the UCP.

 “To have 50 more deaths in 2024 than there were in 2023 is mind boggling,” she said. “And do we hear about these deaths? We don’t. And that’s the other scary part.”

 It’s not just outright fatalities or physical injuries and illnesses that concern her either. She’s aware that many law enforcement and corrections officers, nurses, and social workers are under heavy psychological stress due to overwork and not enough checks and balances to keep them fresh and healthy.

 Gostola said it’s essential “to make sure that the worker is being protected and that their psychological well-being is actually being protected, which is in the legislation, but it’s not seen to be as accepted, and it’s even a fight to get WCB to recognize psychological injuries.”

 When pressed on the suggestion that occupations like health care and social work could be perceived as low risk accompanied by high stress, she disagreed.

 “Stats Canada has proven that nursing is actually one of the highest (risk) of any professions, including law enforcement and corrections. It’s actually nurses that face a huge (amount of evidence) of violence in their workplaces, but are very undervalued in that respect,” she pointed out.

 In regards to the overall workplace death toll, she confirmed that the construction industry is number one in terms of risk. She also cited other occupations on the highways where workers are driving for a living or working in traffic on road crews.

 “They have high incidences, because there’s just no protection for them when they’re out on the highway,” she said. “You know, some idiot decides that they’ll just zoom past them at 90 or 100 kilometers an hour, and there’s just not the proper enforcement.”

  She lingered on the enforcement factor. “It’s another issue, because again, if there was enforcement, and our employers were held to account, maybe the protection of our workers would be more honoured and more…valued, I guess, is the word I’m looking for.”