This is a rebuttal to the article on Construction Safety in the Toronto Star: This was sent in the direction of the Star. "Construction Workers At Risk" (January 26 2010)

Our Association would like to correct false misrepresentations of fact contained in this article as it relates to Construction Safety in Ontario and object to your reporters failure to fact check the information provided by her sources.

Ms. Talaga states that the tragic deaths of 4 workers in the Swing Stage collapse on Christmas Eve exposes some sort of secret that her sources claim is some sort of scandal. The facts say that this is fear mongering for political advantage just like with those who falsely claim a crisis in crime and murder rates even as the reality says the rates are declining. The facts are not secret but easily found public information contained in Annual Reports of the Construction Safety Association of Ontario going back to 1966.

These official statistics rebut every implication of Ms. Talaga and her sources. Since the mentioned Hog's Hollow tragedy of 1960, fatality and accident frequency in Ontario has decreased an incredible close to 90% with decade after decade of improvement unlike crime stats that go up and down depending on economic factors. The reference to training in Quebec as being superior fails to note the contradiction that the Union Only Quebec industry by CSAO stats has an injury frequency rate more than double Ontario's which is the best in the Country and probably the Continent.

CSAO stats also show that the uncontested claim of  her sources that there is an ever increasing rate of immigrant underground activity is false. CSAO and Stats Can information in the Annual Reports show that WSIB reported hours worked are increasing faster that Stats Can data on workers employed indicating the underground activity in construction is in rapid decline. This is obvious because we all know that over the last 10 years immigration has regrettably shifted radically away from those groups who enter the construction industry.

In conclusion we would state that your reporter and her sources have done a great disservice to our industry by gross misrepresentation of Safety facts that damages our ability to recruit young people we badly need to attract into wonderful careers. Just need to check the facts or ask someone who cares about the facts.

David McDonald
President, Merit OpenShop Contractors Association