What is it going to take.

For well over 6 1/2 years I've been touring Canada's Nations Capital, the City of Ottawa, watching communities grow, older homes getting repaired, I've worked in neighboring cities and towns both large and small, and one thing that I've noticed is, 98 % of all construction workers that work above 10 feet don't tie off. Well that leaves 2% that do, and this week it went from tie off to just appear to.

On November 11th, I came home from work to find my neighbor getting a new roof from a reputable roofing company. A two story townhouse with a somewhat of a steep pitch and guess what.

Now his buddy is in the backside and he isn't tied off either, but I have to give them points for wearing their harness but that's where it starts and stops.

This week a 22 year old young man working for one of Ottawa's biggest well known roofing contractors fell off a roof 25 ft in the air, his injuries include a chattered foot, and pelvis and a broken back. He tied himself off and was wearing a harness but apparently roofers have this trick that if the rope arrester isn't done up properly the roofer can travel without interruptions, well it workers real well, nothing interrupted his fall to the ground. Well this is common practice for this company, just look at the next picture these are different workers but for the same company.

I've witnessed this company doing another job with 8 men on a roof some wearing harnesses and some not, but nobody was tied off, so why even bother wearing the harness, its the same fine either way if an M.O.L. inspector finds you.

Mr. George Gritziotis, Ontario's CPO, the new working at heights course has been out for well over a year, is it working? The mandatory Health and Safety Awareness Training for workers and supervisors, what has that accomplished nothing. the message isn't getting through. Its all a smoke and mirror show. The contractors and private homeowner that hire those companies, share a responsibility in making sure the companies that they hire follow the OHS act and regs or they can be charged as well. Most construction workers that don't comply need to re-take the course again, and then what? Repeat offenders work out deals to get reduced fines but fact is, they don't care for the people that they work for, their employees and their employees families, the message that they sent is, I need a profit.

What is it going to take,