The Workplace Safety & Insurance Board paid out more than $3.2 million in rebates to companies for their work in the Health and Safety Excellence Program in the first quarter of this year.

The government said pandemic health indicators have improved and COVID-19 vaccine uptake is high enough to begin lifting some restrictions ahead of schedule. 

The vaccination site at Brampton’s CAA Centre can process thousands of vaccines daily. The initiative was put together with Bruce Power and Peel Region with the support of several construction organizations and dozens of industry volunteers.

Applications are open through July 9. The awards celebrate those Ontario companies with 50 or fewer employees and who recorded health and safety successes in 2020.

A campaign launched yesterday by the Ontario Construction Consortium calls attention to the significant proportion of construction workers who died from drug overdoses in 2020, and calls for action to help save lives.