In response to a new report that looks at landscape of occupational diseases in the province, the Ontario government has announced plans to create the country’s first-ever occupational exposure registry.

The initiative, which is planned for launch in 2025, aims to track diseases and long-term illnesses contracted on the job. The government says it will also help diagnose workplace diseases faster, improve worker compensation, and reduce costs to the healthcare system.

“While Ontario has one of the strongest health and safety records of any jurisdiction anywhere, too many workers are falling through the cracks when it comes to occupational illness,” said David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. “Our government will leave no stone unturned to ensure we have the best science and data needed to protect workers and make room for everyone’s voice at the table as we build a stronger system that works for everyone.”

The move comes in part as a response to the release of the Occupational Disease Landscape Review report that was authored by Dr. Linn Holness and Janet Brown of the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, and which was released on October 10.

The 58-page report makes 41 recommendations on workplace prevention and the monitoring of occupational disease, healthcare delivery and ways to strengthen connections within the system.

Many workplace illnesses currently go undiagnosed or unreported because of the delay between exposure and symptoms, making it difficult to identify occupational disease risks and for workers to get financial support when they fall ill. The new registry would include comprehensive exposure records, identify at-risk workers, help with earlier diagnoses, and potentially contribute to expanding the list of presumptive illnesses in Ontario to improve worker compensation.

To build the registry, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development is working with the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC) to collect and analyze data from existing industrial hygiene records. The ministry and OCRC are also working with healthcare providers and industry associations to gather new data and catalogue past and current occupational exposures across Ontario’s hundreds of thousands of workplaces.

"The Ontario Federation of Labour has long advocated for greatly increased recognition of occupational diseases by Ontario’s workers’ compensation system,” said OFL president Patty Coates. “A government commissioned study by Dr. Paul Demers recently found that less than 10% of Ontarians with occupational cancers ever get compensated. The OFL welcomes the government proposal to establish an occupational disease registry as a first step towards moving on other key recommendations in the Demers report, such as increasing the number of cancers recognized for workers’ compensation."

The province says it will also create an occupational illness leadership table that is made up of industry experts and worker advocates to guide the implementation of the report’s recommendations. The table will include some of the province’s foremost medical voices along with representatives from workplace health and safety groups to ensure the province keeps pace with advancements in medical science and technology and delivers for workers.

In addition to the registry, work is underway to deliver on the report’s recommendations, including the development of a web-based Silica Control Tool that will assist in detecting and monitoring workplace silica exposure in the construction and mining industries.

The latest data from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board showed 40,185 allowed occupational disease claims in 2022. Occupational illness claims totalled $82.5 million that same year.