Millions in new funding to help track, prevent workplace cancers

Minister says workers deserve to be confident they can be compensated for job-related illnesses

The Ministry of Labour will devote more than $6 million in funding to better track and research workplace cancers, after an expert report found the province sorely lacks capacity to identify and prevent toxic exposures on the job.

The funding, which will be directed to the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC), will also be used to investigate the causes of workplace cancer and support those dealing with occupational illnesses.

Currently, hundreds of thousands of Ontario workers are exposed to “known or suspected” carcinogens on the job, but only a fraction ever receive compensation, existing studies show.

Building the province’s ability to identify workplace exposures was a crucial recommendation of an expert report to the government led by the OCRC’s director, Dr. Paul Demers. Demers said the new funding will help “update and expand” the organization’s occupational disease surveillance system, the first effort of its kind to identify high-risk groups.

“An important objective of this funding is to give us the capacity to get the results out to the people and organizations impacted by toxic exposures,” he said.

Information gaps make it harder for sick workers and grieving families to back up compensation claims at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. A Star investigation previously found workers at GE Peterborough were subject to decades of exposure to cancercausing substances but often struggled to receive compensation for a range of sometimes terminal illnesses.

“Talking to workers and their families that have been impacted, my heart certainly goes out to them,” said Labour Minister Monte McNaughton in an interview.

“The bottom line is this: if workers are getting sick because of on-thejob exposure, they deserve to have the confidence that they’re going to be protected and compensated accordingly.”

Demers said the new research will help support a “wide range of workers,” noting that some groups — like migrant workers — typically “fall through the cracks in our tracking systems.”

“They, in particular, require the kind of targeted research that this new funding will improve our capacity to provide.”

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board also announced this month it will establish a scientific advisory table on occupational disease to help shape policy and compensation decisions for those with work-related exposures.