WINDSOR

Small business focused enforcement tour coming to Windsor this weekend

Published Wednesday, March 3, 2021 1:49PM EST

A City of Toronto by-law officer walks on Woodbine Beach with his ticket book making sure people are practicing physical distancing in Toronto on Friday, April 10, 2020. Health officials and the government have asked that people stay inside to help curb the spread of COVID-19. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

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WINDSOR, ONT. -- Provincial health and safety inspection officers will be coming to Windsor Saturday to check small businesses and reinforce public health measures related to COVID-19.

Officers will be conducting “two-stage inspections” focusing on small businesses across Ontario. The inspections provide COVID-19 safety education and guidance for small businesses in the first round, followed by “more enforcement-oriented” inspections during the second round.

The province says the workplace inspections are aimed at educating small businesses to help them safely reopen after lockdowns.

The Ontario government has hired more than 100 new occupational health and safety inspectors to help support the business campaigns. They have now started their training program and will be making field visits with a mentor within five weeks of their start date and are expected to fully trained and deployed by July 1, the province says.

"As the province continues to reopen, we need businesses of all sizes to do better as there are no shortcuts to safety," Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development says in a news release. "With a new total of more than 500 inspectors, our government is building the largest team of inspectors in Ontario's history to educate business owners, enforce public health measures and keep workplaces safe now, and for many years to come."

To date, Ontario’s inspection officers have conducted more than 13,374 COVID-related workplace inspections and investigations since the beginning of 2021, issuing 9,480 orders and 373 tickets, and stopped unsafe work 15 times.

“These inspections have demonstrated that the majority of businesses are learning how to operate safely during COVID-19 and appreciate the support and guidance from the province,” the Ontario news release says.

The initiatives are carried out in consultation with local public health units and include targeted blitzes of big-box stores, the farming sector and Ontario’s “Stay Safe All Day” campaign which focuses on “areas of high transmission” such as workplace breakrooms.