There are many federal, provincial and municipal regulations now in place. To help you determine your current status, I’ve produced this Health, Safety and Environmental Regulatory “check-up” for printers.
I am often asked by my printing clients at least annually to give them a report on their regulatory compliance status. To give you an idea of what you should be looking at, I have produced a summary table of the most common, bu
t certainly not all, legislative requirements applicable to the printing industry.
There are federal, provincial and municipal regulations, standards and bylaws to consider. Some will apply to you; others won’t. Some legislation has volume threshold criteria before kicking in. You can visit the appropriate website for more clarification or e-mail me at ecosafe@rogers.com with your questions. Of course, a specific on-site assessment is the only way to truly establish your actual status and at-risk factors.
There are, however, two recent pieces of legislation that do affect everyone in our industry. They are the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the new mandatory Occupational Health & Safety Act Awareness Training for all staff, workers and supervisors. I will discuss these subsequently. The deadlines are for this year, or as indicated subsequently.
Then there are the pseudo-legal standards and various professional or industrial certifications that require verification auditing annually or semi-annually. These include FSC & PEFC certification, ISO 9001 and 14001 management standards, Eco-Logo certification, 5S and sustainability programs, to name a few. But let’s concentrate for now on some of those legal aspects that can cause us to be at risk with government agencies, potential accidents and monetary penalties. Please review the table in the printed copy of the magazine.
Penalties and procedures
As for penalties, the various legislations typically state:
“…every person who contravenes this Act or the regulations is guilty of (a) an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable, for a first offence, to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars and, for any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both”
According to Console and Associates P.C., other than, for a major infraction, a fatal or serious accident or for an intentional spill into the natural environment, it is unusual for the penalties to be imposed. Most often, an inspector will issue a work order to have the deficiencies fixed in a stated time frame. However, dear hardworking businessperson, you do not want to be on a government agency’s watch list. Once on their radar, you are basically an inspector’s low hanging fruit. And be forewarned, there are whistleblower options on all of their respective websites. Got any disgruntled ex-employees?
Recent must-implement regulations
Here is an outline must-do regulations/legislation for this year applicable to the Graphic Arts Industry.
Accessibility Standards – Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment
In Brief: The standards apply to all organizations with one or more employees. If you have 20-plus employees, you would also have had to complete an online report. If you have 50-plus employees you must establish a multi-year accessibility plan and a Statement of Commitment as well. Following is a summary overview.
In 2005, the Ontario Government passed the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to make Ontario accessible by 2025. Accessibility standards have been created as part of that act. These standards are rules that businesses and organizations in Ontario must follow to identify, remove and prevent barriers so that people with disabilities have more opportunities to participate in everyday life, including accessing your services.
Outside of Ontario, the Manitoba government is in the process of adopting accessibility legislation and has appointed an Accessibility Advisory Council which has released recommendations for accessibility legislation.
Affected businesses and organizations
The Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation applies to all Ontario organizations that provide goods, services or facilities to the public or to other organizations and have at least one employee.
The Accessibility Standard for Customer Service was the first standard to become law. The next three standards – Information and Communications, Employment, and Transportation – have been combined under one regulation, the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation. This Regulation is now law and the requirements currently are being phased in between 2011 and 2021 and include website accessibility.
Ontario Regulation 429/07 – Accessible Customer Service Standard
The Accessibility Standard for Customer Service applies to all people or organizations in Ontario that provide goods or services. It requires organizations to create and put in place an accessibility plan that:
- Considers a person’s disability when communicating with them.
- Allows assistive devices such as wheelchairs, walkers, oxygen tanks, etc.
- Allows service animals.
- Welcomes support persons.
- Lets customers know when accessible services aren’t available and ensures all your applicable staff is trained.
For companies with 20-plus employees, if you have not already done so, you will need to file your plan and then a second progress report by the end of this year.
Visit Service Ontario’s ONe-Source for Business to log in and learn how to file your report. An initial report was due in January 2012 and a progress report will be due by the end of this year.
Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation
The Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation establishes and introduces requirements for Information Communications, Employment and Transportation. It also establishes the compliance framework for organizations required to:
A) Establish, implement, maintain and document a multi-year accessibility plan which outlines the organization’s strategy to prevent and remove barriers and meet its requirements under this Regulation.
B) Post the accessibility plan on their website, if any, and provide the plan in an accessible format upon request.
C) Review and update the accessibility plan at least every five years. You start with a barrier assessment of your facility and staff, and then determine ways to overcome deficiencies. Then you document this in a multi-year rollout plan.
Occupational Health & Safety Act Awareness Training Overview for all Workers & Supervisors
Following a Christmas Eve scaffolding incident that claimed the lives of four workers in 2009, the Ontario government appointed an Expert Advisory Panel on Occupational Health and Safety to conduct a review of the province’s workplace health and safety system. Ontario accepted and committed to implement all of the recommendations in the Panel’s final report. One key recommendation was to implement mandatory occupational health and safety awareness training for workers. The mandatory health and safety awareness training is designed to help prevent workplace injuries by making workers and supervisors aware of their roles, rights and responsibilities under the Act. The new training requirement is to be in two parts – first, for supervisors and management, and second, for workers including office staff and salespeople. The training becomes mandatory on July 1, 2014. For full details go to www.labour.gov.on.ca (Ontario Ministry of Labour, Health & Safety).
April 22 is Earth Day so “Print for the Planet”
Do you have an activity or program planned, implemented or in process that you would like to tell us about? Or do you have some ideas for promoting green printing to your community? We will do our best, depending on available space, to publish some of your initiatives in the next issue of Graphic Arts Magazine and/or on our website. Thanks and have a safe month.
