The province wants Albertans to know how many injuries or deaths have happened at their workplace.

To that end, it’s launching a website Thursday to make the stats more available.

The site is part of a 10-point plan from the Ministry of Employment and Immigration in an effort to make occupational health and safety more transparent and accountable.

Thanks to the site, people will be able to go online and find out the safety record of their office, sales floor or work site.

Albertans will also be able to compare those numbers with averages from around the province or within the specific industry.

The provincial government sees this as a big step forward but critics see it more as a small shuffle in the right direction.

In the Lethbridge Herald, the Alberta Federation of Labour says it wants the government to go much further in cracking down on unsafe employers.

The group would like to see the province do what it’s promised for eight years and come down hard on businesses that have poor records.

The AFL points out the province has a 2.8 per cent conviction rate when following-up on workplace fatalities.

The group says what the province should be doing is giving more power to health and safety inspectors so they can force employers to clean up their acts.

They say it’s sad that parking officers have more authority than those inspectors.

In 2009 there were 110 deaths on the job in Alberta. According to stats from last year, the most dangerous industries are the construction, manufacturing, mining and petroleum sectors.

660News, Thurs Sept 30 2010
Byline: Cormac Mac Sweeney