OLDS — Town council has proclaimed Wednesday, April 28 as a National Day of Mourning in the community.
Council made that decision during its April 12 meeting.
The day, also declared by the provincial Workers Compensation Board (WCB-Alberta), recognizes all employees in Alberta who have died as a result of workplace injury or illness.
Debbie Rogers, manager of human resources for the town, noted that last year, 150 workers died across the province due to workplace injury or illness.
The purpose of the National Day of Mourning is to generate greater awareness about workplace injuries and deaths and to commit to doing a better within workplaces to prevent them.
As part of that effort, On April 28, WCB-Alberta will be lowering its flag to half-mast and has invited the town of Olds to do the same.
“On April 28, we remember and take a moment to honour lives forever changed,” Rogers said.
“Thank you very much, Ms. Rogers, it’s good to recognize this particular initiative and that we remember the individuals who have lost their lives on the job,” mayor Mike Muzychka said.
"We found out through the pandemic, pretty much every industry is a completely necessary industry, so nobody should be left unappreciated.”
Coun. Mary Anne Overwater asked any town employees had lost time due to accidents.
“I know as you go along, if you don’t have any accidents or any claims, I mean, that gives you a -- I don’t know -- a higher notch on your WCB belt. So have we had any accidents as such?” Overwater asked.
Michael Merritt, the town’s chief administrative officer said he didn’t have any specific numbers at hand on workplace accidents involving town workers.
"I just know that in the past three years, we are on a downward trend to basically get … significant rebates back from the WCB,” Merritt said.
“With our health and safety program fully entrenched, it has been a very good trajectory. We haven’t eliminated absolutely to zero, but it has gone in an exceptionally good direction.”
“That’s awesome, thank you,” Overwater said.
