New Portal to Support Small and Medium-sized Businesses with Health and Safety
News release
For Immediate Release
November 13, 2024 – Hamilton, ON – Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has launched a new online portal to help small businesses across Canada meet their health and safety responsibilities.
Small and medium-sized businesses can be challenged by competing priorities, time constraints, financial pressures and limited resources. They often don’t have staff dedicated to health and safety. The Business Safety Portal offers an accessible, scalable, low-cost solution for owners and employers to help them understand their legal obligations for protecting their workers from injuries and illnesses and keep up to date with their health and safety policies, training, and other regulatory requirements.
The Portal provides businesses with health and safety guidance specific to their industry and location. It features templates and checklists to guide them through identifying health and safety hazards and concerns, assessing the risks to their workers, and developing policies and programs to help protect them.
The Portal also includes relevant online courses, practical manuals, fact sheets, and a digital file cabinet to store, update and share important documentation, such as health and safety plans, training certificates and inspection records.
Annual subscriptions start from $100. More information about the Business Safety Portal is available on the CCOHS website.
Quotes
“With the unique challenges that small and medium-sized businesses face, meeting health and safety obligations can be daunting. We created the Business Safety Portal to provide these employers with information and tools to help them understand and meet their health and safety responsibilities and protect their employees.”
- Anne Tennier, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
“Small to medium-sized businesses represent one of the largest employer groups in the country, and many do not have the tools they need to keep their workers safe. We wanted to address their specific needs with the Business Safety Portal to make it easier for them to build a safe and healthy workplace culture.”
- Anne Tennier, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
Quick facts
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According to the report "Key Small Business Statistics, 2023,” about 99.7 per cent of all businesses in Canada are small to medium-sized (1 to 499 paid employees), employing about 7.8 million workers, almost twice the number of large businesses.
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The Portal features health and safety guidance tailored to a business’s industry and location, including how to identify and address workplace hazards. Plus, the Portal’s central file cabinet allows businesses to store and share vital health and safety information with staff or health and safety regulators in the event of an inspection.
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While particularly helpful for small to medium-sized businesses, the Portal can be beneficial to any organization committed to providing a healthy and safe workplace.
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Effective health and safety programs can help reduce injuries and illnesses in the workplace and help improve worker morale, satisfaction, retention, recruitment, and productivity.
Associated links
Contacts
For more information (media only):
Jennifer Howse
Senior Communications Specialist
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
(289) 442-4057
media@ccohs.ca
www.ccohs.ca
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