South Asian Observer

Manitoba

That Canada needs more immigrants would be music for many in South Asia, aspiring to come to Canada for greener pastures. This is what is at the centre of the Manitoba Immigrants’ Safety Initiative (MISI), a pilot project coordinated by Safety Services Manitoba and the International Centre of Winnipeg.

Projections indicate that in the next few decades, Canada’s labour force will be increasingly dependent upon immigration to support its economy, according to Safety Services Manitoba. Keeping immigrant workers safe and healthy at work will benefit workers, employers and all community stakeholders, it has reiterated.

The initiative is funded through the WCB Community Initiatives and Research Program with an aim to prevent injury, death and workplace-related illness for new and existing immigrant workers in Manitoba.

A recent study has shown immigrants are twice as likely to be hurt on the job as their Canadian counterparts.  In 2008, the Toronto-based, non-profit Institute for Work and Health found that immigrant men displayed twice the rate of workplace injuries requiring medical attention than male workers born in Canada.

MISI partners applied the results of the research conducted in Phase 1 to develop resources that provide practical tools for employers and workers to improve immigrant safety in the workplace. The resources are available in English, French, Tagalog, Punjabi, Mandarin, Spanish, German, and Russian and include wallet cards, pamphlets and fact sheets meant to outline for workers the safety responsibilities of employers, supervisors and the workers themselves. There is also a detailed 28-page guide for employers meant to familiarize them with the issues.