Hamilton man waiting 5 years for tribunal hearing after human rights complaint against McMaster security

Story by Bobby Hristova • Jul 12,2023


When Kevin Daley filed a human rights complaint against security at McMaster University, he was ready for a fight — but he wasn't expecting it to go five years.

Despite filing the complaint about what he believes was racial profiling in 2017, Daley said he still hasn't had a hearing before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO).

Aside from a mediation and case management meeting, "we've heard nothing," he said.

Daley was a Toronto police officer at the time of a string of events in late 2017 and early 2018 that saw security pull him over, ban him from campus and notify his employer.

In 2018, he filed a complaint to both the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) — which ruled in his favour in 2020 — and HRTO.

Daley now fears people without knowledge of the law and legal systems may struggle to find justice due to the HRTO delays.

"People are putting their lives on hold," he said.

Tribunals Ontario, which runs the human rights tribunal along with others, has faced criticism from politicians, lawyers and public interest groups due to its backlogs. The provincial ombudsman also received 1,110 complaints about Tribunals Ontario between 2021 and 2022, an increase from 935 the previous year, according to its last annual report.

Tribunal acknowledges backlogs

Janet Deline, spokesperson for Tribunals Ontario, told CBC Hamilton in an emailed statement HRTO "acknowledges" it has managed a "higher caseload than optimal."

It says the service standard is to resolve cases within a year-and-a-half or 18 months, but only 45 per cent of cases are resolved in that time, according to the tribunal's key performance indicators from cases between April 2022 and the end of March 2023.

In that period, there have been 2,024 hearings, most of which were done online.



Deline listed multiple factors contributing to the hearing delays.



McMaster security pulled over Daley on Stearn Road in front of the David Braley Athletic Centre. The Ontario Civilian Police Commission ruled in Daley's favour and offered recommendations to McMaster University. (Bobby Hristova/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

She said some cases are waiting on a decision from another jurisdictional body, usually the Ontario Labour Board, and that sometimes the HRTO never needs to get involved depending on the decision from the other body.

She also said requests to extend or reschedule and adjourn proceedings also play a role.

How the tribunal is trying to fix the issue

Deline noted HRTO has been recruiting more adjudicators, part of the tribunal's "great strides to modernize its operations to address these challenges and reduce its overall caseload."

She said there's been "good progress" between April 2022 and end of March 2023, including a 63 per cent increase in "events" held by HRTO and a 33 per cent increase in mediations, of which two quarters have been settled.

There were also over 750 events scheduled between April 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024.

"With these ongoing process improvements, we are confident we will continue to reduce our active caseload and continue to provide accessible and timely access to justice," she said.

She didn't answer questions about the longest wait on file, the average wait time for cases and the number of cases in the queue.

Tribunal Watch Ontario, a public interest group, previously told CBC News a list of suggestions it things can fix the backlog including:

Creating a group of specialized adjudicators to clear the backlogs.
Ensuring that everyone appointed to a tribunal is qualified.
Reinstating in-person hearings.
Creating an adjudicative tribunal justice council that would oversee the system and appointments to depoliticize the process.
Restoring "stakeholder advisory committees" that were disbanded in 2018 and allow them to provide "meaningful input" into the system.
Reviewing the HRTO to see if it is complying with its statutory obligations.

Daley said there's no excuse for the delays and it doesn't change the impact of security pulling him over, harassing him and banning him from campus.

Despite the OCPC ruling in Daley's favour and McMaster telling CBC News "errors were made," Daley still wants justice at the HRTO — but he's losing faith he'll ever get it.

"For people who don't know what they're doing … if they expect justice from a system that seems to be broken, they're not going to get it," Daley said.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

How do you solve many problems at once? Train marginalized people to fix houses

Story by Rukhsar Ali • Friday, July 21,2023

When Dorine Khainza arrived in Canada from Uganda in January, she didn't know anyone in the country or where to start her new life. What she did know was that she wanted to work with her hands.

"I was determined to do things that I was passionate about. I wasn't just going to sit in an office," Khainza said.

Six months later, the 35-year-old, with her hard hat on and reciprocating saw in hand, worked on removing a window from a semi-detached home in Toronto under the watchful eye of her site supervisor and mentor of the day, Tim Zubek.

"It's actually quite fun," she said smiling, hammering a wedge between the window frame and the wall. "Destroying."

"Destroying things to make them better," Zubek responded.


Tim Zubek, right, a site supervisor with Building Up, and apprentice Dorine Khainza are shown inside of a Toronto home under construction. Building Up, a non-profit social enterprise, hires individuals who face barriers to employment to work as apprentices on green renovations for homes, returning them as affordable units. 

(Alex Lupul/CBC)

The mentor and mentee are part of the Toronto-based social enterprise Building Up. Founded by Marc Soberano in 2014, the contracting non-profit is primarily driven by social causes, and uses the homes it's tasked to retrofit as a training ground for its apprentices — with a focus on green building.

"Where most people train and employ people to run their business, we run our business to train and employ people," Soberano said.

It's one example of some of the work social contractors are doing all across Canada — "multi-solving" in the face of an affordable housing crisis, a labour shortage in the construction industry and climate change.

Building clean jobs in a labour shortage

Targeted to those who often face barriers to employment, such as racialized people, women, those coming out of incarceration, or newcomers, like Khainza, Building Up's 16-week paid training program offers participants an opportunity to become skilled in green retrofitting to eventually gain long-term employment.

That includes a focus on trades like carpentry and drywalling, water retrofits, enhancing a building's insulation and more.

"There's a labour shortage all around the construction sector today," Soberano said. "But as the construction sector continues to evolve, that shortage is going to be more extreme when it comes to green building and energy efficiency. So this home is a great way to help kind of train the next generation of tradespeople with those skills."



By training apprentices in the green practices of trades, like carpentry, water retrofits, enhancing a building's insulation and more, Building Up participants walk away with a knowledge base aimed at helping to meet a massive need for skilled construction workers.

 (Alex Lupul/CBC)

Over the next decade, Ontario's government wants to build 1.5 million homes but said it will need 100,000 more workers to do so. The construction industry employs around 600,000 workers in the province, but with the sector's job vacancy rate at 4.6 per cent, there are still hundreds of skilled construction jobs, with no one to fill them.

That's just looking at construction as a whole. A 2022 report by Canada Green Building Council and the Delphi Group forecasts that the country will see a shortage of workers skilled in green construction over the next few decades, as the demand for clean jobs increases.

"The challenges that we face as a society are also opportunities," Soberano said.

Often, Building Up will take trainees from the very neighbourhoods it's working in, so locals are improving their own communities.

The home Khainza is working on is Building Up's 12th project with the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust, a not-for-profit which owns and preserves affordable units to be rented out to low-income households from within the community.

An old, leaky, inefficient house presents the opportunity to offer hands-on experiential learning for apprentices new to construction, Soberano said. And that house, once retrofitted, will be a more sustainable addition to Toronto's affordable housing market.

Marc Soberano is the founder and executive director of Building Up. 

(Alex Lupul/CBC)

Over the past five years, Building Up has made energy-efficiency improvements to more than 30,000 Toronto Community Housing units, on top of other renovations in residential buildings across the city.

The average wait for an affordable, subsidized one-bedroomunit in Toronto is 14 years, as of 2022. By partnering with other social organizations like the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust and the YWCA, Building Up says it can restore units that might otherwise be unlivable or made unaffordable due to energy inefficiency.

This home will soon house a tenant from the city's centralized wait-list — someone with low to moderate income, and likely a single woman or gender-diverse individual and their household.

As for the potential savings, Susan Aharan, facility manager for the YWCA, said she's seen energy consumption lowered approximately 30 per cent in other YWCA units previously retrofitted by Building Up.

Some customers have cut utility expenses by an average of more than $150 per year following water retrofits that involve swapping toilets, shower heads and aerators to maximize efficiency, according to Building Up.

Eco-retrofitting to net-zero

In 2021, buildings in Canada represented nearly one-fifth of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions — higher than emissions from agriculture or heavy industry. Those emissions come from burning gas for heating or generating electricity for use within buildings. In Toronto, buildings account for approximately 55 per cent of the city's total GHGs.

"It's really useful to keep in mind that [approximately] two-thirds of the buildings standing today … will still be standing in 2050," said Maya Papineau, an associate professor at Carleton University who studies environmental and energy economics.



The exterior of a home being retrofitted by Building Up in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood. 

(Alex Lupul/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

"To meet our 2050 targets, that means that we're going to have to massively reduce the average CO2 that each dwelling and building produces. And that basically entails a very large retrofit project on a national scale," she said. "It has implications for needing an adequately trained workforce."

Papineau's research suggests the government of Canada's predictions for how much retrofitting is going to save are actually overestimated. One driver of that disparity between modelled predictions and actual savings, she said, is poor quality of installation.

"So if you have somebody who hasn't been trained adequately in these new types of retrofits … that's going to cause a shortfall," Papineau said. "I think the goal to retrofit homes and to make homes green and shift to electrification has to go hand-in-hand with having a workforce that is trained to be able to conduct these retrofits in a quality way."

Building up on a national scale

Scaling up a program like Building Up isn't without challenges.

For one, because the program is rooted in local communities, it may require federal funding to bolster it and other similar initiatives, said Laura Tozer, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who studies the transition to renewable energy.

The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act might provide a model, said Tozer, because it has clean jobs built directly into its plan for reducing carbon emissions. Connecting apprenticeship programs to energy incentives, the Act has already created more than 142,000 clean jobs across the U.S. since it was signed into law in August 2022.

But Canada currently doesn't have comparable legislation.


Over the next decade, Ontario's government wants to build 1.5 million homes but said it will need 100,000 more workers to do so.

 (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

Though there are other organizations like Building Up across Canada — Purpose Construction and Build Inc. in Manitoba, Newo in Alberta, and Impact Construction in Newfoundland, to name a few — the social contractor approach isn't nearly as widespread as general contractors.

And though many construction firms have started to move toward green construction, Tozer and Papineau both said there's still a large need for green retrofitting and skilled workers to help meet Canada's net-zero targets.

"There are massive opportunities for [apprentices] coming out of the program to have not just a job, but a real career," Soberano said.


Laura Tozer is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who studies the transition to renewable energy. 

(Lauren Pelley/CBC)

Back at the demolished Toronto home, with about three weeks left of her training, Khainza said she already intends to take her newly acquired skills and pay them forward. In a few years, she hopes to run her own construction firm and employ other new immigrants to perform green retrofits.

"When I was back in Uganda, you could see the dry seasons were [getting] hotter than the ones before," Khainza said. "I'm scared of what is going to happen if we don't do anything about this planet."

"I know that in time [green construction skills are] going to be the new norm, and I would like my team to have that kind of knowledge. And if they don't have it, because I have it, I will definitely teach them."

Engineer in Kitchener, Ont., hopes to unclog toilets by changing Canada's plumbing code

Story by Aastha Shetty • Jul 10, 2023

When you push the button or press the handle to flush a toilet, you probably don't give much more thought to whatever is swirling down — but a Kitchener, Ont., engineer thinks maybe you should.

Barbara Robinson says she wants to change the national plumbing code so that all washrooms have a trash can in each stall. This would encourage people to throw out sanitary products and wipes instead of flushing them, which in turn can clog the sewers.

"It's a huge problem," Robinson, founder of Norton Engineering, said in an interview on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition. "We get blockages in sewers, we get fatbergs, pump stations shut down and all that material ends up at the sewage treatment plant."

Robinson, who used to work for the City of Kitchener, said people have been known to flush things down the toilet because of a lack of immediate access to a trash can.

"There's a trash can out at the sinks, but there isn't a trash can in each stall. So women who are in public at their office or at the gym and are menstruating have to somehow get that product from the stall out to the public trash can in the main part of the washroom. We're provided little bags to do this with. However, in my investigations, I discovered that we know women never leave the stall with that little bag," Robinson said.

"They're flushing these products because they have no choice."



Halifax Water released this photo of its wastewater system. It shows flushable wipes clogging the system's pipes in July 2022. (Halifax Water)© Provided by cbc.ca

The solution? Robinson says it's to change the National Plumbing Code in Canada — it currently doesn't require that all washrooms have a trash can in each stall.

Blocked pipes 'ongoing issue' in Waterloo region

Dan Meagher, the Region of Waterloo's acting manager of hydrogeology and water programs, said non-flushable items going down toilets is an issue that affects wastewater operations in almost all jurisdictions.

"At our sewage pumping stations and wastewater treatment plants, we see plugging of the pumps and the need for emergency shutdowns and maintenance in order to get the pumps working again," he said in an email to CBC News. "This can also require pumps, screens and other equipment to be replaced."

He didn't have an exact cost estimate for how much the region spends on this kind of work, but said maintenance like an annual inspection and a flushing program to keep the pipes clean are costing all taxpayers.

In 2016, Woolwich Township reminded residents to throw their cosmetic cloths and baby wipes in the garbage because township staff were needing to deal with the buildup of items daily.

At the time, the township's superintendent of public works, Barry Baldasaro, said the wipes cause the most damage when they stick to the rotating blades inside sewage pumps. If the pumps jam or clog, the pumping station automatically shuts down and must be flushed out.

It's also been a problem in cities across the country, including:


Kitchener engineer Barbara Robinson has created signs for washrooms to remind people what not to flush, including wipes and dental floss. 

(Kate Bueckert/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

Marissa Mitton, leader of Calgary's wastewater operations and maintenance department, told CBC Calgary that "more often than not, we do find a buildup of unflushable items, including flushable wipes," when crews respond to those calls.

Meagher said it's important to remind residents never to flush any wipes labelled as "flushable," fats, greases and other items that are not meant to go down the toilet.

"It can also be very expensive on an individual basis if wipes flushed in their own homes cause blockages in the pipes leading from their house to the larger pipes in the distribution system," he said. "Any repairs of these blockages will be at their own expense."

Housing for asylum seekers in Canada sparks funding conflict between all levels of government

As Canada announces new funding to assist provinces and municipalities in finding housing for asylum seekers, the governments of Ontario and Toronto are calling on the federal government to add more money to help.

Toronto is one of the most visible places housing for asylum claimants has been an issue, with some currently sleeping on the streets as they wait for placement, but Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says they're working to assist all communities. 

As Sean Previl explains, the conflict brewing between governments has those claimants waiting for a home urging for action to be taken now.

Minimum wage couldn't land you a 1-bedroom unit years ago. Now, it's even worse. Here's why

Story by Vanessa Balintec • CBC - Tuesday, July 19,2023


Toronto resident Sylvana Orellana, 23, says she's struggling to pay rent, provide for herself and her son and cover daily expenses while earning minimum wage, even with support from friends and family. A report released Tuesday by an Ottawa think-tank found that while minimum wages have increased since 2018, they aren't rising as fast as rental rates.

© Darek Zdzienicki/CBC

Toronto resident Sylvana Orellana, who earns minimum wage, says paying for her and her two-year-old son's expenses often means sacrificing some bills in order to pay others.

That's because her rent — just over $1,700 per month — takes up a significant amount of her income, and she says she routinely relies on family and friends to help.

"It's sad to say, but at this point I don't even look at the numbers or how much they're paying me because … it's not going to cover my bills," said Orellana, 23. "I almost ended up in the hospital because of all of this stress."

A new report released Tuesday by Ottawa think-tank Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggests Orellana isn't alone.

Economists David Macdonald and Ricardo Tranjan, the report's authors, found that while minimum wages rose compared to the 2018 data in the centre's last report, they aren't rising as fast as rental rates.

Macdonald says this means many workers are spending too much on rent, while Tranjan says the high cost of rent can ultimately mean that people making minimum wage are at risk of becoming homeless.

"Minimum wages are supposed to improve the conditions of folks that are or near the poverty line," said Macdonald. "But in fact those improvements in minimum wage have largely gone to paying landlords higher rent."

"I'm concerned about minimum wage workers and the kinds of very risky situations they must be putting themselves through," said Tranjan.

Their analysis, which covered 776 neighbourhoods in more than three dozen of the country's largest cities, calculated how much people have to make in a 40-hour work week in order to pay no more than 30 per cent of their income on housing, something they call the "rental wage."

Paying any more than that makes housing "unaffordable" according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The researchers attributed the gap between minimum wage and what's needed to afford rentals to three main factors: wage suppression policies, such as using temporary foreign workers as a way to fill vacancies instead of raising wages to attract domestic workers; a low supply of rent-controlled housing; and poor regulation of the housing market that prioritizes "profit-making over housing security."

Macdonald says things are rapidly getting worse due to rising interest rates and the high cost of construction, while Tranjan pointed to provincial legislation exacerbating market conditions, including Ontario's move to remove rent control for new units and Quebec's attempt to end lease transfers.

Rent outstripping minimum wages across Canada

The co-authors say a lack of affordable housing isn't just a problem in huge urban centres. Using provincial and federal data from 2022, they found the rental wage for a one-bedroom unit is higher than the minimum wage in most major cities across the country.

Related video: Rents dwarf minimum wage in every Canadian province (Global News)

Using the rental calculation, the report also found that minimum wage workers could only afford one-bedroom units in three cities, all in Quebec. And even there, where rents are comparatively more affordable than in other parts of the country, researchers say the trend is "worrisome" as workers still need to earn more than minimum wage to be able to rent an affordable unit.

Meanwhile, in Toronto and Vancouver, the report suggests that even two full-time minimum wage workers can't afford a one-bedroom unit without spending more than 30 per cent of their income, let alone a two-bedroom unit. In B.C., the rental wage for a two-bedroom unit is more than twice as much as the minimum wage, with Ontario's just under double the minimum wage.

The report did not look extensively at those on social assistance and disability supports, but those subsidies were found to be even less than provincial minimum wages. Tranjan says if they had taken a closer look, the results would have been even more bleak.

"We don't have enough social housing in the country for all the folks who are presently receiving social assistance, and a large and increasing share of social assistance recipients rely on the private rental market for housing," he said.

"They're competing with minimum wage workers and with everyone else."

Rent unaffordable in most Canadian cities for minimum-wage workers, new study says (CBC)

Raising wages

Historically, minimum wages were set by governments to protect non-unionized workers, reduce the number of low-paying jobs and alleviate poverty, among a host of other potential benefits, according to the federal government.

But today, an important part of what determines wages is the market, said Roslyn Kunin, the president of an economic consulting firm in Vancouver, B.C. She says wages are primarily determined by the productivity and skills of workers, while rents are based on supply and demand of housing units.

"There has to be someone willing to work at that wage and there has to be someone who can afford to pay that wage for that kind of work," said Kunin.

Tranjan and Macdonald, cross-referencing federal and provincial data from 2021, estimate about 828,000 people across the country were earning a minimum wage salary or less. Meanwhile, about 1.1 million Canadians belonged to households where two or more people earned the equivalent of two full-time minimum wage jobs or less.

According to Kunin, raising wages to match rental rates would not only cause the cost of common goods to increase, but it would likely lead to the disappearance of many jobs and businesses altogether.

"All of us would suffer from the loss of available goods and services."

Minimum wage workers losing ground with rent affordability (CITY TV)

Short and long-term solutions

"For individuals, the best thing to do is to get as much education, experience, training as possible so you can work for a wage that's higher," said Kunin, adding that obtaining additional education is "easier than it has been" due to the rise of online learning.

But Brenda Spotton Visano, a public policy and economics professor at York University in Toronto, says these workers are often stuck in a "catch-22" situation, since many don't have the time or money to upgrade their skills that might be required for higher-paying jobs.

She says it may be worthwhile to explore more creative ways of setting the minimum wage, such as tying how much the lowest-paid workers get paid to how much profit a company makes or how much its CEO gets paid, or indexing the minimum wage to the cost of living calculated for a given community.

"But in the short-term, increasing the minimum wage is going to have to be our short-term solution to address the people who are now suffering," said Visano.

The researchers say governments should focus on financing, building and acquiring purpose-built and non-market housing, regulating the rental market with rent controls and banishing the use of above-guideline rent increases.

"It's not to say we shouldn't be pushing for higher minimum wages, but the real problem here is a lack of rental, affordable housing," said Macdonald.

"This is not a situation that's going to improve. It's actually going to get much worse unless there's a big intervention."

Toronto rent prices require Ontario minimum wage to jump to $40 an hour: Report

David Macdonald, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the required minimum wage to live in Ontario. MacDonald says only 10 out of 37 cities in Canada, are where a one-bedroom is affordable for a minimum wage worker.

 

ONE YEAR AGO
Growing affordability concerns for Canadian renters

Apr 24, 2022 

From groceries to gas, Canadians are paying more for just about everything these days — and you can add rent to the list of expenses that just keep climbing.

In Quebec, tenant advocates warn that the rising cost of rent is making it harder for people to find an affordable place to live. During the 10th annual Tenants Day in Montreal Sunday afternoon, dozens of people gathered outside Verdun metro station to demand the provincial government put an end to the current housing crisis. Dan Spector reports.

Cancer kills firefighters but coverage varies by province. A new law seeks to change that

Story by Kate McKenna • CBC - Jul 16, 2023 

Fire knows no borders in Canada — but firefighters' workplace compensation for some types of cancer does. A new federal law could change that.

How provinces compensate firefighters for workplace-related cancers — the most deadly occupational risk they face — varies widely.

Provincial workplace safety boards link different cancers to firefighting, making it harder for some firefighters to access compensation.

"To have this inequality of coverage for firefighters when they get diagnosed with those illnesses is a real disservice to those who serve the community," said Neil McMillan, director of science and research at the Occupational Health, Safety and Medicine Division of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).


Neil McMillan, director of science and research for the Occupational Health, Safety and Medicine Division of the IAFF, said cancer is the greatest occupational threat faced by firefighters. (Jean-François Benoit )© Provided by cbc.ca

Earlier this year, MPs and senators passed a private member's bill — championed by Liberal member of Parliament Sherry Romanado — that seeks to standardize that compensation.

It's designed to create a national framework for the prevention and treatment of cancers within a year.

"We're delighted that it made its way through the House and the Senate unanimously in support and became law," said Romanado.

"Strangers come to me in tears ... saying, 'You're going to save lives.' It's been really overwhelming."

The law, formerly known as Bill C-224, will see provinces and the federal government share research about occupational cancers for firefighters, with the goal of establishing greater consistency in coverage across the country.

Romanado, whose spouse and father served as firefighters, said it felt like fate when she was chosen to present a private member's bill shortly after a constituent approached her about this issue.

Jean-François Couture was 44 years old, with two school-aged children, when he was diagnosed in 2017 with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer.

He had served as a firefighter with Longueuil, Que. for more than 20 years before his diagnosis.

While his form of cancer is covered by Quebec's workplace health and safety board, he knows that others aren't so lucky — which is why he reached out to Romanado about a legislative fix.

"I was thinking, what can I do to help other people?" he told CBC News.

Related video: Canada at risk of burning out its firefighters (cbc.ca)




Cover Media  USInternational Firefighters Join Forces to Fight Canadian Wildfires
1:30

cbc.caNo mandatory PPE for Canadian wildfire fighters, but some want change
2:17

Global NewsSecuring enough firefighting resources for B.C. wildfire season
3:18


After Couture contacted Romanado, she met with the International Association of Firefighters and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs to discuss the problem.

"When I started looking into it, [I] realized that there really was a huge discrepancy across provinces," she said.

Change isn't guaranteed

The new law requires the establishment within a year of a new national framework for the prevention and treatment of cancers among firefighters.

Authorities from across the country will convene to discuss coverage, share research and data across provinces and talk about best practices for preventing cancers.

But the law doesn't guarantee that provincial workplace safety authorities will end up covering more types of cancer for firefighters.

"At the end of the day, [the provinces] decide what to do, but this way at least we know that everyone gets the same information," said Romanado.

The two provinces currently covering the lowest number of presumptive cancers for firefighters — New Brunswick and Quebec — both say they're willing to expand their coverage.

In a media statement, New Brunswick's workers compensation board said it's open to expanding cancer coverage for firefighters.

"In fact, we are currently exploring this," said WorkSafeNB spokesperson Laragh Dooley in a media statement.

Quebec's workplace health and safety board, CNESST, said in a media statement that changes to Quebec law in 2021 made it easier to add new occupational diseases to its coverage.

CNESST said it has struck a committee to look at expanding the number of cancers affecting firefighters that it covers.

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) estimates that 95 per cent of line-of-duty deaths are attributable to cancer.

Burning materials release carcinogens. Firefighters are also exposed to chemical byproducts from combustion or debris.

Even diesel exhaust fumes and some foams used in firefighting can expose firefighters to cancer risks, said Paul Demers, director of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre based at Ontario Health in Toronto.

"There's really been a long-term concern about the risk of cancer in firefighters," he said. "In the last 10 or 15 years, there's been more and more studies that have been coming out and giving us a more consistent picture of which kinds of cancers ... we're seeing more in firefighters than the general population."

The growing number of wildfires in Canada presents a unique threat. Because wildfire work involves long deployments in remote areas, McMillan said, those firefighters don't have the same access to personal protective equipment they would if they were working on a burning building.

"Firefighters take an oath to put themselves in harm's way, and that involves being exposed to carcinogens and toxicants," he said.

Romanado said her hope for the bill is that it leads to better practices for cancer prevention. It also designates January as "Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month."

"I'm just looking forward to getting the work done so that we can be there and support those who are supporting us," she said.

Wildfire fighters work in heavy smoke, and in Canada have little protection

Story by Katie Nicholson • CBC - Jul 6, 2023

After 13 seasons of fighting smoky wildfires in Ontario and B.C., Ian Sachs said his body started to feel the wear and tear.

"You're often in smoke. Even on a small initial attack, you're usually breathing smoke," Sachs said.

"When you're 22 and doing it, you don't think about it. But once you get over 30 and you start feeling the burn, it creeps up on you. That I might have to think about this down the road."

Sachs said the biggest thing he began to notice about acute smoke exposure was how it lingered in his body, especially when he and other FireRangers were often camped in close proximity to the fires they were fighting.

"Waking up with a kind of smoke hangover in the morning," he said. "When that smoke settles, you're breathing it in all night and you'll wake up with that wheeze and that headache."

Sachs said outside of COVID, he was never offered any kind of respiratory protection. But, he's not sure there were any masks that would have worked well or held a tight seal in wildfire conditions.

"You're in the forest. You're taking branches to the face. You're wet. You're sweaty. You're hot. And you're out there doing 16-hour days and then you wear something when you're sleeping in your tent at night? Probably not. It's just I don't know if they can really design something for wildland fire."



A recruit works to contain and put out a fire near Merritt, B.C., during a training exercise. Though hard hats and other gear are standard for wildfire fighters, respiratory protection is not.

 (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Indeed, the environment of a wildland fire does make it harder to find a mask that works comfortably, and isn't too bulky to carry for long days and distances.

Still, with wildfire risk growing in Canada and firefighters facing elevated levels of cancer, some are unwilling to accept the status quo where there are no requirements for respiratory protection.

'We ... bury too many firefighters'

In Canada, more than 85 per cent of firefighter fatality claims are attributed to cancer, and research from numerous studies has shown firefighters are at high risk of a number of illnesses, including lung and breast cancer.

International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) says those same diseases are associated with wildfire smoke.

Neil McMillan, the director of science and research for the Occupational Health, Safety and Medicine Division of the IAFF, said his organization is concerned about the increased incidence, frequencies and severity of wildfires across Canada and the lack of speciality protective masks for those on the front lines.

"Unfortunately, there isn't a great standard presently for firefighters that have to work in dynamic fire situations, in wildland and wildland urban interface settings in other places across the globe,"' said McMillan.



Neil McMillan is the director of science and research of the International Association of Fire Fighters. The IAFF wants governments to invest in better personal protective equipment to protect wildfire fighters from smoke. 

(Dillon Hodgin/CBC)

"There's no real mandatory requirements for proper respiratory protection that filters out carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and these fine particulates that we know are associated to the diseases that are killing firefighters.

Related video: New warnings about indoor air quality from Canadian wildfires (FOX News)  Duration 5:27   View on Watch

"We unfortunately bury too many firefighters because of the diseases they acquire from exposures on the fire ground," McMillan said. "We can't put the genie back in the bottle when those exposures happen."

McMillan said the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) to lessen the exposure of wildfire fighters isn't a provincial problem but a national one, and the IAFF is encouraging all levels of government to invest in protecting firefighters.

"Currently, when we rely on bandanas and things of that nature to protect our respiratory tracts, we know that there's a lot of ground to cover and hopefully we'll see some products on the market shortly,"' he said.

Which masks can do the job?

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says to date it hasn't approved any respirators on the market which specifically protect against all potential inhalation hazards in the extremes of a wildland fire environment. But, in an email to CBC News, it said some NIOSH-approved masks have been recommended to help protect wildfire fighters from some smoke risks present in a fire.

NIOSH noted that the Department of Homeland Security issued a market survey in November 2022 which looked at available respiratory protection methods for wildland firefighters. It identified 26 air-purifying respirators (APR) and powered air-purifying respirators.


The Sundstrom half-mask SR100 is one of three being studied by the B.C. Wildfire Service and external researchers for possible use by its crews on the ground.

 (Craig Chivers/CBC)

One of those devices is also currently being explored for use by the B.C. Wildfire Service.

The Sundstrom SR100 is NIOSH-approved to offer both protection against particulates in smoke and a number of vapours and other gases. The design allows for people to stack multiple filters for different conditions.

Jonathan Parker, Sundstrom North American sales manger, says he's sold the respirator to over 40 fire departments across Canada and the U.S., and the mask has been used extensively by crews in California, Australia, the UK, Europe, and Indonesia. They even sell it as a part of a specialized wildland fire kit.

Parker says its wildland kit also contains a spark arrester which snaps on the outside and prevents the filters from catching on fire.

"They've been field tested pretty extensively at this point and they've passed every test that they've been put through," Parker said.



Jonathan Parker is the the North American sales manager for Sundstrom. He says the company has sold its wildland fire kit and respirator to roughly 40 fire departments in Canada and the U.S. and its been used by wildfire fighters around the world. (Roger Woodruff)© Provided by cbc.ca
Provinces testing possible masks

In addition to studying the Sundstrom mask, theWildfire Service says it has partnered with multiple external occupational health and safety groups to test the feasibility of using the Australian-made Fair Air Fire Mask and the RZ M2.5 Mesh Mask on the ground. It says the N95 is currently the only mask in regular use by its crews.

Alberta says it doesn't require wildland firefighters to wear respiratory protective equipment or masks but masks are recommended for discretionary, short-term use while crews are relocating. The province has been participating in a University of Alberta research study with B.C. since 2018 looking into potential health risks for firefighters. The study is also testing several different styles of masks from N-95s to ones used in military or police operations and evaluating them for comfort, durability, how easy they are to maintain, and fire resistance. It says the respiratory protective equipment currently used in Alberta requires fit-testing and medical screening for safe use.


Firefighters with the B.C. Wildfire Service put out hot spots on the McKay Creek wildfire north of Lillooet in 2021.

 (B.C. Wildfire Service)

In , Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services says FireRangers do not use masks or respirators on the fire line. The province said where possible crews are positioned strategically on fires upwind thus allowing the FireRangers to work safely. However, particulate filter respirators (P100 or P95) are required for all workers assigned to a prescribed burn in an area where there might be poison ivy.

In , the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU) told CBC News that N95 respirators are the only type of respiratory protection its teams are using right now and that they are available to all its firefighters and subcontractors.

The RCMP, which is often asked to guard smoke-shrouded roadblocks, assist in evacuations and keep an eye on evacuated communities does have some standards for respirators and masks in place.

In Alberta, RCMP officers with K Division are fit tested every two years for half-face respirators manufactured by 3M or Honeywell, depending on their facial structure. They are also provided 2 types of cartridges for different types of smoke hazards: one for the particulate from the wildfire smoke and a multi-gas combination cartridge which provides additional protection from particulate from the smoke and the chemical by-products of paints, plastics and some other materials.

His fire fighting days now behind him, Ian Sachs says he hopes the next generation of firefighters at least have the option of greater protection from the smoke.

"Hopefully in the next few years there is something and the guys and girls can wear it when they are in those situations. But you can't wear it all the time and I don't think you'll ever get to that point."

Wildfire crews fight wildfire with fire to protect, secure Cranbrook, B.C. airport

The Canadian Press
Fri, July 21, 2023 


VICTORIA — The forest and brush around the international airport at Cranbrook, B.C., has been scorched in an all-out effort to protect the vital transportation link from an encroaching wildfire, airport manager Tristen Chernove said Friday.

Wildfire crews were at the Canadian Rockies International Airport in southeastern B.C. overnight Friday monitoring the fires that were purposely lit as a guard from the out-of-control St. Mary's River fire, he said.

Chernove said the controlled burns did their job and are adding to previous wildfire mitigation measures taken by airport officials.

"Last night there were some further ignitions done very close to the airport, which visually can look pretty dramatic, but it was all under control," he said. "The airport itself, while we are in the midst of a lot of smoke, as far as fuel load around us, we are actually quite protected."

He said flights were arriving and departing Friday, but heavy smoke has resulted in some cancellations.

The BC Wildfire Service recommended Thursday that City of Cranbrook properties and leased areas at the airport be placed under an evacuation alert.

The Regional District of East Kootenay followed the wildfire service recommendation late Thursday and issued an evacuation alert for 71 dwellings, including the airport property, because of the 26-square-kilometre fire.

Earlier this week, several homes at the Cranbrook area's Aq'am First Nation were destroyed by the same wildfire.

Chenove said they've been working for the last few years to prepare for just such an event by reducing the fuel load around the airport.

"I would say there's been a lot of proactive measures, including last night, to keep the airport protected from any surprises."

BC Wildfire Service officials have forecast an increase in fires in southern B.C. as cooler temperatures and rain are forecast for the province's north, where some of the largest fires are burning.

But hot, dry weather persists in Cranbrook, Kamloops, the Okanagan, Vancouver Island and B.C. Lower Mainland.

The BC Wildfire Service said Friday that more than 600 lightning strikes were reported in the Kamloops area as a storm swept through.

A new out-of-control wildfire visible from the City of Kamloops was reported about 11 kilometres southwest of the Interior city.

Evacuation alerts for more than 100 properties were issued northeast of Kamloops as crews battled the Lower East Adams Lake fire, said the service.

The service says on its website there are more than 400 active wildfires in the province, with 247 listed as out of control and 23 ranked as fires of note, where they are a threat to safety or are especially visible to the public.

Earlier this week, B.C. reported more than 14,000 square kilometres had been burned so far this season, surpassing the previous record set in 2018.

Federal and provincial government officials have said B.C. and Canada are on the way to the worst fire season in 100 years.

Environment Canada issued heat warnings Friday, saying unseasonably hot weather in B.C.'s Okanagan, Thompson, and Boundary regions will push temperatures into the mid 30s into the weekend.

The agency said daytime temperatures are expected to reach 38 C in the Boundary region, while temperatures in the south and central Okanagan, south and north Thompson, and Fraser Canyon regions will reach up to 36 C.

The latest heat wave broke records in parts of the province, including a 38.2 C temperature in Nelson on Thursday, surpassing the last high from 1938, while records were also set in McKenzie, Nakusp, Richmond and Smithers.

The extended heat wave comes as B.C. expected the arrival of 100 firefighters from Brazil Friday, adding to the province's growing international wildfire force.

Cliff Chapman, BC Wildfire Service spokesman, said about 500 international firefighters are already in the province, boosting the ranks of the more than 2,000 provincial wildfire service personnel on the front lines battling hundreds of blazes.

He said the firefighters from Brazil will join crews from Mexico, the United States and Australia currently in the province.

Bowinn Ma, B.C.'s emergency management and climate readiness minister, recently requested 1,000 international firefighters through the non-profit Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which co-ordinates national and international fire management.

Chapman said the international firefighters are providing much-needed relief and assistance to crews battling the more than 400 fires currently burning in the province.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2023.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

Crews from 5 countries step into battle: How firefighters work together on B.C.'s frontlines

Common international approach to wildfires makes it seamless for foreign firefighters to work in B.C.

Author of the article: Glenda Luymes
Published Jul 21, 2023 • 

Wildfires in B.C. have prompted more than 70 evacuation alerts or orders, with many clustered in the province's central Interior. A firefighter directs water on a grass fire on an acreage behind a residential property in Kamloops, B.C., Monday, June 5, 2023. 

PHOTO BY DARRYL DYCK /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Brazilian firefighters — 103 of them — were expected to arrive in B.C. on Friday, joining 500 others from the U.S., Mexico and Australia, as almost 400 wildfires burned across the province.

In one of B.C.’s worst wildfire seasons on record, the international crews will provide relief and assistance to B.C. firefighters.

But how will they work together?

Provincial fire information officer Mike McCulley said large fires are fought in a similar way worldwide with an organizational structure that allows crews from one country to assist another.

“Wildland firefighting is significantly different than structural firefighting,” he said. Not only are fires bigger and more complex, but they “go on for a long time.”

In addition to the Brazilian ground crews, there are 100 Mexican and 80 American firefighters, including a 40-person parattack crew in B.C. this weekend. There are also 20 American command staff, two American incident management teams of 28 people, two Australian incident management teams of 29 people, and an assortment of engine crews and single-resource specialists, with just under 600 “international resources” scattered across the province.

Another 102 Mexican firefighters are expected early next week.

A file photo of firefighters training for possible fires at or near Metro Vancouver’s watersheds and regional parks in North Vancouver, B.C. on May 7, 2019. 

PHOTO BY ARLEN REDEKOP /PNG

The incident command system provides a standardized approach to the command, control and co-ordination of emergency response, allowing a management team from Australia, for example, to arrive at a B.C. fire and spell off a B.C. team.

“The team is very similar and the transition is very smooth,” said McCulley.

Incident management teams may bring their own supplies, like computers, or B.C. may provide them, depending on where they’re travelling from.

Ground crews will come with their own personal protective equipment, but B.C. will typically provide shovels, pumps and hoses. B.C. has also received firefighting equipment from abroad, such as 10 four-person engine crews from the U.S.

McCulley said when firefighters arrive at YVR, they are typically taken to a briefing facility before being sent to a specific fire centre where they’ll receive more information about the fire, type of work and where they’ll be staying.

After that, they’re put to work and integrated into B.C.’s firefighting apparatus.

McCulley said language barriers are typically not an issue, with many firefighters speaking some English, although the B.C. Wildfire Service provides someone to assist if needed. B.C. also pays the firefighters, with rates agreed upon before they arrive.

The number of international firefighters being used in B.C. is re-evaluated several times a week, he said.

Bowinn Ma, B.C.’s emergency management and climate readiness minister, recently requested 1,000 international firefighters through the non-profit Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which co-ordinates national and international fire management.

The Texas Creek wildfire south of Lillooet is shown in this handout image provided by the B.C. Wildfire Service. About 150 Canadian soldiers have also been assigned to help firefighters. 

PHOTO BY HO /The Canadian Press

Jennifer Kamau, communications manager for the centre, said provinces submit specific requests when they’ve exhausted their own resources. The centre looks across the country, and then to international partners for help.

Canada has agreements with the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and Costa Rica. This year, with so much fire activity, Canada has had to go “beyond the framework,” with the federal government seeking firefighters from Brazil, France and South Korea, she said.

The agreements go both ways: B.C. firefighters have helped fight fires in Australia in the past.

McCulley said he felt it was particularly important to express the gratitude B.C. fire crews feel toward their “brothers and sisters.”

“It resonates deeply with us,” he said. “We don’t take it lightly.”

The B.C. Wildfire Service website said there are more than 400 active wildfires in the province, with 247 listed as out of control and 23 ranked as fires of note, where they are a threat to safety or especially visible to the public.

Earlier this week, B.C. reported more than 14,000 square kilometres had burned so far this season, surpassing the previous record set in 2018.

Federal and provincial government officials have said B.C. and Canada are on the way to the worst fire season in 100 years.

Construction labour crunch leaves Canada in need of boosting ranks of home builders

Story by Geoff Nixon • Jul 14, 2023

Canada is growing rapidly — and so are its housing needs.

In turn, these pressures are testing the construction industry, which finds itself dealing with a mounting labour shortage.

There are tens of thousands of unfilled construction jobs across the country — including up to 20,000 open positions in Ontario alone — that the Labourers' International Union of North America (LiUNA) says it could fill, if only it could find the workers.

The open positions in such sectors as residential and high-rise construction include labourers, bricklayers, cement finishers and people doing trim and tile work.

"That's just one labour union," said Victoria Mancinelli, the public relations director for LiUNA in Central and Eastern Canada, describing the deficit as a partial snapshot of the broader construction labour crunch.

The industry is also facing a looming wave of retirements that will see roughly 20 per cent of Canada's construction workers retire within 10 years.

"This is not something that is unique to construction," said Bill Ferreira, executive director of industry group BuildForce Canada, referring to the labour supply challenges that surround Canada's aging workforce.

To keep construction projects moving forward, Canada will need people to build them — which is why both the industry and various levels of government are paying close attention to how many workers will be available to work on job sites now and in the future.

"It's mission critical to get more people into the trades," Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said in an interview.

Challenges differ from east to west

There are parts of Canada where the construction labour shortage is projected to be more acute than in others, and Ferreira said demographics are at the core of those regional differences.

"It's almost an east and west story," he said, noting that Prairie populations skew younger, which is advantageous for recruiting construction labour.

BuildForce Canada expects the number of pending retirements in Alberta, for example, to be nearly balanced with new recruits from the province through 2032. But even more people will need to be hired to deal with the demand for construction over that time period — and officials have signalled the province needs more construction workers now.



Construction workers are shown at a condominium tower job site in Coquitlam, B.C., in May. About 38,000 veteran builders in the province are expected to retire by 2032. 

(Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)© Provided by cbc.ca

Ferreira said the exception in the west in British Columbia, which is expected to see 38,000 of its veteran builders retire by 2032. But local recruitment is predicted to fall thousands short in terms of the total number of new workers.

In Ontario, more than 80,000 people will exit the industry over the same time period. That's a problem in a province that is aiming to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031. The actual number of workers needed will be significantly higher than the number retiring.

McNaughton acknowledges the challenges, but he points to intensive efforts the provincial government has taken to address the supply of construction labour.

"It's a big task in front of us," he said, noting that Ontario is currently short 72,000 construction workers.


Construction workers are shown at a condo project in Toronto earlier this month. More than 80,000 Ontario construction workers are expected to retire within the next 10 years, at a time when the province has ambitious home-building plans.

 (Patrick Morrell/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

The minister said the provincial government has been pushing to ramp up recruitment of skilled trade workers and to encourage far more young people to enter the fiel

Ontario saw 27,319 people sign up for apprenticeships over the past 12 months — a record number that McNaughton said amounts to a 24 per cent year-over-year increase.

Further east, New Brunswick expects to see nearly one-third of its construction workers retire in the next five years. That has implications for a small province undergoing a population growth spurt.

"The [construction] industry is struggling to bring housing starts in line with levels routinely reached in the 2000s, when our population was stagnant, even at times declining," economist Richard Saillant wrote in a discussion paper earlier this year.

Saillant said that labour was "a major constraint on New Brunswick's ability to expand housing supply."

Last year, the Construction Association of Prince Edward Island said it believed at least 1,000 more workers were needed. By this spring, the province was said to possibly need twice that many people to catch up on projects.

Fewer people, more costs

Any shortage of needed labour can have an impact on what gets built and how much it costs to build things.

Construction mogul Mandy Rennehan has been seeing that reality play out in rural parts of the Maritimes, where she says skilled labour is scarce, and the prices that people pay for related services have risen sharply.

"The trades industry is no different than others," said Rennehan, a trades veteran, media personality and founder of construction company Freschco, pointing out that shifts in supply and demand affect construction.



Mandy Rennehan, founder of construction company Freshco, says in rural parts of the Maritimes, skilled labour is scarce, and the prices that people pay for related services have risen sharply. 

(Submitted by Mandy Rennehan)© Provided by cbc.ca

She also said that rising labour costs aren't just a concern for individual homeowners and developers, but also for contractors and small construction businesses involved in building needed housing.

Bigger players in the field may not sweat these kinds of cost increases the way smaller operations do, Rennehan said. "They are the ones getting squeezed."

There will also be projects that can't proceed if there aren't enough people available to do the work.



Construction workers are shown atop a residential building project in Moncton, N.B., in July 2022. Roughly one-third of New Brunswick's construction workforce is nearing retirement. 

(Shane Fowler/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca
How to recruit more workers

BuildForce Canada's Ferreira said there are a number of ways the construction industry can look for the next generation of talent.

Some will come from the kids growing up today, who may be more encouraged to consider a career in the trades.

But, he said, the industry must also look to expand hiring among people who are largely underrepresented on job sites. Women and Indigenous people are two such examples, Ferreira said.


Bill Ferreira, executive director of industry group BuildForce Canada, says demographics are at the core of regional differences in construction labour shortages

. (BuildForce Canada)© Provided by cbc.ca

Rennehan said she agrees that there's a lot of room to grow in terms of bringing more diversity to the world of the trades — though she's seen progress on that front, even if the work is not yet done.

Industry voices and government officials also see strong potential to find many of the builders-to-be among the population of newcomers to Canada.

That includes directly welcoming more skilled workers from abroad — something the federal immigration minister previously signalled will be a focus for the federal government.

McNaughton, Ontario's labour minister, said such recruitment is a "huge opportunity to use immigration strategically" to bolster the provincial roster of skilled workers, and that's what his own province plans to do.

Union leadership recommends members accept tentative deal to avoid another B.C. port strike

Story by CBC/Radio-Canada • Friday, July 21,2023

Union leadership says it is going to recommend its members accept a tentative agreement to end the weeks-long strike at B.C.'s ports, potentially bringing the high-stakes labour dispute one step closer to its end.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU Canada) will put the terms of the deal to its membership at a stop-work meeting on Tuesday, according to a letter posted online.

If the members accept the agreement after that, the dispute will be over.

On Friday, the B.C. Maritime Employers Association said the agreement to be presented to workers is the same one the union's caucus rejected just days ago.

In a statement, the association said the deal is the proposal reached with a federal mediator and was originally agreed to by both sides on July 13.

"The tentative agreement presented is the result of months of negotiations and mediation,'' the association statement said, adding that employers are "hopeful" the union's membership will fully ratify it when a vote is held, possibly late next week.

In a tweet, Federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan thanked the union for sending the latest terms to its membership after an "emergency" meeting earlier Friday.

"Right now, B.C. ports are operating, but we need long-term stability," the minister's tweet read.

Union president Rob Ashton said in a statement that members will take the 8 a.m. shift off next Tuesday for the meeting where the deal will be presented. Workers have been back on the job since Thursday after a complicated week of negotiations.

The union's caucus rejected an earlier tentative agreement that had been worked out with a mediator. The move set off a brief strike before a Canada Industrial Relations Board ruled the job action was illegal.

The union then issued 72-hours notice to restart the strike on Saturday, only to rescind it hours later. Work resumed at ports across B.C. on Thursday and has continued since.

The two sides have been negotiating a new collective agreement since March but went on strike from July 1 to 13 after getting stuck in a deadlock. The job action froze billions of dollars worth of goods from ports across B.C., including Canada's largest in Vancouver.

Mark Thompson, University of British Columbia professor emeritus at the Sauder School of Business, says port strikes common in the 1980s and 1990s weren't allowed to drag on as this latest dispute has done.


Vancouver port workers are pictured on Wednesday, a day after strike notice was again served by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada. 

(Justine Boulin/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

"The government [today] is very reluctant to enact back-to-work legislation, so we are in uncharted territory right now,'' he said.

Job action damages Canada's business reputation: exporters

The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade paused its port shutdown calculator Friday, which estimated the cost of disruptions, but declined to comment until after the union membership's vote.

The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters said in a news release that it is cautiously optimistic the dispute has been resolved, as the original 13-day strike damaged Canada's global reputation "as a reliable place to do business."

CEO Dennis Darby said the organization, which has about 2,500 members, wants the federal government to make port operations an essential service "so that the solution to a labour dispute is something other than work stoppage."

"We understand collective bargaining, you have to have that, but is there a way, given that these are federally regulated facilities ... to prevent this in the future?" he asked.

Darby said businesses that rely on the ports want certainty, and argued that the federal government needs to consider introducing measures to prevent similar events from happening again.



An ILWU Canada worker pickets outside of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association dispatch centre in Vancouver on July 3, shortly after the initial strike was launched. (Ben Nelms/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

The dispute, which disrupted operations at Canada's largest port in Vancouver, triggered strong responses from political and business leaders across Canada, with some, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, calling for back-to-work legislation.

On Thursday, Trudeau said it was "unacceptable" that the union rejected the tentative deal worked out with a mediator that had been agreed to by both sides.