Every year, thousands of workers are injured or die at work and, unfortunately, the construction sector remains the deadliest in Quebec.
Nearly one in three workers who died worked in the construction field. This is why unions are calling for more prevention in terms of health and safety at work.
“I think that putting this into prevention will save lives. [Il y a] a number of accidents that must be reduced. Every year, we have the medal we want to lose,” explained Carl Dufour, president of CSD Construction, in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
For its part, the Quebec Federation of Workers (FTQ) believes that the lack of labor is directly linked to work accidents.
“Prevention remains at the heart of our demands, the lack of manpower pushes employers and the government to want to cut corners, putting Quebec workers at risk. This is what we see in the construction sector, even though it is the deadliest sector in Quebec. Instead of aiming to improve the situation, lives are being sacrificed. This is unacceptable,” underlined in a press release the secretary general of the FTQ, Denis Bolduc, and the president of the FTQ Metropolitan Montreal Regional Council, Marc-Édouard Joubert.
For Daniel Sénécal, who himself was the victim of a serious accident at work when a poorly attached wall fell on him in the wind, it is important to take time out to ensure that everything is safe.
“If I had adopted the right reflex earlier, which is that every 20 minutes we take a little 20 seconds and look around […] we could have identified this wall as potentially dangerous, we would have attached it differently,” he said on TVA.
Number of people who have died as a result of a work accident in recent years
2021: 207, including 72 construction workers
2022: 216, including 57 construction workers
2023: 210, including 68 construction workers
*Source: CSD Construction
