The automotive and manufacturing industry is holding its own when it comes to workplace health and safety.
According to the Chief Prevention Officer for the Ministry of Labour Ron Kelusky, the biggest challenge is small businesses with less than 50 people.
With smaller workplaces, Kelusky says people are doing multiple jobs and sometimes health and safety is not a priority.
With about 500,000 businesses in Ontario with 350 inspectors, Kelusky says each business needs to do its part and take ownership in the issue.
Kelusky was a guest speaker at the Southwestern Ontario Safety Conference and Expo at the Caboto Club.
He says the automotive sector deserves some credit in the area of health and safety.
"The automotive sector in Windsor, they take health and safety quite seriously, most people do. Our biggest challenge really is small business."
Kelusky says the auto sector takes health and safety seriously.
"As we move away from the large employers into the more smaller employers, like less than 50 employees, that's the challenge we face."
In small businesses, Kelusky says workers tend to hold multiple titles.
"When we start looking at the particular industry where it is either an evolving business where the owner is also the HR guy, we have to provide stuff that is convenient for them."
In 2018 in Ontario, there were 228 deaths in workplaces.
Two-thirds of them were occupational disease-related while the remainder were due to a traumatic injury.