Program Overview

The Safety Group program promotes health and safety in the workplace. This is accomplished though mentoring, pooling of resource and sharing of best practices between member firms, their sponsor and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Along with improved safety records member firms can receive financial benefits in the form of rebates from the WSIB. To recieve these rebates you must be a schedule 1 firm and attend three mandatory meetings per year.

The Safety Group program is administered by the WSIB. It was first implemented in 2000 and has received high approval rating from participating members.

The Northern Ontario Safety Group, operating under the Health & Safety Ontario (HSO) banner, provides your organization with access to one of the most effective workplace health and safety resources in Ontario.

The Northern Ontario Safety Group continues a long record of success. In January 2011, Ontario’s health and safety associations representing northern Ontario came together to initiate a pilot project.

The associations agreed to hold joint Safety Group meetings throughout 2011 in five northern Ontario communities – Thunder Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and North Bay. The idea behind the pilot project was to pool resources, avoid duplication and give more support to clients.

For 2012, the four associations decided to go one step further and create a Northern Ontario Safety Group to better serve the needs of the north, organizations in communities from Huntsville to the Manitoba border.

Membership and active participation in the Northern Ontario Safety Group will enable participating firms to become more self-reliant in carrying out their responsibilities in preventing workplace illnesses and injuries. The Northern Ontario Safety Group creates a dynamic opportunity for organizations to come together to share ideas and solve problems while taking advantage of the new Health & Safety Ontario sponsor structure.

How the Program Works

At the start of the year, member firms select five safety elements they will initiate or improve upon, from a list provided by the WSIB; Firms must attend 3 mandatory meeting out of four meeting per year, share ideas and pool resources, learning from each other how to put these initiatives into place. At the end of the year the safety group can receive a rebate, based on the entire group’s success in implementing their safety elements.
If all the firms complete all the required health and safety changes, the group will receive the full potential rebate.