WHMIS Training for Ontario Workplaces

Two pieces of Ontario law work together:

• Occupational Health and Safety Act, section 42. An employer must make sure a worker who is exposed, or likely to be exposed, to a hazardous material receives the prescribed instruction and training. The training is developed and put in place in consultation with the joint health and safety committee or health and safety representative, if the workplace has one. The employer must review the training, and the worker’s familiarity with it, at least annually, and more often if circumstances change.
• Regulation 860 (WHMIS), section 7. Every worker who works with, or may be exposed to, a hazardous product must be instructed in what labels and safety data sheets contain and why that information matters, plus the procedures for safe use, storage, handling and disposal, products in pipes, vessels and tank cars, fugitive emissions, and emergencies.

Regulation 860 also says the program must be developed and implemented for the employer’s workplace, and that it must, so far as is reasonably practicable, leave workers able to use the information to protect their health and safety. In other words, a certificate on its own is not the finish line in Ontario. The goal is that workers can actually read a label, find the SDS and follow the site’s procedures.

The online course gives every worker the same solid base and a certificate for your records. The site-specific items can only come from the employer, because they depend on the actual products, equipment and emergency plan at your workplace.

Under Regulation 860, any worker who works with a hazardous product, or may be exposed to one in the course of their work. In Ontario that takes in a wide range of jobs: warehouse and distribution staff, manufacturing and food processing, construction trades, auto shops, cleaning and janitorial crews, healthcare, labs, salons and many retail stockrooms.

New hires, co-op students and temp workers placed by staffing agencies are often asked for a WHMIS certificate before their first shift. It shows the general education is done, so the employer can move straight on to the site-specific part.

Workplaces that are federally regulated, such as banks, interprovincial trucking and telecommunications, follow the Canada Labour Code instead of the Ontario Act. The WHMIS content is the same national system.

Ontario law does not print an expiry date on a WHMIS certificate. What it does require is an annual review: under OHSA s. 42 (3) the employer reviews, at least once a year, the training given and how familiar workers are with it, together with the joint health and safety committee or representative. A review is required more often if the committee advises it or if circumstances change, for example when new hazardous products or new hazard information arrive.

Many Ontario employers meet part of this by having workers redo the general WHMIS course every year or two, then refreshing the site-specific part during the review. How often to repeat the course is your employer’s call.