John Stevens, safety officer, City of Lloydminster, officiated a National Day of Mourning ceremony and flag lowering to recognize fallen workers outside City Hall on Friday morning. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
No Lloydminster residents are counted among the 162 Alberta and 39 Saskatchewan workers who lost their lives due to workplace incidents in the past year.
That was a nugget of good news shared during a National Day of Mourning ceremony outside City Hall on Friday highlighted by a flag-lowering exercise and a moment of silence for lives lost.
John Stevens, a safety officer with the City of Lloydminster led the proceedings including the signing of the event proclamation.
“The National Day of Mourning is one of those days where we come together to recognize we have a really big role to play when it comes to workplace incidents, injuries and tragedies,” said Stevens.
“It’s a sombre day where we know people’s lives have been lost and it allows us to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring we provide a safe workplace and do everything that we possibly can to prevent these terrible incidents.”
Stevens says we are fortunate in Lloydminster where no one has lost their life or suffered an injury or illness due to their work in 2022.
“We have a really good community that really has a focus on providing a safe workplace and working in a safe manner,” he said.
The special ceremony was hosted by the city with support from the Lakeland Regional Safety Committee and the Lloydminster Construction Association, which hosted a BBQ lunch at its location.
ATCO provided tents and refreshments for a sizeable gathering of people who took in the local ceremony.
Since 1984, Canada has observed April 28 as the National Day of Mourning.
Flags at all government buildings in the province fly at half-mast in remembrance of those who died because of workplace injuries and illnesses.
Sask recently announced a five-year Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy to help eliminate injuries and fatalities.
The strategy was released through WorkSafe Saskatchewan, a partnership between the Workers’ Compensation Board and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety.
Alberta has Heroes’ Fund to help families of first responders whose lives were tragically lost on the job, while the Workers’ Memorial Fund helps to create permanent memorials to honour fallen workers.
“Alberta’s government continues to make the health and safety of our province’s workers a priority,” said Minister of Jobs, Economy and Northern Development Brian Jean.
“We recently updated the Occupational Health and Safety Code to reflect our modern workplaces and we are increasing access to workplace health and safety training for students.”
