Why Canadian leaders must own safety — not just delegate it
Canada recorded more than 1,000 workplace fatalities in 2024, according to the 2026 Report on Work Fatality and Injury Rates in Canada from the University of Regina — and experts warn the true figure may be significantly higher due to underreporting. Yet for many Canadian organizations, health and safety remains a compliance exercise: a checklist managed by a safety officer, reviewed at year-end, and rarely seen as a leadership priority.
This thinking is costing lives and the fix starts at the top, according to Nayab Sultan, a Vancouver-based occupational health and safety advisor and researcher.
“You can delegate responsibility, but you can’t delegate liability,” says Sultan. “It’s not just an issue of bringing safety onto the agenda once and then forgetting about it. It needs to remain on the agenda in each meeting, even if it’s just for a short period of time, in order to keep the momentum.” …
