Ontario has announced the workplace health and safety areas its inspectors will be paying particular attention to from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027.
So what does this mean for you, an employer?
It does not mean the Ministry has introduced a new set of health and safety rules.
It does mean they have identified certain industries and hazards where they intend to place greater inspection and enforcement attention this year. Workplaces in those areas should expect inspectors may look closely at whether existing legal requirements are actually being met, not simply whether a policy exists somewhere in a binder.
- Important: an inspection is not limited to the campaign topic. This means: if an inspector visits your workplace as part of one of these campaigns and notices another health and safety concern, they can address that too.
- Also Important: What they find can affect how often your workplace is inspected in the future.
So, what are they looking at?
Here's the 2026–2027 quick version:
Residential Construction
Who: Single-family and multi-family residential construction, including residential re-roofing.
In plain terms: If you're building or renovating homes, expect greater Ministry attention to the hazards that come with the everyday work happening on residential projects.
The campaign is focused on common activities, the hazards associated with them, and whether appropriate controls are being used.
Think:
- Are hazards being identified before work begins?
- Are appropriate controls in place?
- And is what's supposed to happen on paper also happening on site?
Health Care and Community Care
Who: Hospitals, long-term care, retirement and group homes, treatment clinics, professional offices and agencies, home health care and other health/community care workplaces.
Main focus: The Internal Responsibility System (IRS).
That sounds technical. The idea behind it isn't.
Everyone in the workplace has health and safety responsibilities appropriate to their role, and the system must function as a whole.
Inspectors will be looking for evidence that workers, supervisors and employers understand their responsibilities and that required Joint Health and Safety Committees or Health and Safety Representatives are actively doing the job they're supposed to do.
In workplaces covered by the Health Care and Residential Facilities regulation, inspectors will also be looking at whether required written measures and procedures have been developed with worker health and safety representatives, reviewed at least annually, updated when needed and properly communicated through training.
In other words:
Having the committee is not enough. Having the policy is not enough. The system needs to work.
Retail
Main focus: Equipment and material handling.
Inspectors will be paying attention to whether equipment is being maintained properly and whether workers are protected while lifting, moving, stocking and handling materials.
There is also a separate ergonomics campaign taking place in retail workplaces.
That one looks specifically at the risk of musculoskeletal injuries from things like:
- receiving shipments
- unpacking products
- stocking shelves
- processing returns
- moving loads
- using carts
- using ladders while handling materials
- point-of-sale activities
The Ministry wants employers to identify those risks, teach workers how to perform the work safely and take reasonable precautions to reduce the chance of injury.
Or, more simply: if workers lift it, carry it, push it, pull it, stock it or climb to reach it: take another look at how that work is being done.
Farming and Agriculture
The Ministry will be looking at whether agricultural employers understand how Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act applies to their operation and whether they're meeting the requirements that apply to them.
There is also particular attention being given to the realities of the agricultural workforce, including seasonal workers, foreign workers, language barriers and an aging workforce.
That means employers should be asking more than:
"Did we provide training?"
They should also be asking:
"Did we provide it in a way this worker could really understand and use?"
Across the campaigns, the Ministry has specifically said inspectors will look at whether workers receive information, instruction and supervision in a form they can understand, including where language or other barriers exist.
Education
For workplaces in the education sector, inspectors have provided a fairly straightforward checklist of priorities.
They will be looking at:
- required health and safety administration
- workplace violence and harassment policies and programs
- slips, trips and falls
- worker training and orientation
- Joint Health and Safety Committees
- WHMIS
- equipment maintenance and guarding
This is a good example of why basic compliance matters.
The Ministry isn't necessarily looking for something elaborate. It is looking for evidence that the fundamental pieces of the health and safety system are present, current and working.
Mining and Mining Plants
Main focus: Energy isolation, commonly known as lockout/tagout.
In simple terms:
Before someone repairs, services or maintains equipment, can it unexpectedly start, move, energize or release stored energy?
If it can, there needs to be an effective way to isolate that energy so the worker isn't relying on luck, assumptions or someone remembering not to turn something on.
The Ministry's campaign will focus on whether equipment is properly shut down, locked and tagged to prevent hazardous energy from being released while maintenance or repair work is underway.
Noise: Across Multiple Industries
This one isn't limited to a single sector.
Ministry occupational hygienists will be looking at workplaces where workers may be exposed to hazardous noise, including construction, industrial, mining and health care settings.
Employers are expected to assess the risk and take reasonable measures to protect workers, and hearing protection isn't necessarily the whole answer.
Where required, that can mean looking at engineering controls, how the work is performed and other ways of reducing exposure, with hearing protection used where appropriate.
The simple question is:
Is the workplace controlling the noise, or just handing workers earplugs?
Veterinary Clinics and Animal Hospitals
Veterinary workplaces are receiving their own focused campaign this year, particularly because of their use of X-ray equipment.
Inspectors will be looking at radiation safety, including installation and use of X-ray systems, required approvals, worker exposure and protective measures.
But they won't necessarily stop there.
The campaign also includes worker training, PPE, knowledge of safety procedures and other common veterinary hazards, including:
- bites and scratches
- infectious agents
- contaminated medical equipment
- chemicals
- noise
- ergonomics
- X-ray exposure
One Theme Runs Through All of Them
Although the individual campaigns look different, there is a common thread:
The Ministry is looking for evidence that workplace health and safety systems truly function.
- Not simply that a policy was written.
- Not simply for signatures on training sheets.
- Not simply that a committee exists on an organizational chart.
Instead, they're asking:
- Can workers explain how to do their work safely?
- Do supervisors know what they're responsible for?
- Are hazards being identified?
- Are controls appropriate for the actual work?
- Are procedures current?
- Are required inspections, reviews and committee activities happening?
- And can the employer demonstrate it?
That is where compliance moves from having a safety program to being able to show your program is working.
What Should an Employer Do With This Information?
You don't need to wait for an inspector to find out: if your workplace falls within one of the targeted sectors, use the campaign as an opportunity to deliberately examine the areas the Ministry has identified... and don't stop at the campaign topic. Take a good long look at your health and safety program the way "outside eyes" would:
- What are we required to have?
- What do we say we do?
- What are we actually doing?
- ...And can we prove it?
Finding those gaps yourself gives you the opportunity to correct them before somebody else finds them for you.
Want more like this? Check out our other posts on the VirtuOHS blog, Beyond the Binder.
Full official Health and Safety Compliance post on Ontario.ca: https://www.ontario.ca/page/health-and-safety-compliance-campaigns-2026-2027#section-6