In a presentation to regional councillors Sept. 25, Steven Mahoney, chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario, said workplace injuries are a severe economic drain.

He also said there's simply no reason for those injuries to be happening in a province as advanced as Ontario.

Mahoney cited figures showing there were 2,136 lost-time workplace injuries at Niagara companies in 2006, leading to a loss of $229 million in productivity.

Those injuries aren't limited to the private sector. The region, which has a varied workforce ranging from nurses who can injure their backs moving bed-ridden long-term care home residents to public works staff who can be maimed by machinery, was billed by the WSIB for more than $2 million last year for injured worker rehabilitation services, said Mahoney.

"We want you to pay us less," he said.

Mahoney said that while lost-time injuries in Ontario have been reduced by 27 per cent since 1999, the number of fatalities in workplaces has remained the same at about 100 per year. Among those, about 10 young people working part-time or in summer jobs die each year in workplace accidents, he said.

Overall, 347,000 workplace injuries last year were a $215-billion drain on the Ontario economy, he said.

"These numbers in a province like Ontario are simply intolerable," he said.

"Every incident that causes an injury or takes a life is preventable."

The WSIB recently launched a high-profile campaign, using radio and TV ads, to combat the problem. Mahoney played a video of one such commercial, in which a woman working in a restaurant kitchen casually says she has a social function planned for the next day, but won't be making it because she's about to be horribly burned by flaming oil from the stove.

She then spills the oil and is shown on the ground covered in third-degree burns.

Mahoney said the commercials are designed for "shocking people out of their complacency" on workplace safety.

By signing the charter, the region agrees to become a leader in promoting safe workplaces, he said.

St. Catharines Coun. Tim Rigby, who was acting as regional chair, signed the charter. It was an emotional moment for Rigby, who recently lost a son in a tragic workplace accident.

"I fee very privileged to be able to sign this document," he said.