Section II: Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

A. Operating Environment

CCOHS is Canada's national occupational health and safety resource which is dedicated to the advancement of occupational health and safety performance by providing services on information and knowledge transfer; training and education; cost-effective tools for improving occupational health and safety performance; management systems services supporting health and safety programs; injury and illness prevention initiatives and promoting the total well-being – physical, psychosocial and mental health - of working people. The Centre was created to provide a common focus for and coordination of information in the area of occupational health and safety.

CCOHS functions as an independent departmental corporation under Schedule II of the Financial Administration Act and is accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec. Its funding is derived from a combination of appropriations, cost recoveries and collaboration with the provinces. It is expected that 50% of the budget will be funded through cost recoveries from the creation, production and worldwide sales of fee-for-service and revenue generating occupational health and safety products and services.

CCOHS is a recognized leader in providing effective programs, products and services, which are based on the centre’s core knowledge, its collection of occupational health and safety information, and its application of information management technologies.

Key Results

• Easy access to occupational health and safety information and services. This includes providing Canadians with information through a free inquiries service to assist with occupational health and safety concerns. Client satisfaction and results are evaluated annually. This also includes ensuring that information is available in many forms such as publications, Internet, CD-Rom, DVD and training. Information on the various products and services can be found at: http://www.ccohs.ca/products/subject.html
• Increase awareness and understanding of occupational health and safety issues in the workplace. This includes providing advice and guidance, training and promoting health and safety. Understanding is measured through evaluations.
• Application of occupational information to improve workplace practices measured through reach of information and impact on changes in the workplace. This is demonstrated through evaluation reports.
• Partial recovery of costs from user fees through sales of products and services in addition to providing public service. Results are measured through revenues generated from sales while also balancing the needs of the public to have access to free or low cost information.

2.1 Key Stakeholders and Partners

CCOHS is governed by a tripartite council representing governments (federal, provincial and territorial), employers, and labour. The Council of Governors assists in delivering a trustworthy and complete occupational health and safety service, and ensures that the information CCOHS disseminates is unbiased. Our key stakeholders are directly involved in the policy, governance and strategic planning for the organization. They also participate in reviews of programs and services to help ensure our information is impartial. Our inquiries service is also supported and funded from contributions provided by provincial and territorial governments.

CCOHS also participates in many collaborative arrangements with national and international occupational health and safety organizations. These include the World Health Organization (WHO), the Canadian Health Network, North American Occupational Safety and Health week (NAOSH), International Labor Organization (ILO), Enhancement of Occupational Health and Safety in Brazilian Industry (EOHSBI) and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Further information on the many partnerships is available at http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/partner.html and in our annual report.

Collaborative projects serve many purposes at CCOHS. They are opportunities to enhance our information holdings, generate revenues and work with partners worldwide. This collaboration among nations serves to promote the sharing of information and knowledge for social and economic programs relating to health and safety to reduce injuries and illness and improve conditions for workers. It also contributes to Canada’s role in the world.

CCOHS fulfils its mandate to promote workplace health and safety, and encourage attitudes and methods that will lead to improved worker physical and mental health, through a wide range of products and services. These products and services are designed in cooperation with national and international occupational health and safety organizations with an emphasis on preventing illnesses, injuries and fatalities. CCOHS is a trusted source of unbiased and reliable information for Canadians.

2.2 Major Initiatives

The MSDS (Material Safety Data sheet) management system was designed to complement the existing MSDS/FTSS Database service to help clients with MSDS compliance. This service supports our goal of assisting workers to be more effective in safely using hazardous chemicals. The service is designed to give users the ability to build and maintain a customized collection of the material safety data sheets (MSDS) that they use in their work place. Customized collections are automatically updated and the subscriber is notified of changes in the MSDS in their collection. Plans for 2008-9 also include expanding the number of e-learning courses to extend the reach of traditional classroom based courses. Additional customized e-learning courses are also planned. The e-learning programs continue to be successful and allow for benefiting a greater number of workers.

OSH Works is a new occupational health and safety management service from CCOHS. This service is a customizable system for use in meeting the specific occupational health and safety needs of Canadian enterprises. This tool will help organizations maintain and enhance their existing occupational health and safety programs as well as to understand and meet the requirements of the national occupational health and safety standards such as OHSAS (Occupation Health and Safety Assessment Series) 18001 and CSA (Canadian Standards Association) Z1000.

CCOHS is implementing an enhanced e-commerce website to improve sales of occupational health and safety products and services.

Internal management initiatives include continued enhancement of performance management for the new internal organizational structure. The implementation of the new internal organizational structure will better support the goal of enhancing products and services to better meet the needs of our stakeholders. CCOHS continues to work on management priorities that include succession planning, improving risk management and finalizing management information technologies security procedures and practices.

2.3 Risks and Challenges

The major challenge for CCOHS is maintaining revenues sufficient to finance 50% of our operating budget. In recent years, there has been a significant decline in revenues from our traditional source of revenues from products and services. With this trend, it became evident that CCOHS would not be financially viable without replacement income. In response, it was necessary to develop new products and services to offset the loss in revenues. Generating revenues of $4.3 million is challenging given our limited human resources, the absence of working capital and additional administrative costs of operating a government organization.

In addition, CCOHS is subject to changes in the market place such as foreign exchange fluctuations, technology change, the life cycle of products and the availability of free information on the internet. These changes make it difficult to replace lost revenues. The timeframe between new product development, implementation and ultimately sales is problematic as it generally does not coincide with the fiscal year end and there is no opportunity for financing of these initiatives.

Revenue generation in a government organization is difficult while complying with administrative policies. CCOHS is a Schedule II department and has administrative responsibilities that are not conducive to generating revenues. Examples include dollar limits on advertising, embargos on advertising due to policy changes, and the lack of funding for new product development and promotion. In addition, CCOHS does not have any working capital to finance accounts receivable or inventories that are carried on its balance sheet. These restrictions place CCOHS at a competitive disadvantage for functioning as a competitive, cost-recovery organization. CCOHS also cannot carry over funds, which makes multi-year planning and product development difficult.

CCOHS products are information based, which results in substantial fixed costs associated with developing and maintaining information databases. It is necessary to continually upgrade the infrastructure (hardware and software) and content in order to provide a comprehensive and efficient delivery of information to Canadians. CCOHS products are information based and must be kept current and unbiased in order to be useful and credible. Maintaining information products is very labour intensive and requires a wide range of professionals who rely on the latest technologies.

The availability of free information on the internet also strains CCOHS’ ability to generate sales from information products. CCOHS must distinguish itself as an unbiased source of trusted and reliable information. CCOHS has adapted to these challenges through the development of new products and services to meet the continually changing needs of Canadians.

The support of our stakeholders is also essential to the ongoing success of CCOHS. Changes with other governments and organizations priorities could have a direct impact on CCOHS.

As our workforce ages, succession planning is a serious concern. It is anticipated that several staff members will retire in the next few years. The creation of working groups will assist in the development of skills and transfer of knowledge to the remaining staff members and forms a key basis for strengthening the capabilities of CCOHS.

2.4 Link to the Government of Canada Outcomes

CCOHS contributes to the priorities of the government in the following way:

Social Affairs – Healthy Canadians

• Occupational diseases, illnesses and deaths are serious health risks faced by Canadians. "These findings serve as a reminder that despite recent improvements, large numbers of workers are still being injured, and the risks are unevenly distributed within the workforce." Well over half a million Canadian workers were injured on the job in 2003. The government plans to strengthen our social foundations by improving the overall health of Canadians starting with health promotion to reduce the incidence of avoidable disease. One of the most effective strategies in reducing ill health is prevention of the causes. CCOHS’ primary role is to support Canada’s capability to improve prevention of work-related illness and disease by providing information and knowledge to enable Canadians to identify hazards and minimize or eliminate risks in the workplace and assist them to address issues and take remedial action. CCOHS advocates improvements in workplace health in the public and private sectors to improve the health of Canadians. Details of specific projects related to healthy Canadians initiatives are noted throughout this report and in our annual report.

  CCOHS' public forum in 2005 on occupational diseases supported this government priority. http://www.ccohs.ca/headlines/text59.html. Our recent forum on Emerging Health and Safety Issues from Changing Workplaces http://www.ccohs.ca/events/forum07/ will further stimulate awareness of important, work-related health and safety issues. Public forums are planned and presented by CCOHS bi-annually.

  In addition, CCOHS delivers web portals «Pandemic Planning» and «Bringing Health to Work». The goal of these websites is to develop and provide information, tools and resources and make it easily available to help employees, employers and practitioners participate in making their workplaces healthy and safe.

International Affairs - A safe and secure world through international co-operation

• CCOHS contributes to greater collaboration among nations to promote the sharing of information and knowledge for programs relating to occupational health and safety to reduce injuries and illness and improve conditions for workers. CCOHS participates in promoting and supporting occupational health and safety initiatives with global organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health, International Labour Organization, United Nations Environment Program, Organization of American States (OAS) and European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. Details of various collaborations and results can be found in our annual report at: http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports.html.
• CCOHS contributes to fostering safe communities by providing information resources and various programs to promote occupational health and safety to the many communities throughout Canada.

Economic Affairs - A clean and healthy environment

• CCOHS provides extensive information on a wide range of health hazards on hazardous chemicals and their impact on health and the environment. CCOHS is a major source of environmental health information relied upon by government regulators, the chemical industry, manufacturing sectors, fire fighters and citizens. These information products and services help Canadians protect work places and ultimately the environment by increasing understanding of chemicals and how they impact the environment and people.

B. Total Planned Spending by Strategic Outcome

CCOHS is a national centre dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of unbiased information on occupational health and safety. CCOHS provides Canadians with information about occupational health and safety that is trustworthy, comprehensive, and intelligible. The information facilitates responsible decision-making, promotes improvements in workplace health and safety, increases awareness of the need for a healthy and safe working environment, and supports occupational health and safety and education training.

CCOHS has one overall program activity, occupational health and safety information development, delivery services and tripartite collaboration. The department’s policies and programs are directed to the pursuit of the following key results:

2.5 Easy Access to Occupational Health and Safety Information and Service

Plans and Priorities

The Inquiries and Client Service is the national resource centre that provides free and confidential access to occupational health and safety (OH&S) information, in English or and in French to the Canadian working population. Specialists in workplace health and safety resources are available to assist Canadians with their questions via a telephone service, e-mail or fax. They also assist with supporting products, providing information and assistance in selecting workplace health and safety products. In addition, we develop and provide OSH Answers, available as a bilingual web based information service that covers over 600 topics in occupational health and safety. The health and safety information is presented in a question-and-answer format and answers more than 3,500 questions.

CCOHS also offers extensive information on its website and through various products and services. Service is also provided in selection of products, technical support and general information. The ongoing needs of Canadians are monitored to facilitate development of appropriate information resources.

The goals for the upcoming year are:

• Expand information available through OSH Answers by providing additional content delivered from the Internet
• Continue to review citizen satisfaction through ongoing performance measurement surveys to improve customer service and information content.
• Enhance the CCOHS website usability through improvements, organization of information for various occupations, enhancing content and searchability
• Increase awareness of the Inquiries and Client Services to Canadians and key stakeholders.
• Identify new information needs and develop products such as health and safety guides, web portals, and forums in response to Canadians’ needs
• Ongoing development and refinement of existing OHS products and services to ensure the content is current and relevant

Rationale

These services are delivered in various methods to ensure that Canadians have access in their preferred method of service and to efficiently provide services coast to coast from one location.

The key partners for the delivery of the person-to-person Inquiries services are the provincial and territorial governments who contribute financially to the operation of this service and through their participation on the CCOHS Council of Governors. Other partners include various international organizations that share their information with CCOHS.

Monitoring

These services are monitored through reviews of website statistics, service impact statistical reports, direct client feedback and user satisfaction surveys. Periodic evaluations are also conducted to obtain performance measurement information and secure detailed information from key informant interviews.

CCOHS supports the goal for a healthy Canada through promotion of health of Canadians by providing information to help them participate in reducing occupational diseases and workplace injuries. CCOHS also promotes Healthy Workplaces to improve overall health. Through CCOHS’ work on prevention initiatives, Canadians are provided with more unbiased information to assist them in preventing occupational diseases and workplace injuries. CCOHS focuses on promoting a culture of prevention, as it is the most effective long-term means to keep Canadians’ workplaces healthy, safe and productive.

2.6 Application of Occupational Health and Safety Information to Improve Workplace Practices

Plans and Priorities

The application of occupational health and safety information in the workplace is important to achieve reductions in injuries and illnesses and improve workplace productivity. Providing information that can be used to reduce illness and injuries in the workplace is a key requirement.

• Produce new health and safety guides relating to current needs in occupational health and safety and update existing guides
• Expand the number of e-learning courses delivered and increase the number of learners using these courses
• Develop partnerships for e-learning development and provide customized content
• Improve the availability of information through enhancements to the CCOHS website and improve the searchability of the website content
• Develop and provide additional needed resources on chemical health and safety
• Provide and make publicly accessible more workplace health and wellness information and engage partnerships with health and wellness organizations
• Foster collaboration and exchanges in ideas through national dialogues, forums and conferences to increase the application of OHS information in the workplace and improve prevention practices
• Collaborate with the stakeholders, international organizations on various health and safety issues

Rationale

The rationale for CCOHS' development of products and services is to promote improvements, both today and in the future, in Canadian workplaces for more effective occupational health and safety programs and higher quality OHS systems to reduce the number of illnesses and injuries and improve workplace capabilities in prevention.

Information provided in different methods for Canadians is essential to provide equal access to CCOHS’ services. Providing practical information that can be directly applied in the workplace is essential to achieving our goals. Key partners for delivering services can be found http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/partner.html.

Monitoring

The outcomes from this program are measured through analysis of a variety of metrics, data and activities including website statistics, distribution of publications, copyright applications, and evaluative information on the sharing of information and use of information in the workplace. Client surveys and focus groups are also conducted to obtain user feedback on the accessibility and usability of products and services. The latest reports can be reviewed at http://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports.html.

These services directly contribute to improving Canada’s social foundations by improving the overall health of Canadians with health information to help reduce the incidence of avoidable disease.

2.7 Increase Awareness and Understanding of Occupational Health and Information Issues in the Work Place

Plans and Priorities

• Promoting healthy workplaces and OSH information through internet, training, conferences, presentations and the Bringing Health to Work Web Portal
• Enhancement of website presentation and its searchability
• Provide additional key resources on chemical health and safety
• Increase content through partnerships
• Provide Health and Safety Report as an electronic newsletter delivered to Canadians via the internet
• Promote the importance of health and safety in the workplace nation wide
• Host webinars (on-line broadcasts) to increase the reach of various presentations
• Participate in collaborative projects with different levels of government and other organizations throughout the year.

Rationale

Recognizing the importance of occupational health and safety is the first step in identifying problems and working towards solutions that ultimately lead to reduced injuries and illness.

Monitoring

The measurement of success is the distribution of information and the wide reach and use of these services. This can be measured through distribution statistics, participation in presentations, courses and special events, awareness campaigns and website statistics.

2.8 Partial Recovery of Costs from User Fees

Rationale

CCOHS' receives 50% of its budget through appropriations. The remaining 50% must be funded through the sale of products and services. The extent of programming is dependent upon the ability to generate the necessary revenues.

Monitoring

The success of this program is measured through the revenues generated from sales and the ability to meet operating expenses. Sales of products and services relates specifically to occupational health and safety to improve workplace health.