REGINA — WorkSafe Saskatchewan has launched a rebrand this week, one that shifts the emphasis to safety, health and well-being.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan is a partnership between the Saskatchewan Workers' Compensation Board and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety.
At the launch announcement Wednesday, Minister Responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board Ken Cheveldayoff pointed out that the previous emphasis had been on advancing the goal of workplace safety and reducing workplace injuries.
"Many of us remember the 2008 Mission Zero campaign, which called on all of us to eliminate workplace injuries and reminded us that we work to live," said Cheveldayoff. "For more than two decades, WorkSafe Saskatchewan has advanced that goal, and we have made great progress. Eighty-nine per cent of workplaces were injury-free in 2025… And the injury rate dropped to a historic low of 3.68 per cent, but that number is still too high."
Cheveldayoff said approximately 2,500 Saskatchewan workers suffer serious injuries, and the only acceptable goal is still zero injuries.
"To reach it, we must rethink how we get there. A new slogan won't prevent injuries, but a new approach can engage the hearts and minds of employers, workers and organizations to make a real difference. Today, we are launching a new look and feel for WorkSafe, one that focuses on safety, health and well-being, not in isolation but through collaboration."
What makes this approach different, he said, is that it "puts into action what we learned from workers, unions and employers about the importance of sharing best practices and building safety, indeed, from the ground up." He pointed to it building on the Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy launched in 2019 that he said marked the beginning of a "new approach" to workplace safety. He said that in 2023, they followed that with a renewed five-year strategy.
"Today's rebrand reflects that work and is about more than a change in slogan. The Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy strengthens efforts to reduce injuries and deaths through regulatory enforcement, prevention and learning initiatives."
Chair of the Workers' Compensation Board Gord Dobrowolsky pointed out that while overall injuries are declining, "fatalities and serious injuries have remained unfortunately steady."
"That reality is what compelled us to look deeper and to listen carefully to today's prevention challenges, which have evolved. Safety is no longer just about guarding a machine or putting on protective equipment. It's also about ergonomics in health care. It's about psychological safety. It's about fatigue, exposure, violence, recovery and return to work, and it's about the systems that surround workers, not just the tasks that they perform."
Dobrowolsky said WorkSafe's new approach "reflects that understanding." He said the refreshed strategic framework "embraces a human-centred approach, one that recognizes that physical safety, psychological health and overall well-being are in fact inseparable."
"When organizations address these elements together, workers heal better, stay engaged longer and workplaces perform more sustainably. This means sharpening our focus where the risk is greatest. Through the 2023-28 Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy, we are targeting the primary drivers of serious harm, particularly in health care, transportation and construction. We are using better data to guide prevention efforts. We are strengthening return-to-work programs that support long-term recovery, and we are investing in tools and technologies that reduce exposure to occupational disease and musculoskeletal injuries, especially in high-risk environments."
The new approach by WorkSafe Saskatchewan is getting a thumbs up from the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour.
“Workers won significant improvements toward safer workplaces today," SFL President Lori Johb said in a statement.
“The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour is pleased to see workplace mental health, physical recovery and safety leadership being taken seriously by the provincial government. This victory comes because workers across Saskatchewan spoke out and fought for these reforms. They deserve the credit for these wins. However, we still have a long way to go before every worker can go to work and have full confidence that they will make it home safe at the end of the day. We continue to mourn those we’ve lost in the workplace and fight like hell for the living."
