Nov. 7, 1885
The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed as the last spike is driven. Completion of the longest railroad in the world was seen as critical to the development of Canada.

Thousands of foreign workers were imported to build the railway, including 6,000 workers from Hong Kong. The workers are paid as much as $2.50 a day, which was high pay in the late 19th century. However, they were responsible for their transportation costs, health care, food and lodging.

The number of workers killed on the job reached into the thousands – including 200 who died of scurvy in 1881.

Injured workers received no benefits. Nor did the families of workers killed on the job.

1884
German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck establishes a state-run accident fund, paid for by workers and employers, to pay benefits to workers injured on the job. It was the first workers' compensation system in the world.

1886
Ontario establishes a form of workers' compensation based on a British law. Individual companies would be responsible for paying the full cost of an approved claim. The system bankrupted many British companies.

1889
The federal government establishes the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital. In its report, the commission notes that many workers were being hurt on the job. It condemns oppressive working conditions in many industries. The commission makes a string of recommendations to improve working conditions – but the federal government does not act on them, saying to do so would infringe on provincial authority.

1891
An explosion at a mine in the Springhill, N.S., coal field kills 125 miners. An accumulation of coal dust in the shafts is thought to be one cause, but the ignition point of the explosion is never found.

1897
Ontario passes new workers' compensation legislation that is based on no-fault principles.

1903
B.C. passes workers' compensation legislation that places responsibility for paying claims on individual employers. Employees have no protection if the employer is unable to pay the claim.

1909
Quebec passes a law similar to B.C.'s legislation.

1910
The Ontario government asks the province's chief justice, William Meredith, to review workers' compensation legislation in other countries.

1912
Ontario passes the Mining Act, which includes rules on mine safety.

Oct. 31, 1913
Meredith's report recommends a new approach to workers' compensation legislation. In exchange for guaranteed no-fault benefits, workers give up their right to sue their employer. The system would be fully funded by employers, but they would be freed from legal liability. The system would also be administered by an independent administrative body.

1914
Ontario passes legislation based on the Meredith report. Within four years, Nova Scotia (1915), B.C. (1916), Manitoba (1917), Alberta (1918) and New Brunswick (1918) follow suit. Newfoundland (1950) becomes the last province to adopt a similar system.

1920
Dr. J. Grant Cunningham founds the industrial hygiene division under the Ontario Board of Health, the third body of its kind in North America. In over 40 years as its director, he would promote prevention and early detection of occupational diseases to the heads of industries and provincial governments.

1934
The Canadian Institute of Sanitary Inspectors is incorporated under federal charter.

1935
A "manual for sanitary inspectors" becomes available in Canada. At the time, study of this book, combined with on-the-job apprenticeship, is the only way to become a health inspector.

1953
The Ontario Sanitary Inspectors Training Course, a one-year course, is introduced at the Ontario Institute of Technology, a precursor of Ryerson University.

1956
An explosion at a mine in the Springhill, N.S., coal field kills 39 miners, and 88 others are trapped and later rescued. The explosion is triggered after mine train cars derail and hit a power line, igniting coal dust in the air.

1958
A mine collapse at a mine in the Springhill, N.S., coal field traps all 174 miners inside. Hours after the collapse, 75 of the survivors are on the surface, but the rest are still trapped. Five and a half days after the collapse, a group of 12 miners is rescued. A second group is rescued a day later. In all, 74 miners are killed and 100 are rescued.

March 17, 1960
Five workers are killed while digging a tunnel in Toronto. The provincial government forms a royal commission to update worker safety regulations.

1968
Canada Labour (Safety) Code goes into effect. It gives federal legislative authority for regulating industries.

1972
Saskatchewan passes the Occupational Health Act, considered the first legislation of its kind in North America. It is known in Canadian labour circles as the baby of Robert Sass, then executive director of Occupational Health and Safety and associate deputy minister of labour. The act sets the framework for future legislation, enshrining three important rights for workers:

• The right to know about hazards and dangers in the workplace
• The right to participate in health and safety issues through a workplace committee
• The right to refuse unsafe work

1974
Miners in Eliot Lake in Northern Ontario stage a wildcat strike to protest unsafe working conditions and lax regulations. The provincial government strikes a royal commission in response, headed by James Ham.

1976
The Report of the Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines (The Ham Report) is published. The occupational health and safety division, comprising the mines safety, construction safety, industrial safety and occupational health (from Ministry of Health) branches, is established, as recommended by the Ham Report. The report has a significant effect on the content of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (1978)

1978
The Occupational Health and Safety Act is passed in Ontario. It incorporates recommendations of the Ham Report, including the Internal Responsibility System (IRS), which would share responsibility for workplace safety between employers and employees. Also that year, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety is created.

1986
Canada Labour Code requires joint employer-employee safety and health committees.

1988
Law enacting the federal Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) comes into force. WHMIS is a system to identify hazards in the workplace, and inform and train workers about how to deal with them.

May 9, 1992
Despite repeated warnings about dangerous conditions at the Westray mine, nothing is done. Just after 5 a.m., a spark ignites an explosion that kills 26 miners at the mine in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. The resulting inquiry finds glaring safety abuses and blames mine owners and government inspectors. The title of the report: The Westray Story: A Predictable Path to Disaster.

May 17, 2006
Four people are killed at the decommissioned Sullivan mine in Kimberley, B.C. They succumbed to hydrogen sulphide (sour gas) fumes when they entered a shed on the site. The mine's owner, Teck Cominco, identifies the four victims as two mine workers and two paramedics. The shed has a hole in its floor through which technicians perform monthly tests on water draining from the former lead, zinc and silver mine. The first mine worker went to the structure to carry out the test. After he had been missing for two days, a second mine worker went to look for him. The two paramedics went after them and all four died when they inhaled the noxious gas, which interferes with the body's ability to use oxygen.

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