As of April 1, 2015, the Ontario Ministry of Labour mandated that all workers on construction projects who work at heights must have completed an approved working at heights (WAH) training program delivered by an approved working at heights training provider. 

The Institute for Work and Health (IWH) was called upon by the Ministry of Labour study the effectiveness of the WAH program and in doing so to consider two overarching questions:

  1. To what extent has the WAH training reached the target population?
  2. What impact has the introduction of the WAH training requirements had on fall prevention on construction projects?

The Executive Summary of the report can be found by clicking on the following link

https://www.iwh.on.ca/sites/iwh/files/iwh/reports/iwh_report_wah_evaluation_project1360_executive_summary_2019.pdf

The report’s conclusions are as follows:  

  1. The evaluation found consistent evidence that the mandatory WAH training program reached the target audience.
  2. The evaluation found consistent evidence that the training had an impact on the worksite. A statistically significant but modest impact on lost-time claims for falls targeted by the intervention was found in 2017.

Considerations for the future

The report includes suggestions for improving the WAH curriculum, the WAH program, and working at heights safety more generally. These were gathered through the surveys of providers, learners and employers, and input from the project advisory committee