LAWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Training

Jul 15: Alberta officially recognized the Ontario Working at Heights Training Program as meeting Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) requirements for fall protection training. Translation: Workers who move to the province after completing the Ontario program will be deemed competent to perform work involving vertical fall hazards in Alberta without having to repeat their training.

Action Point: Find out about the rules governing whether employees are entitled to be paid for training time.

New Laws

Aug 12: The federal government announced that it’s kicking in another $2.1 million in funding over the next year for the expansion of the Educational Partnership Foundation’s (EPF) Trades Careers program, bringing the total investment in the project to nearly $5.7 million. The EPF supports young Canadians in Alberta and British Columbia seeking to develop skills, gain valuable work experience, and pursue apprenticeship certification in the Red Seal trades through a Registered Apprenticeship Program.

New Laws

Aug 13: Alberta’s Investment and Growth Fund is investing more than $1.5 million to support the expansion of the Whitecourt Newsprint Company Ltd.’s facility. The project will enable the facility to produce multiple grades of paper, resulting in the creation of 13 permanent full-time jobs and 25 temporary construction jobs and the retention of more than 220 existing positions.

New Laws

Aug 13: From now through September 30, residents can apply for the one-time $100 Alberta Energy Rebate providing relief on the cost of fuel, groceries, utilities, and other household needs. To be eligible, applicants must: be 18 or older, be an Alberta resident with a verified alberta.ca account, have filed a 2025 tax return, and have a household income of $225,000 or less.

New Laws

Jul 23: Thanks to the addition of 510 family physicians over the past year, Alberta now has 14,156 fully registered physicians. The overall increase of 1,226 physicians (roughly 10%), as compared to last year at this time, is the largest year-over-year increase in physician numbers on record and an all-time high for Alberta. More than 88% of Albertans now have access to a primary care provider.

New Laws

Jul 29: Alberta and the federal government signed a new eight-year housing agreement that will provide municipalities more than $510 million in Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund (CHIF) support for housing-enabling water and wastewater infrastructure projects across the province. Alberta will contribute a minimum of one-third of eligible project costs led by municipal governments, unlocking up to $428 million of provincial funding for qualifying projects. Under the agreement, 20% of the funding will be allocated to projects in rural or Indigenous communities.

Health & Safety

Jul 15: New Workers’ Compensation Board Alberta (WCB) data show that workplace incidents resulting in brain injuries most often fall into three categories: contact with objects or equipment (47%), falls (33%), and assault or violence (10%). There are over 1,400 claims related to these incidents occur each year, on average.

Action Point: Find out how to create a vibrant workplace health and safety culture to prevent brain and other injuries resulting in workers’ compensation claims.

CASES

Workplace Harassment: University Has OHS Duty to Protect Employee from Pro-Life Demonstrators

Walking past campus Pro-Life demonstrators and their graphic signs displaying an aborted fetus was an especially harrowing experience for an academic coordinator who suffered a miscarriage on a bathroom floor three months into her pregnancy. After HR and the faculty association rejected her desperate pleas to stop the demonstrations, she sued the university for not protecting her from workplace harassment. The university claimed that banning the demonstrations would violate demonstrators’ free speech rights. Citing their traumatic effect on the coordinator’s psychological health, the Alberta arbitrator ruled that tolerating the demonstrators’ graphic signs violated the university’s OHS duty to protect her from a workplace “hazard.” While bound to respect their free speech rights, the university could legally have imposed reasonable limitations to protect the coordinator, such as requiring demonstrators to provide advance notice of demonstrations and keep to one side of the quadrangle. Result: The university had to pay the coordinator $10,000 in damages [Mount Royal University v Mount Royal Staff Association, 2026 CanLII 78315 (AB GAA), August 4, 2026].

Action Point: The takeaway from this case is that free speech doesn’t give workers or visitors licence to harass another person at the workplace, especially when employers can impose reasonable restrictions that protect the harassment victim without taking away the speaker’s speech rights. Find out more about the laws governing free speech and political speech in the workplace and how to impose fair restrictions without violating employees’ rights.

Accommodations: No Duty to Create New Job to Accommodate Employee’s Permanent Disability

A radiology practice ended the employment of an ultrasound technician who had been on long term disability (LTD) leave for nearly four years based on a recent medical exam finding she was permanently disabled. The practice claimed frustration of contract; the technician claimed wrongful dismissal. The Alberta court sided with the practice. Frustration is justified when the employee can’t perform the work due to a permanent disability. The permanent nature of the disability also relieved the practice of its duty to make reasonable accommodations under human rights laws. The duty to accommodate doesn’t require an employer to create a new employment position—in this case, turn a sonographer into an MRI technician—that isn’t required for its business [Lai-Terke v EFW Radiology, 2026 ABCJ 114 (CanLII), July 22, 2026].

Action Point: The duty to make reasonable accommodations doesn’t require a company to accept undue hardship. Find out how to implement Accommodations Best Practices to determine whether a requested accommodation would impose an undue hardship.

Health & Safety: Company Not Guilty of OHS Violations in Forklift Driver Fatality

Jul 17: The prosecution charged an equipment rental firm with 10 OHS violations stemming from an incident in which a truck driver suffered fatal injuries after falling from the upper deck of a trailer after being struck by a machine shaft that rolled off the forks of a telehandler. The Calgary trial court ruled that the Crown didn’t prove the company committed the violations and acquitted it of all charges [Stephenson’s Rental Services Inc., Govt. Press Release, July 22, 2026].