Online WHMIS Certificate for the Yukon

Yukon WHMIS Training and Certification

Health Canada endeavours to ensure workers and the general public is as safe as possible when using, storing, or handling hazardous products. That’s why they adopted the United Nations’ recommended Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). WHMIS 2015 was developed to bring Canada’s communication methods surrounding hazardous products into alignment with the GHS.

Canada’s federal level of government oversees legislation surrounding WHMIS such as the Hazardous Products Act and the Controlled Products Regulations. However, the federal laws are handed down to be carried out on a provincial level to streamline WHMIS implementation so that Canadians won’t have to answer to two levels of government when it comes to monitoring, investigation and enforcement.

In Yukon, just like the other provinces and territories, there is provincial legislation and regulation for the implementation and enforcement of WHMIS. This is covered in Yukon’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and the WHMIS Regulations O.I.C. 1988/107.

Yukon’s WHMIS Regulations ensure that all expectations are the same as the other provinces, when it comes to pictographs, classifications of hazards, and labeling. This ensures that the WHMIS course information adheres to one standard for all of Canada when it comes to the instruction workers receive regarding WHMIS legislation. Consistency across all of Canada is an integral foundation of the Canadian WHMIS program.

WHMIS programming includes a set of standardized labels that encompasses all hazardous products included in WHMIS legislation. It also outlines what employers are legally obligated to provide to employees.

As an employer in Yukon, do I need to educate and train my employees on WHMIS?

The answer to this question is Yes, companies operating in the Yukon must ensure that all employees receive WHMIS training if they are working with or around any type of hazardous products. A workplace that has hazardous products in it could be a laboratory, a factory, a manufacturing plant, health clinic, or even an office that has cleaning supplies that include hazardous chemicals.

An employer’s responsibility is to make sure that workers and the general public are kept as safe as possible and they operate as the chain in the legal requirements of society to make sure that education about WHMIS happens at the employee level.

Facilitating knowledge of workers means providing them monitoring the labels of products they come into contact with to make sure that they are received from suppliers with the correct and up to date labels. The labels need to adhere to a set of guidelines in their use of pictographs and written language instructions surrounding the risks and warnings particular to each product, as well as their hazard classification. Labels need to be visible and not damaged or missing. If labels of imported products arrive missing or damaged, the employer needs to provide new labels.

Employers also need to provide and maintain a system of accurate Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) for the products used in their workplace. Safety Data Sheets need to be visible and available to employees and increased, more focused training needs to be provided to workers who work hands-on with specific chemicals.

Employees are also required to be trained in emergency protocols surrounding chemicals, the risks and warnings included regarding the chemicals the work with, and any other specialized knowledge required to do their jobs safely. Personal protection equipment and the proper equipment and gear essential to minimizing the risk surrounding hazardous materials are also mandatory for employers to provide.

This helps to improve the knowledge of the workers when it comes to these materials and ensure they are safe. It is also required by the law in Canada. Today, there are a number of ways to get the training needed, and the most convenient and flexible is to choose Yukon WHMIS training online. It will allow those who are undergoing training to do so on their own schedules.

How frequently do I need to train my workers on WHMIS in Yukon?

The governing authority in each province or territory sets the answer to this question and according to Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board, each employer’s WHMIS program must be reviewed annually. This means that a workplace with controlled products in it must have a WHMIS program that is maintained annually, providing up to date information to workers. And if the workplace supplies or an individual worker’s duties as assigned are altered in any way, workers are required to be re-trained. This means that a company’s WHMIS program may even need to be reviewed more than once per year.

To perform this type of monitoring, it can be beneficial for a company to appoint a safety representative that also makes sure to review the WHMIS program for updates regularly throughout the year, while helping to maintain the other aspects of the program. Many company’s also find this is a good fit for adding to the duties of their Human Resources department.

Do I need to have a WHMIS Certificate for my employees?

While provincial law in the Yukon does not require it, providing your employees with an individual WHMIS certificate comes with many benefits. Regarding employees, the law only requires that an employer be able to reasonably prove that they have received training on WHMIS and that the training resulted in the employee being able to employ the knowledge they have received while working. 

One way that an Occupational Health and Safety investigator can request proof of training is to inquire if you have records of the training provided, and if employees can produce a WHMIS certificate upon request, it helps to show that effort has been made to provide that training.

Once an employee receives WHMIS training, it provides a benefit for those who are working in transportation or need to go out to a job site to provide services. When the employee has their WHMIS certificate with them, they can show any concerned individual or manager at a job site that they have the required training to do the job. It is becoming expected for more and more corporations to request that workers entering their job site have WHMIS training.

There are no mandated WHMIS training providers that the government requires, and no set of details that are required to have on a WHMIS certificate. The employee name, company they are employed by, their training date, and their test score (if available at the time of printing) are what makes up a customary WHMIS certificate. But the most important piece of information usually looked at is the WHMIS training organization, to ensure that the WHMIS training was received from a qualified source.

More information is available at this link on the Yukon Workers Compensation Health and Safety Board website, http://wcb.yk.ca/Regulations/LIB0228.aspx