National Day of Mourning occurs every year on 28 April, honouring workers who have died on the job or as a result of their employment or suffered injury or illness on the job.
Established in 1984 by the Canadian Labour Congress, the commemoration date was chosen to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the day the first Workers’ Compensation Act was approved by the provincial government in Ontario.
It was enshrined in national legislation by an act of Parliament in 1991.
Workers’s Compensation Board — Alberta reports statistics on their website for workplace-related deaths for the most recent year.
In 2023, for example, 165 workers lost their lives as a result of their employment.
| Occupational disease | 89 |
| Trauma | 43 |
| Motor vehicle accident | 33 |
| Total | 165 |
Motor vehicle accidents also include air crashes (there were 4 last year).
I was curious to see how these numbers compared to other years, so I reached out to WCB — Alberta for the data, which they were more than willing to provide. I asked them to go back to 2013.
Here’s a look at workplace fatalities over the last decade. Let’s start with annual totals.
Even though 165 workplace-related fatalities seems like a lot, it’s not the highest number. That was set at the beginning of this reporting period, with 188 fatalities in 2013.
In fact, last year was tied for fifth-highest workplace fatalities, surpassed by 2013, 2021, 2014, and 2017.
The average over the last decade is 161.2, so last year’s numbers were a little higher than that average. That being said, only two years since 2016 have been below that average.
Combined, 1773 workers have died due to workplace fatalities since 2013.
Each year, the leading cause of workplace fatalities is occupational disease, which is a health problem caused by exposure to a workplace health hazard, such as cancer, hearing loss, or asthma.
The largest number of fatalities due to occupational disease was in 2021, when it hit 109. Only one other year (2022) has passed the 100 mark over the last decade, which happens to be the year with the highest percentage (62.73%) of occupational disease fatalities.
The lowest percentage of occupational disease fatalities was 46.91% in 2018.
Since 2013, there have been 946 total workplace fatalities caused by occupational disease.
Typically, trauma is the second leading cause of workplace fatalities.
The year with the highest number of trauma-related workplace fatalities was 2019, which was actually tied with 2014, at 59. Only 2 other years (2013 and 2018) were above 50.
The lowest year was 2022, when it dropped down to 33.
Combined, 512 deaths have occurred over the last decade because of work-related trauma.
Finally, we have motor vehicle accidents.
The highest number of fatalities caused by a motor vehicle accident occurred in 2013, the first year of the reporting period. Last year was actually the third highest number, after 2017.
2021 had the lowest number of fatalities, 22, followed by 2015, at 23.
If we add up all motor vehicle accidents leading to death since 2013, we get 315 total fatalities.
I was also able to get information on the ages of the 165 members of the working class who died last year because of their job.
Here’s the median age for each category of workplace-related fatalities:
| Air crash | 38 |
| Trauma | 44 |
| Motor vehicle accident | 47 |
| Cardiac | 60 |
| Occupational disease | 76 |
The median age at the time of death for all workplace-related fatalities was 67.
I compiled all this data in a Google Sheet document, which you can access here.
