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 2024, for example, 203 workers lost their lives as a result of their employment.
| Occupational disease | 113 |
| Trauma | 50 |
| Motor vehicle accident | 29 |
| Other | 11 |
| Total | 203 |
In 2024, the “other” category included 2 air crashes and 9 cardiac incidents.
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 11 years. Let’s start with annual totals.
Last year’s total of 203 work-related deaths was the highest that Alberta has seen during this period.
The average during this period is 164.7, which is up from the average of 161.2 between 2013 and 2023. Only 5 of the last 11 years have been below that average.
Combined, 1976 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 hazards, such as cancer, hearing loss, or asthma.
The largest number of fatalities due to occupational disease was last year, when it hit 113. Only two other years (2021 and 2022) have passed the 100 mark over the 11 years, which happens to be the years with the highest percentage (61.24% and 62.73%) of occupational disease fatalities.
The lowest percentage of occupational disease fatalities was 46.91% in 2018. Last year’s percentage was 55.67%.
Since 2013, there have been 1,059 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, making last year the 5th highest number of work-related deaths caused by trauma.
The lowest year was 2022, when it dropped down to 33.
Combined, 562 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 tied for the 5th highest number, which the number seen in 2014 and 2016.
2021 had the lowest number of motor vehicle accident fatalities, 22, followed by 2015, at 23.
If we add up all motor vehicle accidents leading to death since 2013, we get 344 total fatalities.
I was also able to get information on the ages of the 203 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:
| Trauma | 45.5 |
| Motor vehicle accident | 45.0 |
| Other | 45.3 |
| Occupational disease | 79 |
The median age at the time of death for all workplace-related fatalities was 68.
I compiled all this data in a Google Sheet document, which you can access here.
