- Total injury rate sets a new low in provincial injury rates for the second year in a row.
- 2024 Total injury rate was 3.91 per 100 workers compared to 3.95 in 2023, a 1.01 per cent decrease.
- 2024 Time Loss injury rate was 1.72 per 100 workers compared to 1.78 in 2023, which represents a 3.37 per cent decrease.
Regina, Sask., March 10, 2025 – Saskatchewan continued to see the number of workplace injuries and fatalities drop in 2024. The Total injury rate of 3.91 per 100 workers for 2024 sets a new historical low in the province with the decrease of 1.01 per cent from the 2023 rate. Since 2009, the Total injury rate has decreased by 57.62 per cent.
“This new historic low in our Total injury rate represents the focus and hard work of workers, employers, safety associations, safety leaders across the province and labour to enable worker safety in Saskatchewan,” said Gord Dobrowolsky, WCB chair. “Safety starts with us on every job, every shift. It is our combined efforts that continue to reduce injury rates. While these numbers are heading in the right direction, even one injury is too many.”
For the fifth year in a row, in 2024, 90 per cent of Saskatchewan workplaces had zero fatalities and zero injuries. In addition to the Total injury rate decrease in 2024, the Time Loss injury rate also dropped to 1.72 per 100 workers. This represents a decrease of 3.37 per cent from the 2023 rate of 1.78 per 100 workers.
“Saskatchewan continues to see decreasing Time Loss injury rates,” said WCB CEO Phillip Germain. “I applaud the collaboration across the province focusing on reducing workplace injury rates. Our province leads the country in so many ways, but when it comes to workplace safety, we still have a ways to go before we are number one in workplace safety in Canada. We are committed to ensuring safer workplaces in our province. While safe workplaces are good for business, the most important part of every job is for each worker to come home safely.”
In 2024:
- Total injury claims accepted increased by 7.3 per cent to 17,327 from 16,143 in 2023. The total number of workers covered increased to 443,344 in 2024 from 409,158 in 2023.
- Accepted No Time Loss claims increased to 9,705 in 2024 from 8,870 in 2023.
- Accepted Time Loss claims (excluding current-year fatalities) increased to 7,609 in 2024 from 7,256 in 2023.
- There were 27 workplace fatalities in 2024 compared to 29 in 2023, a decrease of seven per cent. Of the 27 fatalities in 2024:
- 10 fatalities were due to occupational disease (four of these were asbestos-related, three were firefighter cancer-related and the three remaining were the result of chemical exposure, radioactive material exposure and heart attacks).
- 17 fatalities were from traumatic incidents (four motor vehicle collisions, equipment contact and drowning).
The 2024 rate is the lowest workplace fatality rate the province has seen since 2017.
“While workplace injuries and fatalities in Saskatchewan are decreasing, we must never forget that workplace fatalities still tragically impact spouses, children, families, workplaces and communities every year,” said Dobrowolsky. “This must drive us to continually work toward making workplaces safe for every Saskatchewan worker.”
Every year in the province, approximately 2,400 workers suffer serious injuries. Between 11 and 15 per cent of all claims in the province continue to be serious injury claims, which make up more than 80 per cent of the costs to the Saskatchewan compensation system.
To further the province’s efforts in eliminating workplace fatalities and serious injuries, in 2023 WorkSafe Saskatchewan, a partnership between the WCB and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, launched the 2023-2028 Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy. The strategy is enhancing efforts to reduce injuries and fatalities through new regulatory, enforcement, prevention and learning initiatives. It is largely focused on three priority industries that include high-risk work. Those industries are health care, transportation and construction.
“This strategy is playing an important role in helping us to implement initiatives that act to prevent injuries and fatalities, and enhance worker safety on the job,” said Germain.
Learn more about the strategy at worksafesask.ca/fatalities-and-serious-injuries.
The Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) operates like an insurance company. The WCB was established in 1911 under a historic compromise between workers and employers: workers injured on the job in covered industries do not pay for benefits they receive or sue their employer and employers in covered industries pay for the costs of the compensation system. Visit wcbsask.com for more details.
*A Time Loss claim is when a worker misses work because of a work-related injury. The Time Loss injury rate definition includes Time Loss and fatalities.
*The Total injury rate includes accepted No Time Loss (no time off work), Time Loss (time off work) and fatality claims.
*A serious injury is defined as a claim meeting one or more of the following criteria:
- The claim is a fatality.
- The claim has 50 or more compensation days paid (full or partial).
- The claim includes a permanent functional impairment of 10 per cent or more.
- The claim is a primary psychological/mental health claim.
- The claim has a Ministry of Labour Relations Workplace Safety referral flag.
The injuries reported shall be within the parameters of Section 2-2 of The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 1996. The types of injuries the WCB reports to the Minister may include, but are not limited to:
- fracture (skull, spine, pelvis, femur, humerus, fibula, tibia, radius or ulna)
- head injury
- neck injury
- serious eye injury
- amputation or near amputations
- wounds to the torso
- electrical burn
- third degree burn
- exposure to radiation
- injury causing internal hemorrhage
- injury caused by an explosion (directly or indirectly)
- asphyxiation
- poisoning and serious toxic effects from exposure to chemicals
- severe infections (HIV, HBV, HCV or tuberculosis)
If one or more of the above criteria is satisfied, a claim will be referred to as a serious injury claim within the scope of the 2023-2028 Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy. This new and expanded definition has been laid over traditional data, indicators and validated lines of thought. It also indicated new areas of focus and better indicators for targeting, awareness and education, partnership and enforcement/inspection activities.