‘It should never be part of the job’

A Brandon labour leader is calling on governments and employers to build on recent improvements to make sure workers are safe at their jobs.

“Every single worker deserves to come home at the end of the day exactly as they left, safe in body and safe in mind,” Kirk Carr, president of the Brandon and District Labour Council, said during a press conference at Brandon City Hall on Tuesday.

The event was held to mark the National Day of Mourning, an annual commemoration of workers killed, injured or made ill on the job.

The theme this year was psychological health and safety.

Carr said psychological harm, burnout, chronic stress, harassment and workplace violence in the past was too often ignored and dismissed as part of the job.

“It should never be just part of the job,” Carr said to a crowd of about 35 people. “Harm does not require a physical scar to be real.”

Nearly half of working Canadians say their job is the most stressful part of their daily life, he said. Thousands of people have submitted mental-health claims, with many more suffering in silence because they’re unsure of how to speak up.

Carr said a provincial bill passed last year, which aims to take into account the psychological well-being of workers, is a good step.

“Today, as we look to the future, we are calling our leaders and employers to build on this momentum,” he said.

Carr called for Workers Compensation Board policies to evolve with new laws and help employers put prevention plans into practice so that psychological health is treated with the same weight as physical health across all jurisdictions.

“We owe it to the workers we have lost, we owe it to their families and we owe it to every person clocking into their shift today, here in Brandon and across the province,” he said.

In the past year, 14 people have died in Manitoba because of workplace injuries. Of those, half died from traumatic injuries and the other half from occupational diseases.

“These are not just statistics — these are our neighbours, our friends, family members, members of our community,” Carr added.

In Winnipeg on Tuesday, Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino announced the provincial government will contribute $100,000 to the Preston Heinbigner Memorial Fund to support first responder mental health, mainly in Winnipeg.

At the press conference in Brandon, the regional director of the Workers Compensation Board said workers need to speak up to ensure everyone is safe.

“Let’s look out for one another and take an active role in workplace safety. Call out workplace hazards and speak up when something can be improved,” Eileen West said.

She said what can seem like a small concern can quickly grow, affecting other people.

Brandon West MLA Wayne Balcaen, a former chief of the Brandon Police Service, touched on his first-hand experience with the psychological harms in the workplace.

“In my career, I lost three close friends to suicide in the policing world because of the stresses of the job and emergency services,” said Balcaen, who spent 33 years as a police officer.

“The National Day of Mourning is a reminder that every worker deserves to come home safely, deserves to be free of injury, deserves to come home to their family, to their friends,” he said.

He said the memories of responding to calls, including accidents and injuries, stick with people over time.

“Safety, physical and mental, is essential, and may it inspire us to build a province where every worker returns home safely.

Brandon East MLA Glen Simard said it’s important to talk about harms in the workplace.

“You need to make sure … that you’re OK, that your workplace doesn’t contribute to you not being OK,” Simard said.

Brandon city manager Dave Wardrop said the municipality had 578 health-and-safety-related reports in 2025, 111 of which were classified as near-misses or hazards.

Because of prompt reporting, those issues were identified and corrected, he said.

The city also had 41 time-lost claims last year, he said.

“When compared to prior years, our injury rate has dropped significantly,” Wardrop said. “However, we need to do better still. Workplace safety must remain a top priority.”

He said the city’s plans for improvement include tailored return-to-work programs and training sessions on effective reporting.

“When we work together and look out for one another, we all benefit and prevent workplace tragedies.”

» alambert@brandonsun.com