The Province of Alberta plans to focus safety inspections during 2011 on forklifts and mobile equipment, young workers and residential construction projects.

Establishing the target niches followed occupational health and safety (OHS) inspections from 8 October to 22 November, resulting in 39 stop-work and 12 stop-use findings among 214 orders. The province conducted 298 initial and follow-up inspections at 73 work sites of 146 commercial construction employers.

"We issued stop-work orders at a quarter of the sites we visited," says Thomas Lukaszuk, provincial minister of employment and immigration and a member of the Alberta legislative assembly for the constituency of Edmonton-Castle Downs.

The OHS organisation says fall hazards top the list of safety violations and indicates that working at height without proper protection is a primary safety issue in the commercial construction sector.

Ongoing OHS-focused inspection projects are "directed at industries where specific hazards are known to exist and where OHS observes non-compliance," says a December report of the Edmonton-based agency.