PSAC health and safety leaders from across Canada gathered in Toronto September 25-27 for the 2025 PSAC National Health and Safety Conference to push forward their priorities for advancing health and safety in the workplace.  

This year’s conference theme was “Health and Safety: For you, your work, and our planet”, drawing attention to how changing workplaces and environments are creating new hazards for workers that must be urgently addressed.  

A key thread throughout the conference was how climate change is threatening the health and safety of workers from coast to coast to coast. Hotter summers, dangerous wildfires, and more frequent droughts and floods increase the health and safety risks of the workers facing these threats firsthand. 

Workers can’t wait years for employers and governments to act. We need a collaborative and collective approach to address climate change and ensure workers are protected. 

Health and safety priorities 

Delegates passed important resolutions that will guide the priorities of the union in fighting for improvements to workplace health and safety for all workers, including:  

• Supporting the inclusion of wildland firefighters in provincial and territorial disability and cancer legislation. 

• Advocating that all employers conduct hazard and risk assessments to properly identify and provide suitable personal protective equipment specific to work tasks and environments.  

• Fighting to have domestic violence included in health and safety legislation across Canada.  

At the conference, PSAC also launched an updated toolkit for health and safety committees and representatives. Health and safety committees and representatives now have practical, fully designed, and printable resources to assist them in their work — resources that the employer doesn’t necessarily provide. 

Workplace health and safety isn’t just the role of workers and their unions. Employers, government officials, and other decision-makers must ensure that health and safety is the foundation of every decision they make about restructuring departments, roles, and workplace responsibilities.  

PSAC will continue to fight for improved health and safety legislation and policies so that every worker gets home from work safe and healthy.