1. What do Canadian Farmers Think About Farm Safety?
2016 Opinion Survey
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ISASH 2016
Lexington, KY
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2. Background Project Description In partnership with Farm Credit Canada
What we wanted to know:
Where are producers going for safety information?
In what format/method do producers access safety information?
Why is there a gap between action and intention for safety?
What we will do with the results:
1) to focus CASA’s resources into the most effective channels and to launch campaigns focused on preventative action and to better serve the industry, and
2) Provide CASA with insights into reasons why there is a gap between action and intention in farm safety on Canadian operations.
3rd iteration of the FCC Survey, the first was in 2008 and the second 2011.
Quantitative data – CAIR (Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting) and Qualitative data which is the attitudinal survey. Both are used to drive our activities in the work plan.

3. Background Project Description Response Rate Primary Producers
This survey was sent to a stratified sample of 2,030 Vision panelists and 1295 producers participated in the survey (64% response rate). The sample was weighted to match sector and provincial representation based on the 2011 census. The margin of error for this survey is +/- 2.6%, 19 times out of 20, based on a sample this size.
Incentive Details
Survey respondents were compensated with a $10 electronic Amazon gift card.
Survey Timing
Survey opened: Thursday, January 7, 2016
Survey closed: Wednesday, January 13, 2016
-respondents are pre-screened by their participation in the vision panel. The vison panel is a number of self-selected members from all levels of ag including production, ag studies, and agri business. The vision panelists agree to be surveyed by FCC on various topics.

4. The Impact of Bill 6 What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety?
Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act in Alberta
“In Alberta we need to keep hammering the provincial government to reconsider bill 6. There is nothing wrong with a farmer being told he has to keep workmans comp for an employee but it has to stop there! No OH/s is needed on any farm. It will be a nightmare!”
“OHS has no right to apply penalties for farm work. We all want to come home safe every night. Increasing awareness and a culture of safety through education will help.”
 - the introduction of bill six by the new democratic party in the province of Alberta was heavily referenced in the survey. When Bill six was first introduced, it was met with protests and outcry and continues to be a focus of all producers across Canada. Bill 6 became law as of January 1,2016.
-OH&S legislation, mandatory WCB coverage, labour regulations and the right to unionize.
- In the comments, we were not terribly surprised to hear about bill six and its perceived impact on farmers. Even farmers in other provinces, talked about bill six without reference to their own Occupational health and safety laws that were already in place in their province. It seems as though many producers are unaware of the OH&S legislation and how it applies to them.

5. What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety?
Producers believe their work practices are safe. Three quarters (75%) of producers feel the work on their operation is done safely most of the time, while two in ten producers (22%) feel the work on their operation is done safely all of the time.
Four in ten producers (42%) report a personal injury, family member injury, or employee injury on their operation in their lifetime. One in ten producers (11%) reported a personal, family or employee injury within the last year (2015).

6. What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety?
- Protecting people is the most influential factor for producers to improve safety as most selected family, employee, and personal safety as being the most influential of all factors measured. Alternatively, producers are least likely to be influenced by legal action protection and government legislation.

7. What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety?
- Cost surprisingly came in third. Only 24% of farmers indicated cost as a barrier to improvement. Also in third was safety knowledge at 24%.

8. What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety?
Up from 9% in 2011, not statistically significant, but we were excited.

9. What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety?
Possible answers included suppliers, farm and/or commodity associations, provincial ag safety associations, provincial governments, saint john ambulance, CASA and Red Cross.
This confirms what we’ve suspected for a while, CASA has been working to strengthen our partnerships with agri-retailers and suppliers to reach producers.
Print is still king.

10. What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety?
- Producers were asked the open ended question asked “We welcome any comments you may have on improving safety within agriculture?” n=304 responded.
Of those who provided feedback, most producers mention a desire for increased safety education (29%) and feelings of negativity regarding government legislation (25%).

11. Surprises What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety? Uh oh?
This survey did not find a connection between what respondents reported as their perceived safety behaviours (using safety resources, motivation, having a written plan) and lower self-reported injury rates on an operation.
 - Initially this caused us some distress. Fortunately, due to researchers in the field, we were able to determine this makes absolute sense. The fact that there were surveyed on safety, raises their awareness of safety issues and improves their recall of injuries leading to more reporting of injuries.

12. What do Canadian Famers Think About Farm Safety?
Questions?

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Robin Anderson
CASA Communications
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