Ontario's labour minister is aiming to solve an excrement predicament.
Monte McNaughton is set to announce today that he is proposing to amend rules about bathrooms on construction sites to make them cleaner, safer and provide some for women only.
He says he hears often from women in the skilled trades who feel the bathrooms on job sites are unsafe or unsanitary and say they have to leave work to use the facilities at a coffee shop.
McNaughton says a Ministry of Labour bathroom inspection blitz last month at more than 1,800 construction sites found 244 violations, the most common being no toilets provided, a lack of privacy, or a lack of cleaning.
He says new rules are intended to use every tool to ensure workers have access to clean washrooms.
The minister is proposing to double the number of toilets on job sites, require them to be properly lit and provide hand sanitizer where there is no running water, and require at least one women's only toilet on large sites.
McNaughton says the proposed changes would also make it more explicit that personal protective equipment be properly fitted, to take into account women and ``diverse body types.''