For years to come, a broad-leafed maple tree will grow in Stanley Park in memory of the arborist who died on the job while tending to the city’s trees and parks.
Jody Taylor died March 31 while removing an unsafe tree in Connaught Park in Kitsilano. The 43-year-old father and musician counted 16 years as a park board employee.
On Thursday, the national Day of Mourning for Persons Killed or Injured in the Workplace, the park board honoured Taylor by planting a memorial tree and dedicating a bench in his name on the lawn near the entrance to Stanley Park on Beach Avenue.
To mark theDay of Mourning, Canadian flags were flown at half-mast from sunrise to sunset.
According to WorkSafeBC, 122 workers died last year in B.C. while on the job or because of their job.
Fifty of those deaths were from traumatic injuries. Another 72 were from occupational diseases, including exposure to asbestos.
By industry, 29 deaths were in construction, 27 in manufacturing, 18 in the service industry, 16 in the resource sectors such as forestry, and 13 in transportation.
Over the past two decades, work-related deaths have decreased by more than 40 per cent in B.C.
In 2014, the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada reported 919 deaths in Canada. Among the dead were 13 people aged 15 to 19 and 25 people aged 20 to 24.
