Ergonomics in Canada

This article describes the origins of some of the institutions and agencies contributing to the development and practice of ergonomics in Canada.

Ergonomics in Canada, as in other countries, found its genesis in military procurement. Following the Second World War, military scientists at the Defence Research Board Toronto recognised the basic tenet of ergonomics–that operators (in this case servicemen and women) work more safely and more effectively when the design of the work situation takes account of their anatomical, physiological and psychological characteristics – and adopted it as a significant component of their work. In due course, the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine (DCIEM), as this agency was oddly renamed, became the birthplace, in 1968, of the Human Factors Association of Canada (HFAC), the Canadian organisation affiliated to the International Ergonomics Association.

In 1984 the Association adopted the name Human Factors Association of Canada/Association canadienne d’ergonomie. In this year also it entered the international scene by sponsoring the International Conference on Occupational Ergonomics in Toronto. In 1999 it changed its name once more, this time to the Association of Canadian Ergonomists/Association canadienne d’ergonomie (ACE).

The twenty-nine founding members of the original organisation were mostly military or ex-military persons or functionaries of other government departments. A few were academics; only two were women. In its early days ACE (or HFAC, as it then was) did not make many waves. Members met at least once a year to present papers to each other, but it did not engage seriously in questions of academic and professional status and development. The prevailing mode changed in 1981 when members were persuaded to forsake the Muskoka Lakes in order to hold the annual conference in Toronto. Ergonomists from places outside southern Ontario were now able to find the venue and the organisation began its expansion.

Apart from providing a birthplace for ACE, DCIEM also provided its original name. In establishing DCIEM, the Department of National Defence had "recognized the importance of human factors", and DCIEM claimed "the human factors of command systems" as one of its areas of competence. In 1968, prevailing opinion in North America was that the term human factors correctly described the domain of interest and did so more appropriately than the term ergonomics. The new association was therefore named accordingly. It thrived for many years with that name but whether the decision impeded, in certain respects, the development of ergonomics in Canada remains questionable.

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