Northern Ontario company fined $125K for workplace injury

A Val Caron-based mining and civil construction contractor has been fined $125,000 for safety failures that led to a critical injury on April 29, 2022.

Consbec Inc. pleaded guilty in provincial offences court in Thunder Bay, and was fined $125,000 plus a 25-per-cent victim surcharge, according to a media release issued by the province.

The company “failed to ensure the worker had been provided sufficient information, instruction and supervision on the safe operation of the drill rig.”

The incident took place while Consbec Inc. was doing contract work on a construction project for the province expanding Highway 11/17 between Thunder Bay and Nipigon. 

One worker was operating a drill rig that was advancing a series of boreholes in the ditch for explosive rock blasting, according to the province’s media release.

The worker positioned the drill rig on uneven ground with the tracks slightly overhanging a small embankment, then positioned themself between the rig and a rock shoulder.

They extended the boom of the drill rig and set the drill rig mast upright, tipping the right forward on uneven ground, striking and critically injuring the worker. 

The worker’s direct supervisor had left the ditch to return equipment to a nearby storage unit on the same project site where the incident took place.

In their investigation of the incident, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development determined Consbec Inc. determined Consbec Inc. was in breach of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. 

Specifically 25(2)(a), in which they failed to “provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker to protect the health or safety of the worker.”