Ontario Construction News staff writer
Consbec Inc., a mining and construction contractor based in the Greater Sudbury community of Val Caron, has been fined $125,000 after one of its workers was critically injured when a construction drill rig tipped.
The incident occurred on April 29, 2022, when Consbec was doing contract work on a construction project expanding Highway 11/17 in Dorion Township in northwestern Ontario, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development said in a statement.
“One worker was operating a drill rig that was advancing a series of boreholes in the ditch for explosive rock blasting,” the statement said.
“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. When the worker extended the boom of the drill rig and set the drill rig mast upright, the rig tipped forward on the uneven ground, striking and critically injuring the worker.”
At the time of the incident, the worker’s direct supervisor had briefly left the ditch to return equipment to a nearby storage unit on the same project site.
Following a guilty plea in Provincial Offences Court in Thunder Bay, Consbec was fined by Justice of the Peace Nancy Tulloch. Crown Counsel was Graeme Adams.
The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation determined that Consbec failed to provide information, instruction and/or supervision to a worker to protect the health and safety of the worker, contrary to section 25(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.