Latest news with #OHSCode
Calgary Herald
5 days ago
- Health
- Calgary Herald
11 OHS charges filed over fatal trench collapse in northwest Calgary
Two years after the death of an apprentice plumber in northwest Calgary, Occupational Health and Safety charges have been laid against Mr. Mike's Plumbing Ltd., after a worker was fatally injured while working on a City of Calgary sewer line. Article content Article content On June 8, 2023, 27-year-old Liam Johnston was killed while working on a sewer line replacement excavation site in the alley of the 2600 block on 34th Avenue N.W., in the community of Charleswood. Article content Article content 'He was outside and they had opened up a hole in the backyard of the home,' said Emily Gofton, the victim's partner. 'The company, according to the charges, did not have the proper safety equipment on site.' Article content Article content Although there were other employees on site, Johnston was working alone inside of a three- to six-metre hole, where he was trying to identify the pipe that needed to be replaced. Article content 'The retaining wall and the hole collapsed on him,' Gofton said. 'So that buried him alive in there, and the fire and rescue crews weren't able to recover his body for most of the day due to the lack of equipment that was on site.' Article content On May 29, the Ministry of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration charged Mr. Mike's Plumbing Ltd. with 11 counts under the OHS laws, in connection with Johnston's death, a spokesman said in a statement issued to Postmedia. Article content The charges outlined several failures to ensure the health, safety and welfare of a worker, including failure to ensure the protection of an employee from the collapse of an excavation wall, failure to implement safe work procedures in an excavation site and several OHS Code violations. Article content Article content The ministry also said that it is always tragic when a worker dies on the job, and that it is the province's goal to have all workers return home from work both healthy and safe every day. Article content Article content Gofton added that the Calgary Police Service completed its investigation on the incident, with investigators' findings sent to the Crown for review. Article content 'We're really hopeful that they'll be adding criminal charges on top of these occupational health and safety charges as well,' she said. Article content From statements to various forms of evidence, Gofton said she is thankful for the support from community members and former employees who stepped forward during the investigation process. She notes that screenshots from messages that took place from months before the incident played a critical role in the investigation.
CBC
28-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Three companies convicted in 2022 death of Alberta worker at Suncor mine
Three companies have been penalized more than $1.2 million in the death of a 26-year-old man who was fatally struck by piece of equipment at Suncor's Base Mine nearly three years ago. The contractor died on July 7, 2022, at a shovel maintenance pad in the mine, about 30 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. A piece of equipment known as a pendant line that had been suspended from a crane fell, striking the heavy equipment technician who was conducting shovel maintenance duties on site. In a statement Friday, Occupational Health and Safety officials said Suncor Energy Services Inc., Joy Global Canada Ltd., and NCSG Crane & Heavy Haul Services Ltd. have been convicted in the worker's death. Each company pleaded guilty to a single count under Alberta's workplace safety laws and were sentenced March 21 in the Fort McMurray Court of Justice. A total of 29 other charges levied against the companies were withdrawn by the Crown as part of a creative sentence that will see the penalties help fund safety programming in the province. Suncor Energy Services Inc. pleaded guilty to one count under the OHS Code for failing to ensure sharp edges on loads being hoisted were guarded to prevent damage to the rigging. The company was penalized $495,000. Ten other counts against the oilsands giant were withdrawn. Joy Global, a mining equipment company, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker. The company was penalized $374,000. NCSG Crane & Heavy Haul Services Ltd., pleaded guilty to failing to ensure a hazard assessment was repeated when a new work process was introduced and was fined $374,000. Some of the stayed charges previously levied against the companies that had employed the man were failing to ensure workers engaged in handling components from a boom shovel were adequately trained, and failing to ensure the work site was set up safely so that a load would not pass over workers. As part of the sentence, the $1.234 million in penalties issued by the court will allocated to the University of Calgary, University of Alberta and Mount Royal University for workplace safety research. According to the province, the funds will be used to study rigging and hoisting practices, to develop recommendations for improved safety practices for the industry and establish an OHS research institute model for Alberta. In addition to the creative sentence, each company was fined $1,000 including the victim fine surcharge. The worker's death was part of a trend at Suncor's mining operations in northern Alberta. Between 2014 and 2022, the Calgary-based energy company had at least 12 workplace deaths at its sites, more than the rest of its oilsands peers combined.
