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Calgary Herald
a day ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Eco-conscious tiny home offers perfect retreat for Team Canada athlete
Team Canada speedskater Hayden Mayeur and his partner Rosa O'Brien took the plunge into home ownership in a rather unconventional way. Frustrated at not being able to step into Calgary's housing market, this young couple (they are both in their twenties) took the bull by the horns, and forged ahead with a creative solution, building an off-grid 325-square-foot tiny home on the outskirts of the city. Article content Article content Unconventional solutions are nothing new for Mayeur. In addition to being a high-performance athlete, training full-time at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, he's an outside-of-the-box thinker and a highly successful entrepreneur. O'Brien, a nurse, has just embarked on her career at the Alberta Children's Hospital. Article content Article content Yet even given all of their successes, stepping into Calgary's housing market still proved to be highly challenging for the duo, who had been renting a home in the community of Brentwood. Article content 'Rent is out of control in Calgary and we were not yet in a position to buy a house. It was becoming so frustrating to be dumping thousands of dollars a month to pay someone else's mortgage,' says Mayeur. Article content The couple, although they love the city, has very strong ties to local ranching communities. In fact, getting out into the country and onto a ranch is Mayeur's go-to strategy for decompressing. Article content 'I love being able to just hop on my horse and get out and drive cattle. It's something that I do to detach from the stress of training,' he says, adding that O'Brien, who also has a ranching background, really loves getting away from it all, too. Article content Article content Toggle full screen modePrevious Gallery Image Next Gallery ImageToggle gallery captions View All 3 Photos 1 of 3 Article content So, when he and O'Brien were offered a plot of land on a ranch on the outskirts of the Calgary to build a mobile and fully sustainable type of home, they jumped at the opportunity, bringing on Vernon-based Summit Tiny Homes to help them with the project. Article content 'We wanted a place that we could call home for a number of years and this would give us the lifestyle that we both wanted — being able to go home and relax and detach on a ranch. It came down to: Could we live in a small space? And neither one of us had a problem with that. It wasn't really a big jump, because we are both minimalists,' says Mayeur.
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Vernon food plant pleads guilty after nitrogen leak kills two workers
A food processing plant in Vernon has pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts and will pay more than $6 million after it was criminally charged for a hazardous nitrogen gas leak in 2020 that killed two workers. The deal with California Ranch Foods, a subsidiary of Vernon-based Golden West Food Group, was reached by prosecutors with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office last month and relies on findings from an investigation by California's workplace safety agency. The case stems from a Dec. 1, 2020 incident in which 56-year-old Baldemar Gonsales of Los Angeles and 54-year-old Maria Osyguss of Hemet were found lying unconscious at the company's facility in Vernon after a malfunction caused a leak of liquid nitrogen in one of the facility's chill rooms — specialized refrigerated spaces to preserve meat and other perishable foods. The workers were taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. They suffocated due to a lack of oxygen in the air because of the leak, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, also known as Cal/OSHA. 'When employers fail to protect their workers and it results in a preventable death, California will hold them accountable,' Cal/OSHA Chief Debra Lee said in a Tuesday news release about the deal. 'We will continue to use every tool available, including criminal referrals to ensure justice is served, and that safety is never optional.' The company faces three years of probation for the misdemeanor counts of workplace safety violations, which were reduced from felony charges as part of the deal. The deal takes into account a $35 million civil settlement for the victims families and requires more than $6 million in investments from California Ranch Foods in safety measures, criminal fines and other payments, according to the plea agreement. Specifically, the company is required to invest $1.6 million in safety improvements, pay $50,000 to California's Division of Occupational Health and Safety to support enforcement efforts, pay a $1 million criminal fine and donate $4 million to local food banks. Golden West Food Group, the parent company of California Ranch Foods, did not respond to a request for comment about the agreement. Cal/OSHA issued citations in October 2021 that found critical failures in the company's safety procedures and training around its handling of pressurized gas systems. The ageny's investigation of the incident found that one employee walked into the cold room, passed out, and died of asphyxiation. An hour later a second employee entered the room and similarly died. said Michael Bright, who heads up Cal/OSHA's Bureau of Investigations, which reviews workplace fatalities and pursues criminal cases. The employees received no warning of the leak because the alarm installed in the room was rusted over, Bright said. 'This was a case where there was gross negligence. [The investigator] quickly saw the egregiousness,' Bright said. Besides the company's failure to maintain alarms that would help provide time for a safe escape, Cal/OSHA found the company did not properly train employees on safety procedures or install adequate equipment to prevent harmful exposure. For example, the company did not have a ventilation system to funnel out nitrogen gas, install sensors readable from outside the room, or provide employees with individual oxygen monitors and emergency breathing apparatuses, the Cal/OSHA citation said. The company has since retrofitted and fixed its systems since the fatalities, according to Bright.
