Company fined $80K after worker seriously injured at northern Ont. job site

A Quebec-based company that supplies hydro turbines and generators has been fined $80,000 after a millwright was critically injured at a job site last year in Iron Bridge, Ont. (File)

A Quebec-based company that supplies hydro turbines and generators has been fined $80,000 after a millwright was critically injured at a job site last year in Iron Bridge, Ont.

Andritz Hydro Canada was a constructor and employer for a project to rehabilitate the hydroelectric generators at Red Rock Falls Generating Station on March 16, 2023, when the incident took place.

“A worker was critically injured after being struck by a falling sole plate,” said a news release Thursday from the Ontario Ministry of Labour.

“By not ensuring the sole plate was adequately braced, Andritz Hydro Canada failed, as an employer, to ensure that the measures and procedures were carried out at the workplace.”

Two millwrights were correcting an earlier installation of three metal sole plates to the underside of a stator frame.

“The three metal keys that had been used to align and position these metal sole plates had been inserted incorrectly and needed to be removed and put back into place,” the release said.

“On the first sole plate one of the millwrights, under the direction of the other, began loosening the bolts that held the sole plate to the stator frame. When the bolts were fully removed, the support jack was released and the sole plate tipped inwards and fell out of its pocket, critically injuring one of the millwrights.”

A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that Andritz Hydro Canada failed to ensure that the sole plate was adequately braced to prevent any movement that may affect its stability or cause its failure or collapse.

The company was fined following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Sault Ste. Marie on Oct. 2.

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.