Sudbury mining contractor fined $125K after worker critically injured at jobsite

Consbec Inc., based in the Greater Sudbury community of Val Caron, has been fined $125,000 after one of its workers was critically injured in an April 2022 incident. (File)

Consbec Inc., based in the Greater Sudbury community of Val Caron, has been fined $125,000 after one of its workers was critically injured in an April 2022 incident.

The employee was working on a construction project on Highway 11/17 in Dorion Township in northwestern Ontario.

“One worker was operating a drill rig that was advancing a series of boreholes in the ditch for explosive rock blasting,” said a news release from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development

“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.

A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation determined that Consbec Inc. failed, as an employer, 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.

Following a guilty plea in Provincial Offences Court in Thunder Bay on Dec. 11, Consbec was fined $125,000 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.