Contractor, supervisor fined for 2020 site fall
A Port-Carling based contractor and a supervisor from a roofing company have been fined for their roles in a 2020 construction site accident.
Residential construction company Lakeridge Developments (Muskoka) Limited was fined $50,000 in provincial offences court last month, while Paul Kritski, a supervisor with Peak Roofing Services Inc., was fined $15,000.
The incident in question occurred on a construction site on Scully Road in Seguin, Ontario in November 2020.
Lakeridge Developments was the constructor of a new cottage, guest cottage and two boathouses on a property in Seguin. The company had Peak Roofing Services to install roofing on the buildings.
A worker from Peak Roofing Services was on a flat section of roof, moving insulation, when they fell 30 feet to the ground below, suffering a critical injury.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that there were permanent, engineered anchor points on the roof and that the worker had fall protection training. However, the investigation also found that at the time of the incident, the worker was not using fall protection and there were no guardrails installed along the perimeter of the roof.
Kritski and three additional workers were also on the roof that morning. None of the crew members were using fall-protection materials. The Occupational Health and Safety Act regulations for construction projects requires workers to be protected from falls through use of an adequate guardrail system or adequate fall protection.
Lakeridge Developments was found to have violated the OHSA for not ensuring that these measures and procedures were carried out. Kritski was also fined for the violation under a different section of the act.
In addition to their respective fines, both will pay 25-percent victim surcharges that will be credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.