Ottawa Flooring Company Fined $100,000 After Worker Injured

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Convicted: Southgate Carpets Incorporated, 1492 Startop Road, Ottawa, Ontario, a flooring company that also performs small renovations

Location of Workplace: A construction project on a property owned by the company at 1412 York's Corners Road, Edwards, Ontario

Description of Offence: A worker fell from the top of a wall of a building being demolished. The company failed, as an employer, to ensure that materials and equipment were moved safely, as required by section 37(1) of Ontario Regulation 213/91, and that the worker was protected by appropriate scaffolding, flooring or staging while on the top of the wall, as required by section 219 of the Regulation, both contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Date of Offence: September 10, 2023

Date of Conviction: December 12, 2024

Penalty Imposed:

• Following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Ottawa, Southgate Carpets was fined $100,000 by Justice of the Peace Karen Baum; Crown Counsel was Christine Perruzza.

Background:

• On September 10, 2023, workers were removing roof trusses from a partially demolished house on the property.
• One worker was sitting and standing atop the walls of the house and using a crowbar to separate the trusses from the exterior walls, then rig them to an excavator to be pulled off the wall. During this time, the worker fell to the ground below.
• A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that there was no scaffolding system, staging or flooring within 2.4 metres below the worker when they were on the wall.
• Southgate Carpets failed, as an employer, to ensure the trusses and excavator were moved in a manner that did not endanger a worker, as required by section 37(1) of Ontario Regulation 213/91, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
• The company also failed, as an employer, to ensure scaffolding, flooring or staging no more than 2.4 metres around the wall as required by section 219 of Ontario Regulation 213/91, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Act.

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