OHS charges against contractor withdrawn in employee death case

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on February 10, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

Charges against a construction contractor whose temporary employee died while working on a City of Lethbridge project nearly three years ago, have been withdrawn.
Maple Reinders Constructors was facing eight charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker, who was temporarily employed in 2019 to help with work on the city’s water treatment plant.
On March 1, 2019 a 51-year-old man was hired by Maple Reinders as a day labourer to help with construction at the water treatment plant. OHS confirmed the man died after he was struck by a telehandler, which is a mobile crane, or boom lift, used to lift heavy items.
The company was charged with failure to ensure the health and safety of a worker, failure to assess its worksite and identify potential hazards, failure to prepare a report of the results of a hazard assessment, failure to ensure that a hazard assessment is repeated when a new work process is introduced, failure to ensure a hazard assessment is repeated when a process or operation changes, and three charges of failure to ensure equipment is used in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications.
However, during a brief hearing Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court, the Crown prosecutor with special prosecutions in Calgary withdrew all the charges.

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