Quebec drilling company fined $60,000 for 2023 worker injury

Forages Technic-Eau, a Sherbrooke, Que,-based drilling company, was fined $60,000 in a Timmins court after a worker was injured near Black River-Matheson in early 2023.

The company entered a guilty plea in provincial offences court in Timmins and was fined $60,000 by Justice of the Peace Estelle Thérese Bérubé on June 27, according to a Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development news release.

The accident took place at a Highway 101 location in Holtyre Township, outside Black River-Matheson on Feb. 1, 2023.

At that time, the court heard that a worker was unloading boxes from an idling crawling carrier that was parked beside a pickup truck. The worker failed to apply the parking brake before exiting the vehicle and inadvertently made contact with its control levers, causing the carrier to move toward a pickup truck. 

The ministry release said this worker was between the two vehicles and sustained unspecified serious injuries.

The company was fined for failing to ensure that carrier’s parking brake was applied prior to the worker exiting the vehicle as required under section 105(1)(i) of Ontario Regulation 854, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. A 25 per cent victim fine surcharge was also assessed as required under the Provincial Offences Act.