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$40k fine following workplace injury

An Edmonton-based transportation company has been slapped with a $40,000 fine following a worksite injury near Yellowknife last year.

LSI NWT Transportation Ltd. was ordered to pay the fine by Judge Garth Malakoe after a representative of the company pleaded guilty to two offences under NWT's Safety Act – failing to “ensure that workers are trained in matters necessary to protect their health and safety at a worksite, particularly with respect to working safely near or with moving parts of machinery,” and failing to install “audible or visual alarm systems on machinery with moving parts to provide workers with timely notice of imminent start-up” – in territorial court Wednesday.

On July 10, 2017, at a worksite in a quarry along Hwy 3 south of Yellowknife, a 23-year-old labourer sustained a serious injury after his arm was caught in a conveyor pulley. The employee was hospitalized and required surgery, resulting in a steel plate being placed permanently in his arm.

The Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC) filed five charges against the company and supervisor Richard German in June.

The remaining charges against LSI NWT Transportation Ltd. and German were withdrawn by prosecutor Roger Shepard following the guilty pleas.

Malakoe accepted a joint sentencing submission – from Shepard and LSI's defence – of a $40,000 fine, plus a victim of crime surcharge of 15 per cent of the total fine, for the pair of offences.

The offences carry a maximum penalty of a $500,000 fine, one year in jail or both.

Shepard called the incident “preventable,” but said the company has taken steps to ensure its worksite is “much more” safe than in July 2017.

Defence counsel for the transportation company said the incident didn't reflect “gross negligence,” and that LSI wasn't a company that “wasn't doing anything from a safety standpoint.”

“This decision sends a message to companies and others engaging in work in the NWT that the training of employees and the duty to comply with the laws surrounding the operation of machinery is very important and that offences attract significant consequences,” wrote Sheppard in an email to Yellowknifer folowing Malakoe's decision.

“We hope that this decision ... deter others who engage in work in the Northwest Territories from contravening the Safety Act or its regulations. Failure to comply with the law in this area can lead to serious, sometimes fatal, injuries and there will be prosecutions where necessary and in appropriate circumstance,” added Sheppard.

LSI NWT Transportation's core business is the transportation of material via ice roads to mine sites.

The company expanded into the territory in 2016.