MOL Charges – Utility Locates
Over the May-June-July 2010 period, the Western Region of the Ministry of Labour (MOL) (southwestern Ontario – does not include Toronto) imposed charges under Section 228 of the Construction Regulation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. This section of the regulation is outlined below:
228. (1) Before an excavation is begun,
(a) the employer excavating shall ensure that all gas, electrical and other services in and near the area to be excavated are located and marked;
(b) the employer and worker locating and marking the services described in clause (a) shall ensure that they are accurately located and marked; and
(c) if a service may pose a hazard, the service shall be shut off and disconnected. O. Reg. 443/09, s. 6.
Charges laid over that 3 month period include 2 charges to employers, 1 charge to a supervisor, and 2 charges to workers.
In addition, the Ministry of Labour also provided the following summaries of cases determined during this period.
“An Employer plead guilty to a charge under section 228(1)(a) of Ontario Regulation 213/91 resulting in a fine of $6,500. This was the result of a power line contact from August of 2009 where a 110V line was damaged as a result of excavating without locates for a new residential foundation project in Kitchener.”
“An Employer plead guilty to a charge under section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act R.S.O. 1990 c.01 which resulted in a fine of $60,000. This was the result of an incident investigation from August of 2006 at a project in Welland, where workers were drilling holes into the ground when they made contact with an unmarked gas line causing an explosion. It was determined that the locates failed to show the gas line that was ultimately struck.”
We have thus far been unable to obtain the data for MOL charges related to locate problems for Toronto. Our attempts to obtain data from the TSSA related to their charges and orders have been unsuccessful.
