A Chatham construction company has been fined $85,000 after one of its workers was killed on the job.
John Harris Concrete Ltd. was issued the fine after pleading guilty in January 2024 to a charge under the Occupation Health and Safety Act.
According to the Ministry of Labour, the worker was "fatally injured" in 2022 while cutting down a tree during a construction project near 354 Gould Road in the Township of Dawn-Euphemia.
The ministry noted the worker was clearing brush and felling trees from an area around a drainage ditch when they were fatally injured. The ministry investigated and found that the worker had been trained to operate a chainsaw safely, but they were not trained on tree felling.
Felling is the act of cutting down trees, often for logging or clearing land, and involves a process of making precise cuts to control the tree's fall.
"John Harris Concrete Ltd. failed, as an employer, to provide training on how to safely fell trees to the worker, as required by section 25(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act," said the ministry.
The worker has not been named by the ministry, but his daughter Jocelyn Reaume previously identified the worker as her father, 54-year-old Duane Reaume of Dover Centre, who was killed on October 26, 2022.