A Hearst-based company has been fined $50,000 after a worker was injured on the job.
The incident happened at C. Villeneuve Construction's Driftwood Quarry on Sept. 12, 2023. The company was convicted on Feb. 4, 2025.
The company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure there was adequate machine guarding, according Ministry of Labour court bulletin. The company was fined $50,000 and had a 25 per cent victim surcharge imposed, which is credited to a special provincial government fund to help victims of crime.
On the day of the incident, the Ministry of Labour said the worker was cleaning near a folding catwalk platform on the side of a screen box/shaker at the quarry and suffered a critical injury trying to step over the moving conveyor. While the screen box was locked-out and de-energized, the Ministry said the feed conveyor that fed the screen box wasn't.
The Ministry investigation "found that the feed conveyor was not adequately guarded as workers had access to the drive pulley of the conveyor while the on the catwalk."
