Ontario to set $500K minimum fine for repeat, serious health and safety violations

Ontario is planning to create a mandatory minimum fine of $500,000 for employers repeatedly convicted of fatal and other serious health and safety violations, one piece of a wide-ranging labour bill introduced Wednesday.

Labour Minister David Piccini’s bill would expand cancer coverage for firefighters, introduce a job-protected leave for people who become parents through adoption or surrogacy, and broaden a requirement for properly fitting personal protective equipment for women in the construction sector to include all sectors.

The legislation also includes what Piccini called the toughest mandatory minimum fines in Canada for health and safety violations.

“We shouldn’t have to have one, let alone two or in the case that (steelworkers) brought to me, three fatalities in a 21-month span,” he said.

“I’m telling you, a fatality cannot be the cost of doing business.”

Employers who are convicted of more than one violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act that resulted in the serious injury or death of a worker within a two-year period would have to pay at least $500,000.

As well, the legislation would require drivers to move over for construction vehicles with amber lights flashing at the roadside, similar to the rules for emergency vehicles.

Julie Henry, a patrol supervisor at Fowler Construction, was setting up lane closures with police last year on Highway 400 when she was hit from behind by a passenger vehicle.

The mother of two was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Speaking alongside Piccini at a press conference Wednesday, she said the lasting psychological and emotional impacts of that day weigh heavily on her, her family and her co-workers.

“These measures are vital to ensuring that no family or workplace has to endure the kind of hardship and uncertainty that mine has faced,” she said. 

“I hope this legislation makes the beginning of a broader effort to prioritize the safety of vulnerable workers on our highways.”

The bill also aims to crack down on immigration fraud, by allowing the province to create standards that immigration representatives must meet when helping people or employers with an Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program application, and instituting penalties for people who violate those standards.