B.C. construction boss jailed and company fined $25K over repeated workplace safety issues
CBC
The director of a Metro Vancouver construction company is headed to jail after repeated workplace safety violations in defiance of a court injunction.
Dalwinder Singh Kandola and G & D Construction Ltd. (GDCL) were found in contempt of court last month. The company was fined $25,000 and Kandola was sentenced to 14 days behind bars.
Kandola and his business have previously been ordered to pay more than $43,000 for violations of the Workers Compensation Act and civil contempt, according to a May 18 judgment from B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sheila Tucker.
But so far, she said, those penalties have had "little to no effect."
"In my view, a penalty that goes beyond monetary is required," Tucker wrote.
"In treating the fines imposed to date as a cost of doing business, Mr. Kandola has put GDCL's workers at risk of harm, shown disrespect for the court and created the appearance of operating with impunity."
WorkSafeBC won an injunction against Kandola and his company in October 2017, when a B.C. Supreme Court justice ordered him to comply with workplace safety laws.
Most of the safety violations to date concern dangerous conditions for people working at heights and lack of protection from falls, according to the judgment.
It details several WorkSafeBC inspections of worksites between 2018 and 2020 that found missing guardrails and fall protection plans, a lack of safety training, and a failure to abide by stop work orders for construction above 10 feet.
Those findings led to administrative penalties of more than $30,000 and a total of $8,000 in court-ordered fines for contempt.
Despite those findings, WorkSafeBC inspections at sites in Surrey and Mission in 2021 uncovered similar issues, including workers wearing fall harnesses that weren't actually secured to anything, and a worker operating an elevating work platform without any formal training, the judgment says.
"The fact that the breaches continue to involve conduct of similar kind and similar risk speaks to the measure of defiance involved," Tucker wrote.
In his defence, Kandola argued that none of his workers have filed WorkSafeBC claims for injuries and he has fully paid a $5,000 administrative penalty for the 2021 violations. He also said his company has now remedied all of the issues related to those inspections, and that the violations were only identified at some of his company's worksites.
Tucker rejected that reasoning.
All public schools on P.E.I. are closed Friday and thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power as strong winds create hazardous travel conditions across the province.
Prince Rupert, B.C., residents are celebrating the holidays this year with coastal flair.
In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.
CBC is once again looking to make the holiday season kind in Windsor-Essex.
Acute Care Alberta has extended its contract for another year with a private surgical facility at the centre of probes into health procurement and contracting.
As food bank use continues to climb across the province, front-line workers in Thunder Bay, Ont., are working to improve both food security and education.
More ads could soon be coming to Toronto’s subway system.
The driver wanted in connection with a fatal hit and run on Highway 401 earlier this week has been identified, police say.
There are mixed feelings about the proposed Grays Bay road and port project, among people who live in nearby communities.
WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse and includes graphic content.
Provincial police in Lambton County have charged a 23-year-old man with second degree murder following a death investigation that began this past Saturday.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is forming a working group to tackle what it calls systemic issues in the justice system, but answers or solutions could still be months away.
A woman has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death in a 2024 fatal hit and run in Truro, N.S., where the victim was dragged down the street, a case that went unsolved for more than six months.