A jury has given its recommendations to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, following an inquest into the death of a 27-year-old Napanee man, at a Prince Edward County construction site in 2016.
Matthew Cuthill was killed on September 9, 2016 while working on the site at 3668 County Road 7 in North Marysburgh.
The cause of death was determined to be a blunt force injury to the head and was deemed accidental.
Following the two-day inquest in Belleville, the five-person jury has made two recommendations.
The first is that any work involving heavy equipment, regardless of the size of the company or the project, should be registered with the Ministry of Labour and include the scope of the work, a list of equipment and machinery being used and the names of any employees who would be on site.
The second is that all construction workers be mandated to take online training on their responsibilities and rules, when it comes to use of alcohol, prescription drugs and other legal or illegal substances within a certain time period before a shift.
Here are the jury’s recommendations in full:
1) Jobs requiring use of heavy equipment/machinery, despite the size of the company and/or project cost, should be expected to register the job within a Ministry of Labour registry online. This registry would include but not be limited to:
a) Scope of work and project cost
b) Equipment and machinery to be utilized including make, model and intention of use
c) Names of employees or contracted workers to be working on the job site at any time during project
Electronic signature by the project owner binds the owner/company to the Occupational Health & Safety Act and Regulations. This record of file ensures the Ministry is aware of all projects ongoing so they may choose to inspect, at random, a job site in Ontario.
2) All construction workers should be mandated to take online education through the Ministry of Labour website instructing them on employees’ responsibilities related to ingestion of alcohol, prescription drugs and legal recreational drugs. This would include rules for ingestion within x number of hours before working (example 12 hours), based on scientific expert opinion, where impairment could result in jeopardizing the safety of the workplace. This should be an annual expectation of all construction and tradespersons. A copy of completed education should be provided to those hiring employees or contracted workers prior to engaging in any paid work.
