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Failure to take reasonable safety precautions and provide adequate training can result in hefty fines

By Kirk A. Vilks, Fillmore Riley LLP

In the Q4 2013 edition of Piling Canada, James Wishart wrote about the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in R. v. Metron Construction Corp. (Metron). In that case, the Ontario Court of Appeal handed out fines to corporate defendants for criminal negligence that were large enough to potentially bankrupt the companies. It was held that that the courts should not take companies’ financial situation into account when determining fines for criminal negligence. More recently, Canadian courts have continued to follow this approach by awarding large fines without consideration of the financial implications for the companies

In 2013, the Ontario Court of Justice convicted Sunrise Propane Energy Group Inc. for multiple regulatory offences under the Ontario Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). The judgement – R. v. Sunrise Propane Energy, 2016 CarswellOnt 3399 – pertained to an incident that caused propane explosions in Toronto in 2008 that killed a young worker and caused a fire.

There were a series of explosions that caused extensive damage to surrounding properties and injuries to neighbours. Some surrounding homes were left uninhabitable for over a year. Approximately 12,000 residents had to evacuate the area within a 1.6-kilometre radius. Local businesses were forced to close, and one nearby car dealership was completely destroyed. At the time of the explosion, there were two employees on site; one was able to escape with minor injuries, but the other was killed.

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Doublestar Drilling was awarded the temporary shoring contract for the construction for the construction and excavation for Calgary’s largest upscale condo project

By Lisa Kopochinski

When completed in 2018, Calgary’s newest upscale condominium project – the Concord – will be one of the city’s most luxurious living quarters.

Situated downtown in the Eau Claire neighbourhood, construction on this 14-storey project, which began in April, will include two towers of condos and townhouses overlooking the south shore of the Bow River.

With the first of the two towers expected to be completed in 30 to 36 months (and the second tower approximately six months later) Vancouver-based builder Concord Pacific has already sold 50 per cent of the first tower’s units. This includes five penthouses ranging in price from $2.5 million to $7 million.

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Prestigious condo project for deep foundations contractors inc.

By Sarah B. Hood

On Toronto’s busy St. Clair Avenue, atop the steep climb of Bathurst Street, a remarkable new condominium building is remaking a gateway intersection in a developing neighbourhood that is as well known for its multicultural diversity as for its favourable situation overlooking the rest of the city. Appropriately named the Rise, the project was spearheaded by Reserve Properties Ltd., a family business that has been active in commercial and residential development across North America for over three decades. 

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The Editor

I get emails fairly often from readers and advertisers in Piling Canada. Recently, I’ve received an influx of a certain type of email, and it’s exciting. Over the past few months, I’ve received multiple emails – either directly to myself or through the contact page on www.pilingcanada.ca – from people who read the magazine or stumbled on the website. They’re asking if we know of a contractor in a certain area who can help with a deep foundation problem, or if we know anyone who sells a particular type of equipment, and so on.

In each case, I’ve been able to pass their question on to someone that I know can help, or who will be able to connect them to someone more suitable. This is an indirect perk for the deep foundation community – working on the magazine means working with hundreds of different people and companies who do a variety of work across all kinds of Canadian locations. If you have a problem that has you stumped and you don’t know where to turn to for help, always feel free to send me an email. I’ll be able to reach out to a number of sources who can help you or get you the information you’re looking for. As we build the magazine more and more, the network of people involved in Piling Canada also grows, and there’s power in numbers for our industry.

A decade of Piling Canada
The Quarter 1 2016 issue marks the 10-year anniversary of Piling Canada, and I couldn’t be happier about it! A lot of time and effort has gone into the making of this magazine, and all of us at Lester are so proud to celebrate with our readers and advertisers. We can’t thank you enough for helping to make Piling Canada the publication it is today. For a trip down memory lane, I put together my top 10 articles that have ever appeared in these pages; flip to page 8 to start reading our 10th anniversary section. Once you read through the list, you’re going to want to revisit some of those articles, so head to www.pilingcanada.ca/news/editorschoice for direct links to read each one online.

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