Worker was on non-insulated platform in high-voltage switchyard
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has been fined $100,000 for failing to ensure that safe work procedures were followed at its Holyrood thermal generating station, where veteran electrician Bill Walsh was electrocuted in 2023.
Walsh, 69, had more than four decades of experience and died in August 2023 when he was working from a non-insulated aerial work platform inside a high-voltage switchyard.
The province’s OHS Division laid nine charges against the Crown corporation in July 2025. The counts alleged failures to provide training and supervision, to review its OHS program at least every three years, and to ensure that personal protective equipment was selected and used in line with recognized standards.
A Hydro supervisor faced one count of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of workers under their supervision. Sentencing coverage did not address that charge.
More than three years after Walsh’s death, Hydro pleaded guilty to the single count on safe work procedures, and the remaining eight charges were withdrawn. Judge Phyllis Harris accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence for the fine.
Policies under review
Lawyer David Eaton told the court that Hydro has since reviewed its policies and procedures and held training sessions.
“This matter has been taken extremely seriously,” he said. “Since that time, significant steps have been taken.”
In Nunavut, Qulliq Energy Corporation pleaded guilty in June to one Safety Act charge in the 2024 death of electrician Noah Paniyuk. It was fined $240,000 plus a 15% victim surcharge after eight other charges were withdrawn.
The agreed statement of facts in that case confirmed that Qulliq had the required safety program and training in place at the time. Nunatsiaq News reported that Paniyuk was electrocuted on an emergency generator that had not been de-energized.
A penalty with limits
Harris told provincial court in St. John’s Wednesday that the fine does not represent the worth of Walsh’s life. She added that the “human cost … is immeasurable.”
Crown prosecutor Renee Coates said the fine is significant enough to deter, and to ensure that proactive and precautionary measures protect workers.
“A man is dead, a family is without a loved one and a community is without him,” Coates said. “They have suffered the ultimate loss and it’s irreversible.” She added that no sum of money could cover the cost of a life.
Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan has argued that OHS fines are not always enough and has called for police to investigate every workplace fatality.
Executives in the courtroom
Hydro CEO Jennifer Williams and other senior executives attended the sentencing. They did not address the court, and they declined interview requests from CBC News.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Hydro said the tragedy had a “profound impact” on the entire organization. It said the safety of everyone who works with Hydro “remains our highest priority,” and that it remains “committed to learning from this tragedy.”
Numbers behind the province
https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/news/opinion/workplace-fatalities-and-injury-rates-in-canada/547568
A 2026 University of Regina report found that Newfoundland and Labrador had the largest increase in its 2024 injury fatality rate, at 161%, among jurisdictions with more than 100,000 full-time equivalent employees. It also recorded the highest occupational disease fatality rate among large-workforce provinces, at 7.9 per 100,000 workers.
WorkplaceNL accepted 17 work-related fatality claims in 2025, and 106 workers died from workplace incidents or occupational disease over the previous five years. Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour president Jessica McCormick said in 2024 that employer safety records in the province are kept from public view.
