Air monitoring was in place but found inadequate
Two Ontario construction companies have been fined a combined $85,000 after workers were exposed to elevated levels of carbon monoxide while using gasoline-powered equipment inside a Toronto parking garage.
Fieldgate Construction Management Inc. (FCML), the constructor on the project, was fined $55,000, while concrete placing and finishing company Metro Concrete Works [2016] Inc. was fined $30,000 following guilty pleas in Provincial Offences Court in Toronto.
Both companies had been monitoring air quality at the site, but a Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation later found testing was inadequate in the area where the gasoline-powered equipment was being used.
Workers fall ill during concrete work
The incident occurred on July 4, 2023, during construction of a new car dealership at 5868 Yonge Street in Toronto. The project included a three-level parking garage.
Metro had been subcontracted by FCML to install an approximately three-inch concrete topping layer over the structural concrete floor.
Workers were finishing concrete using hand tools and gasoline-powered concrete finishing machines when a Metro employee and several other workers began feeling unwell. Emergency Medical Services attended the site and treated multiple workers for carbon monoxide exposure. Toronto Fire Services later found elevated carbon monoxide levels in the parking garage and began ventilating the building.
Initial air-quality testing showed that workers had been exposed to carbon monoxide above the applicable limits.
A subsequent ministry investigation found that Level P2 of the garage, where the gasoline-powered concrete finishing equipment was being used, was not being adequately tested for airborne carbon monoxide concentrations in accordance with Ontario Regulation 213/91.
Constructor and employer both convicted
Under Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act, FCML was convicted of failing, as constructor, to ensure that prescribed measures and procedures were carried out. Metro was separately convicted of failing, as an employer, to ensure compliance with the same regulatory requirement.
The convictions put responsibility on both parties involved in the work: FCML in its role as constructor and Metro as the workers' employer.
Justice of the Peace Esther N. Daniel imposed the fines on Aug. 28, 2026. FCML was fined $55,000 and Metro $30,000. The court also imposed the mandatory 25 per cent victim fine surcharge under Ontario's Provincial Offences Act.
