Worker was operating a wire-cutting machine at the facility
A Toronto-based Irving Consumer Products Ltd. – a tissue manufacturing operation – has been ordered to pay $100,000 after one of its workers suffered critical injuries when improperly stacked pulp bales toppled from a wire-cutting table — a case that highlights the lethal risk of procedural breakdowns in industrial material handling.
The company, headquartered at 300 Union Street in Saint John, New Brunswick, and operating a manufacturing facility at 1551 Weston Rd. in Toronto, pleaded guilty on September 11, 2026, in Provincial Offences Court in Toronto.
Justice of the Peace Bentley Springer imposed the fine. Crown Counsel Alicia Gordon-Fagan represented the Ontario government. The court also imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, which the Ontario government notes is "credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime."
The incident
On Sept. 13, 2024, a worker hired through a temporary employment agency was operating a wire-cutting machine at the Irving facility. A lift truck operator delivered a stack of four pulp bales and placed them on the stand of the wire-cutting table where the worker was stationed. The top two bales then tipped over, critically injuring the worker.
An investigation by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development found a systemic failure in how the company communicated safety protocols to newer employees.
The Ontario government notes that workers new to a workplace are up to three times more likely to be injured on the job — especially in the first month — than at any other time. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, temporary agency workers are entitled to the same protections as permanent employees, including site-specific instruction and training.
According to the Ministry, "workers hired after 2019 were not trained on a safety procedure that limited the wire-cutting table to two bales," meaning the safe-stacking limit had gone uncommunicated for at least five years before the incident. It is a pattern seen repeatedly in Ontario manufacturing convictions involving six-figure fines for worker injuries: procedural knowledge, established for one cohort of workers, is never passed on to those hired later.
As a result of that gap, the Ministry determined that "workers routinely placed up to four bales on the table" — double the established safe limit. The employer was convicted under section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to comply with section 45(b) of Ontario Regulation 851 (Industrial Establishments Regulation), which requires that materials placed on a stand be positioned so they will not tip over.
Penalty and corrective action
In addition to the $100,000 fine, the court imposed the mandatory 25% victim fine surcharge under the Provincial Offences Act. Under the OHSA, corporations face fines of up to $2,000,000, with a mandatory minimum of $500,000 for a second or subsequent conviction involving the death or serious injury of a worker — context that underscores how the $100,000 penalty reflects a first conviction resolved by guilty plea.
Following the incident, Irving Consumer Products undertook several remedial measures at the Toronto facility. The Ontario government confirmed the company made "significant improvements including redesigning the work area and purchasing a new wire chopper."
Ontario courts have consistently held host employers accountable for agency worker training gaps under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and the Irving conviction adds to that precedent.
