Another company fined for material-handling incident
Two Winnipeg employers have been fined $20,000 each after separate workplace incidents left one worker with an amputated finger and another with leg fractures, according to Manitoba Labour and Immigration.
Kawenhowen Projects, a Winnipeg-based firm specialising in residential building, finishing and renovations, was fined for failing to provide required safeguards on a table saw after a worker was seriously injured on Feb. 1, 2023, according to a CBC report. The employee was cutting shims when their hand came into contact with the blade, resulting in the loss of a middle finger, the department said in a news release.
Kawenhowen Projects pleaded guilty on Sept. 23, 2025, to violating the Workplace Safety and Health Act. In addition to the $20,000 fine, the company was ordered to pay $3,000 to the Workplace Safety and Health public education fund.
In a separate case, Ital-Stone Design Ltd., a Winnipeg custom stone fabricator that specialises in countertops and custom surfaces, was also fined $20,000 following a 2023 material-handling incident, according to the same report.
On March 15, 2023, a worker was injured when a granite slab dropped and shattered while it was being moved with a forklift. The worker sustained lacerations and fractures to their leg, according to a provincial spokesperson.
Ital-Stone Design pleaded guilty on Nov. 4, 2025, to failing to provide a safe workplace. The court also ordered the company to pay an additional $5,000 to the Workplace Safety and Health public education fund, noted CBC.
Employers’ OHS responsibilities
According to the Canadian federal government, employers have a general obligation or duty to ensure that the health and safety of every person employed by the employer is protected while they are working.
“This can be achieved by complying with the Canada Labour Code , Part II (the Code) and the standards set out in the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations,”
“Also, employers have specific duties in regards to each work place they control and every work activity under their authority that occurs in a work place that is beyond the employer's control,” noted the federal government.
The Code requires employers to ensure that the design, installation, operation, use or maintenance of the following meet the prescribed standards set out in the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations:
- buildings and structures (permanent or temporary), guards, guard rails, barricades and fences;
- protective devices, machinery, equipment, tools, vehicles, and mobile equipment;
- boilers, pressure vessels, escalators, elevators, electrical generation equipment, electrical distribution systems;
- heat generating equipment and heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.
Federal jurisdiction employers have a further obligation to ensure that levels of:
- temperature, humidity, ventilation, lighting, sound and vibration meet with prescribed standards, and that employees are not exposed to levels exceeding prescribed exposure limits of hazardous substances including controlled products and any other chemical, biological or physical agents that may be harmful resulting from their storage, handling or use in the workplace.
