Worker was steadying a torn bag on the forks
A worker who held a hand against a tear in a dry-stone bag suspended from a moving skid steer suffered critical injuries when the machine’s track caught their foot, and the Kanata employer has now been fined $70,000.
1000537263 Ontario Inc., which operates as Permeable Plus, is a paving and landscaping company at 382 Kingbrook Drive in Kanata, Ont.
It pleaded guilty in the Provincial Offences Court in Ottawa and was convicted on September 3, 2026, according to an October 28 court bulletin from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
A hand on the tear
The incident occurred May 22, 2024, at 4221 Moodie Drive in Ottawa. A dry-stone bag hung from the forks of a skid steer that another worker operated, and the worker walked with the machine and held a hand against a tear in the bag.
The worker’s foot became caught under part of the machine’s right-side track. The skid steer continued to move, and the worker suffered critical injuries.
Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board recorded 8,342 allowed lost-time claims for workers struck by objects or equipment in 2025, down from 9,798 in 2024.
In another skid steer incident in January, a 55-year-old operator died after the machine he was driving backed into a deep excavation on a construction site east of Hamiota, Man.
Distance left undefined
The ministry found the employer gave neither the injured worker nor the operator instructions on a safe working proximity between workers on foot and a moving skid steer.
Finning International Inc. was ordered in October to pay $155,000 after a moving loader seriously injured another company’s driver near Mildred Lake, Alta. The manufacturer’s specification at issue required constant surveillance around the operating machine.
Permeable Plus also failed to ensure that the operator was adequately trained on the safe operation of the skid steer. This contravened section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), which requires an employer to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker.
A northwestern Ontario tire service company was fined $55,000 under the same section after a skidder wheel assembly exploded during inflation. The ministry found the worker was positioned within the wheel assembly’s dangerous trajectory zone.
Agrifoods International Cooperative Ltd. received a total penalty of $100,000 for failing to ensure that only trained operators ran powered mobile equipment after a Saskatoon wash bay attendant was seriously injured.
A Navan-based electrical contractor was fined $50,000 after a concrete streetlight post fell during a hoisting operation in Ottawa and injured a worker. The ministry found the crane operator had no crane training certificate.
A $70,000 penalty in Ottawa court
Justice of the Peace Karen (Soloman) Baum imposed the fine on Permeable Plus, and Daniel Kleiman served as Crown counsel.
The court also imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund that assists victims of crime.
Under the OHSA, the maximum fine for a corporation rose to $2 million in October 2023.
Training rules on the national table
In January, Canada’s Building Trades Unions executive director Sean Strickland said a few provinces could harmonize safety certification standards by the end of 2026.
Ontario Labour Minister David Piccini sought concrete harmonization decisions, and on April 10, ministers endorsed a workplan targeting harmonized working at heights and mobile elevating work platform training by January 1, 2027.
