Scaffolding death fine tripled

For the first time, the province’s top court has used the criminal code to hold a company responsible for a worker’s death.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario has more than tripled the fine a construction company must pay after four workers plunged to their deaths on Christmas Eve 2009 in Toronto.

The four were among six people doing repairs on a high rise balcony using scaffolding meant to hold two people, and it collapsed.

Metron Construction was originally fined $200,000 in provincial court, but the appeal court has now boosted that to $750,000. The court says the lower court judge looked at comparable fines under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, rather than the more serious penalties under the criminal code.