Ocean Trout Canada of Bedford, Nova Scotia, Nova Fish Farm Inc. of St. Alban’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (a subsidiary of Ocean Trout Canada Inc.), and a supervisor with Nova Fish Farm Inc. have been charged with violations under the Newfoundland and Labrador Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations.
The charges are the result of an investigation by the Department of Digital Government and Service NL’s Occupational Health and Safety Division following a fatal accident which occurred in July 2023 in St. Alban’s.
Nova Fish Farm Inc. and Ocean Trout Canada Inc. are each charged with:
- Failure to provide and maintain a workplace and the necessary equipment, systems and tools to ensure worker safety.
- Failure to provide the information, instruction, training, supervision and facilities necessary to ensure worker safety.
- Failure to ensure that workers and supervisors are made familiar with the health and safety hazards in the workplace.
- Failure to ensure that safe work procedures are followed at the workplace.
- Failure to ensure that work procedures promote the safe interaction of workers and their work environment.
- Failure to ensure that a fixed or portable ladder, gangplank or other safe means was provided and used where necessary to board and leave floating equipment.
- Failure to ensure that where a worker is working in conditions that may expose the worker to a risk of drowning, the worker is wearing a personal floatation device.
- Failure to ensure that a work area on a vessel is kept clear of unnecessary obstructions.
- Failure to ensure that a work area on a vessel is kept free of slipping and tripping hazards.
A supervisor with Nova Fish Farms Inc. is charged with:
- Failure to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all workers under his or her supervision.
The first appearances at Provincial Court in Grand Falls-Windsor for both companies and the supervisor are scheduled for February 26, 2025.
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