Alberta files 53 charges in deaths of two temporary foreign workers
The Alberta government has laid a record number of health and safety charges against Canadian Natural Resources and two of its contractors in relation to the deaths of two temporary foreign workers.
The workers, from China, were killed when a roof collapsed during the construction of a large steel oil storage tank at the $9.7-billion Horizon oilsands site in northern Alberta two years ago.
The government has filed 53 charges against Canadian Natural Resources, an oil exploration and production firm, as well as contractors Chinese-based Sinopec Shanghai Engineering and SSEC Canada.
The charges are the most ever laid in Alberta relating to a single incident, according to Alberta Employment and Immigration spokesman Barrie Harrison.
The charges include several counts for failing to ensure the health and safety of the workers and many of the 29 charges Canadian Natural faces relate to a failure to ensure contractors were following the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The charges against the contractors include failing to ensure that a professional engineer prepared and certified drawings and procedures, failing to ensure the roof support structure inside the tank was stable during assembly and failing to ensure that wire rope being used was safe.
