Nunavut construction company appears in court

A Nunavut construction company appeared by telephone at the Nunavut Court of Justice on four charges it faces under the Nunavut Safety Act on Monday, Feb. 3.

Tower Arctic Ltd., which has been operating in the eastern Arctic since 1945, pleaded not guilty to the four charges last month on Jan. 9 in Iqaluit.

The charges, filed by the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, are in connection with an incident in Pond Inlet at the Tower Arctic shop and garage work site that took place on Sept. 19, 2018.

On that day, a worker suffered serious injuries while using a hand-held grinder to make cuts into the top of a metal barrel. Sparks from the grinder ignited chemical residue contained in the barrel, causing an explosion, the WSCC said at the time.

Kevin MacNeill, defence counsel for Tower Arctic, asked Justice Neil Sharkey to adjourn the proceedings until March 16.

“We are asking that the matter be put over to mid-March,” MacNeill said, speaking over the phone from Ottawa.

As a condition of the adjournment request, Tower Arctic has agreed to waive its Section 11 (b) Charter rights from Feb. 3 until the next court date, MacNeil said.

That section of the Charter protects the right of a person charged with an offence to be tried within a reasonable amount of time.

Sharkey agreed, provided that both parties contact Nunavut’s trial coordinator to determine how much time would be needed for an eventual trial.

“So when we come back to court on the 16th of March, we’re not scratching our heads figuring out how much time we need for a trial and picking a trial date,” Sharkey said.

“We will then have a pre-trial to see if we can deal with things like admissions respecting non-contentious matters, but that’s a little further down the road.”

In 2018, Tower Arctic, which is listed on Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.’s registry of Inuit-owned companies and is on the Government of Nunavut’s list of Nunavut companies, won a $89-million contract for Iqaluit and Pond Inlet marine projects: a small-craft harbour at Pond Inlet and a deep-sea port and small-craft harbour in Iqaluit.

As listed in an Aug. 30, 2018, WSCC news release, the alleged offences include failing to:

• Take all reasonable precautions and adopt and carry out all reasonable techniques and procedures to ensure the health and safety of every person.
• Arrange for the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances in a manner that protects the health and safety of workers.
• Provide information, instruction, training and supervision that was necessary to protect the health and safety of workers.
• Ensure that work being done was sufficiently and competently supervised.
• Ensure that supervisors have completed an approved regulatory familiarization program.
• Ensure that a worker was trained in matters necessary to protect the health and safety of workers at a work site.

None of these charges have been proven in court.