Interpaving cited for 110 safety violations since ban from Sudbury city jobs 3 years ago

Before it was banned from bidding on work with the City of Greater Sudbury in 2016, Interpaving Limited used to land millions of dollars in city contracts every summer.

Since then, the company has been working elsewhere—although it still works on some city roads and pipes as a sub-contractor—but has continued to have run-ins with inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Labour.

In the three years since the ban was brought in, following the crushing death of a pedestrian on Elgin Street in 2015, the company has been slapped with 110 orders.

Eighteen of those orders are related to public construction sites. They include:

• July 11, 2016: three orders issued at Regent Street and Ramsey View Court, as well as Regent Street and Martindale Road, including "workers to wear protective equipment" and an order "regarding specifications of directing vehicular traffic."
• July 28, 2016: order directing that "specific vehicles to be equipped with audible alarm" issued to Interpaving at New Sudbury shopping centre.
• Aug. 24, 2017: worker ordered to wear "high visibility garment" in roadway while working at Health Sciences North Institute on Walford Road.
• July 12, 2018: one order issued to Interpaving working at Cambrian College that the company "ensure that specific equipment is maintained and in good condition."

The majority of the Ministry of Labour orders against Interpaving in the past three years relate to the company's work at quarries and other aggregate facilities in the Sudbury area.

The company did not reply to CBC's requests for comment.

In the year before the Elgin Street accident in 2015, Interpaving received 23 orders from the Ministry of Labour, almost all of them relating to the safety of workers and the public at construction sites.

The City of Greater Sudbury banned Interpaving from bidding on city contracts for four years starting on March 21, 2016.

The company did file a court challenge, arguing that this ban infringed on its constitutional rights, but a judge ruled last year in favour of the city.

Another judge in 2018 found the city not guilty of health and safety act violations in the crushing death, while Interpaving pleaded guilty and paid a $195,000 fine.