Victim’s parents call for better jobsite safety after 28 charges laid in oilsands tailings pond death | 24CA News

The mother and father of a 25-year-old oilsands employee who died in a frozen tailings pond in northern Alberta say costs within the case reveal disturbing particulars about security failures on website. 

Suncor and Christina River Construction face a complete of 28 costs underneath the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act within the loss of life of Patrick Poitras.

Poitras was working a bulldozer on Jan. 13, 2021, at Suncor’s base mine about 30 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, when the ice beneath the machine gave means.

Three days later, his physique was pulled from the pond.

“Someone didn’t do their job and I lost my son because of that,” Marcel Poitras mentioned in an interview from his dwelling in New Brunswick.

“My son gave his life for that job.” 

The costs, laid in November, allege the businesses ignored a sequence of security protocols once they directed Poitras to function a dozer on dangerously skinny ice.

The case particulars how the businesses allegedly didn’t correctly examine the thickness of the ice and ignored earlier measurements that confirmed it was too skinny to bear the load of the machine. 

Christina River Construction, owned by Fort McMurray 468 First Nation, is going through 9 costs within the loss of life of their contractor. Suncor is going through 19 counts.

A plea listening to is scheduled for March 15 in Fort McMurray provincial court docket. Suncor declined to touch upon the case as it’s earlier than the court docket. Christina River Construction has not responded to questions in regards to the costs. 

None of the allegations have been confirmed in court docket.

Poitras mentioned his son’s loss of life was preventable and somebody must be held accountable.

“It’s not the first time this has happened,” he mentioned. “With the safety we have today, this is not supposed to happen.”

I had advised myself it was only a dangerous accident.– Cathina Cormier

Suncor, one of many largest gamers within the Alberta oilsands, has been underneath elevated scrutiny for its security document. At least 12 staff have died at its Alberta oilsands operations since 2014.

Former CEO Mark Little pledged to handle the issue, together with a promised impartial security evaluation, however stepped down in July 2022, a day after a 26-year-old contractor died after being struck by gear at Suncor’s Base Mine. 

Poitras’s mom, Cathina Cormier, mentioned she felt grief and disbelief when she realized of the allegations. 

“I know there is no price for a human being but when I read the charges, I was angry,” Cormier mentioned. 

“I had told myself it was just a bad accident.”

Cormier mentioned studying particulars of her son’s loss of life has made her grief uncooked once more. She desires solutions about what went flawed that day.

“The question and keep asking myself is who sent him there? Who sent my son to do that job?

“I can’t lay my boy to relaxation due to this.”

According to the charges, Poitras was directed to operate a John Deere dozer on the ice of a tailings pond when available ice measurements showed the minimum ice thickness was less than 17 inches, as required by Suncor’s safety plan.

The companies are accused of failing to complete adequate ice checks and failing to ensure ground-penetrating radar was used for ice profiling before dozers were permitted to operate.

They also allegedly failed to ensure dozer operators were wearing personal flotation devices when on the ice.

It is also alleged the companies failed to have a safety plan in place directing Poitras to keep his seatbelt off — and the door unlatched — while he was operating the dozer on the pond.

I mentioned, ‘If you discover that it is harmful, please cease, as a result of I want you greater than you already know. I do not need to lose you.– Marcel Poitras

Suncor also faces a charge for underestimating how much the dozers weighed, and failing to account for the weight of snow when calculating required ice thickness.

It’s further alleged that Suncor ignored its own winter geology guidelines that called for work to be deferred on any sites with more than one metre of standing water.

Marcel Poitras said Patrick called him the night before he died and told him that he was worried about safety at the site. He said he was scared to go out on the ice.

“I mentioned, ‘If you discover that it is harmful, please cease, as a result of I want you greater than you already know. I do not need to lose you.’ And he mentioned, ‘Dad, I’m right here to work.'”

Poitras, of Saint-André, N.B., had worked in the oilsands for six years. He had recently returned to New Brunswick for Christmas and planned on moving home for good that spring. 

Cormier said her son was serious about his work, but also a “goof” with a penchant for sporting a mullet and making people laugh.

After two years of uncertainty and overwhelming grief, she hopes the outcome of the case will give her some closure.

She is still coming to grips with her son’s death, and the death of her father weeks later.

She hopes Patrick’s legacy will be ensuring other workers are protected on the job.

“I simply need this to by no means occur once more. It’s a worst nightmare for a mom.

 “Our family went through hell for this.”