Calgary plumbing company fined $330,000 in trench death of worker

A Calgary plumbing company has been ordered to pay $330,000 after pleading guilty to an Occupational Health and Safety charge in the death of a 27-year-old apprentice who was buried in a collapsed trench in 2023.

A Calgary plumbing company has been ordered to pay $330,000 after pleading guilty to an Occupational Health and Safety charge in the death of a 27-year-old apprentice who was buried in a collapsed trench in 2023. Justice Gordon Krinke accepted a joint sentencing submission Monday for Mr. Mike’s Plumbing in connection with the death of Liam Johnston. The sentence includes a $115,000 fine and a $215,000 creative sentence payment to the University of Alberta’s Injury Prevention Centre.

The money will be used to develop a workplace safety campaign aimed at helping young Alberta workers recognize unsafe conditions, understand the consequences of dangerous work and overcome barriers to refusing unsafe tasks. Johnston was working on sewer repairs in northwest Calgary on June 8, 2023, when the trench collapsed, burying him under soil and debris. Court heard it took nearly 12 hours and the removal of about 25 dump-truck loads of dirt to recover his body.

Mr. Mike’s Plumbing pleaded guilty to one count of failing to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, Johnston’s health and safety. Other charges were withdrawn. Before sentencing submissions, court heard emotional victim impact statements from Johnston’s fiancée, Emily Gofton; his mother, Kim Ivison; and his stepfather, Adam Groves.

“Someone once told Liam and me that when we were together, it was like there was nobody else in the room with us,” Gofton said. “And now, here with you all, I find myself in that room all alone. When Liam died, I didn’t just lose my best friend and the person that I loved.

I lost the life that we had planned together and the person that I was before that day. “I lost the safest place I’ve ever known.” Gofton, who had also worked for Mr. Mike’s Plumbing, said receiving the news shattered her world.

“As if losing him wasn’t enough, I was also left to face the responsibility of calling his parents, having to tell them that their son had been buried alive at work,” she said. “The heartbreak of hearing a mother and father learn that their son will never come home is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life. “(It’s) a responsibility that should never have been mine.”

She also described how construction sites have become a constant reminder of Johnston’s death. “Instead of seeing people simply doing their jobs, I find myself inspecting the site for signs that something is wrong, hoping that somehow I can protect them and hoping that nobody else experiences what Liam did,” she said. Gofton ended her statement by describing the love and future the couple had lost.

“If love could have saved Liam, he would have lived forever,” she said. “I will spend the rest of my life carrying a love that has nowhere to go, a love that was once the greatest