Construction company sentenced for occupational health and safety violations

A local construction company was sentenced on Monday for two violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

PQ Properties was sentenced in Pictou provincial court to pay fines of $2,000 and $1,500, after pleading guilty to two of three charges relating to violations.

An additional charge against the company was withdrawn as were three charges against the owner, Paul Quinn.

Judge Del Atwood said the two charges for which the company was fined are meant as a deterrent, and that the primary objective of occupational health and safety laws is deterrence.

Atwood said the offences were “more than just not non-compliance” with occupational health and safety law, but they constituted “failure to comply with an order from a competent authority.” Atwood emphasized that if a defendant finds themselves with an unsatisfactory order, the appropriate response is due process, not defiance of that order.

Crown prosecutor Alex Keaveny said that mitigating factors in Quinn’s case included an early guilty plea, and the fact that he had no prior record.

Keaveny said the sentencing would adhere to the goal of deterrence, by “removing the incentive to take these kinds of risks and shortcuts.”

Other remaining charges against PQ Properties were withdrawn. PQ Properties is a local construction company that recently built several newer business and residential suites in Stellarton.