Digest: R v Nalco Champion, 2018 SKPC 61

Reported as: 2018 SKPC 61

Docket Number: PC18057 , 24453195

Court: Provincial Court

Date: 2019-11-18

Judges:

• Wiegers

Subjects:

• Regulatory Offences � Saskatchewan Employment Act
• Public Welfare Offences�� Occupational Health and Safety � Death of a Worker
• Regulatory Offence � Strict Liability ��Defence�of�Due Diligence

Digest: The defendant company was charged with contravening s. 3-78(g) of The Saskatchewan Employment Act by failing to meet its duty under s. 302(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations to take all practicable steps to prevent exposure of a worker to a hazardous chemical substance. The defendant denied the allegation, claiming that the Crown had failed to discharge its burden of proof or, alternatively, that it relied upon the defence of reasonable care. The charge arose after an employee of the defendant died after he was exposed to lethal amounts of hydrogen sulfide. The defendant�s business related to obtaining and analyzing samples of �produced water� (crude oil extracted from oil wells containing a mixture of oil, water, salt, gases and other substances) from oil pipelines in order to recommend blends of chemical additives that would inhibit corrosion of pipelines. It had business relationships with 50 oilfield companies in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and assigned employees to each of them to take liquid samples for analysis. In this case, the employee was assigned to Harvest Energy Corporation and had sampled at the site about 100 times before the incident that caused his death. The liquid sampling occurred at a pressure...