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A commercial camp operator was fined more than $200,000 for failing to implement COVID-19 protective measures after an employee died from the virus in his room about 65 miles outside Dawson Creek, B. C.
WorkSafeBC’s fine, issued in September 2023 and made public last week, penalizes Horizon North Camp
Industrial work camps, such as those occupied by workers building BC Hydro’s Site C dam and Coastal GasLink’s pipeline project, have been the site of a number of COVID-19 outbreaks since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
An inspection report written by WorkSafeBC, dated May 24, 2023, and seen by Glacier Media, provides a fairly detailed timeline of how one of these clusters developed.
The story begins on November 30, 2021, when an employee boarded a bus in Edmonton, Alberta. The report states that the employee had his temperature checked and completed a COVID-19 screening questionnaire, unlike other employees who arrived at the camp by car.
A week later, another worker at the B.C. camp overheard the man report to a supervisor that he was ill. But inspectors later determined the man from Alberta continued to work for two more days, and supervisors did not isolate him for another two days after that.
Regardless, on Dec. 12, the ailing employee was taken to a clinic in Fort St. John’s. John for a COVID-19 check, five days after first showing symptoms.
“He arrived back at the camp at approximately 16:00, which is when he was last seen alive,” notes the report.
The next morning a supervisor and another worker found him lying dead in his room. The BC Coroners Service later determined the man died of COVID-19.
The B. C. The Northern Health Authority began contact tracing and, after several immediate antigen tests, discovered that there was COVID-19 in the camp.
The group “was deemed stable” on Dec. 18. The source of transmission eventually traces back to staff quarters, and it was then deemed “highly likely” that the deceased employee contracted the virus on the job, according to the report by WorkSafeBC researcher Michelle Welsh.
On July 7, 2021, Provincial Fitness Director Dr. Bonnie Henry issued orders to stop the spread of the virus in commercial campgrounds, a few months ahead of the Sanataa Lodge group.
But WorkSafeBC inspectors found that the company had failed to adhere to physical distancing, temperature checks, or symptom reporting.
The company’s timeline of the incident stated the deceased worker was in isolation in the days after he reported feeling sick. But documents show he signed in at morning safety meetings those same days, evidence he was working while sick.
The deceased “did not have the facilities or facilities he needed to isolate” and “while in isolation, no physical checks were performed,” according to the inspection report.
As a result, inspectors decided that staff who had health issues with COVID-19 were not properly quarantined.
Most likely, the situation has been exacerbated by the camp’s communal living spaces, communal bathrooms, and lack of meal spacing, according to their inspection report.
High-risk violations also included a lack of physical education and safeguarding for new staff and failure to meet minimum cleaning criteria to the point that regular spaces were “visibly soiled. “
In a statement not attributed to Glacier Media, Dexterra Group said “it’s really nice to see the decision. “
“During the pandemic, we have been operating safely at many sites across Canada. We have an ongoing commitment to the health and protection of our employees, the customers we work for, and the customers we serve,” the company said.
“Since this case is before the appeals court, we will not be commenting at this time. “
It is unclear exactly how many employees ultimately fell ill within the Sanataa Lodge group, as those figures were redacted in the investigation report.
“At the time of writing, Sanataa Lodge is closed,” Welsh concluded.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated with more detailed data after Glacier Media received an incident investigation report from WorkSafeBC.
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