Major B.C. shipbuilding company fined $710K after worker suffers carbon monoxide poisoning

A major British Columbia shipbuilding company, which builds and services vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy, has been fined more than $700,000 after a worker suffered carbon monoxide poisoning at the company's Victoria shipyard.

A major British Columbia shipbuilding company, which builds and services vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy, has been fined more than $700,000 after a worker suffered carbon monoxide poisoning at the company's Victoria shipyard.

WorkSafeBC says the incident occurred on July 12, 2023, when a worker at the Seaspan-operated Victoria Shipyards was arc gouging – cutting metal with electricity – inside a confined space on a ship.

A subsequent inspection found "multiple deficiencies" in the company's confined space work procedures, WorkSafeBC says, noting "these were all high-risk violations."

The extent of the worker's injuries are redacted from the on-site inspection reports provided to CTV News by WorkSafeBC. However, the workplace safety regulator wrote that "two minutes after the worker had entered the confined space, the alarm of the gas monitor started sounding."

"The worker was inside the space for 40 minutes while the alarm from the testing equipment was sounding," one report notes. "There was no action taken to pull the worker out of the space where there was carbon monoxide buildup."

The safety regulator says Seaspan's safety protocols require a "standby person" to check on the wellbeing of a welder in a confined space every 10 minutes.

"The standby person was not located at the entrance of the space for at least 40 minutes" during the incident, WorkSafeBC says. "When the worker exited the space following their injury, the standby person was not there."