Journal of Commerce | Jean Sorensen | March 2, 2026
B.C. crown prosecutors signalled a stern warning to the construction industry, calling for a $1 million fine for J. Cote & Son Excavating at a B.C. Supreme Court sentencing hearing Feb. 26 and 27.
The hearing follows a December ruling that found the company guilty of criminal negligence causing death and injury in a trench incident that occurred in October 2012.
The Burnaby trench collapse resulted in the crushing death of pipelayer Jeff Caron when a retaining wall fell into the trench and also severely injured a second pipelayer Thomas Richer.
While B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Brundrett has reserved a decision on sentencing until April 16, prosecutors Louisa Winn and Emmanuelle Rouleau argued a fine should not be a cost of doing business.
Winn maintained since companies cannot be jailed, and criminal negligence causing death is one of the most severe offenses, the fines in these cases should be punitive.
“The sentence must reflect denunciation and general deterrence for workplace deaths. Ability to pay is not determinative,” she said.
The code’s subsection 718.21, which sets out the considerations for sentencing organizations, also notes “if appropriate the prospects of bankruptcy should not be precluded,” she said.
“If serious financial discomfort barred large fines, deterrence could collapse.”
The prosecutors did not ask for a probation period as J. Cote & Son had strengthened their safety program. In 2020, the company received its Certificate of Recognition (COR).
The COR program recognizes employers who go beyond the current legal requirements, implement an effective occupational health and safety management system and pass a certification audit.
Defense co-counsels Bill Smart and Nicole Gilewicz, appearing for the company, told the court the company had sustained deep financial costs as a result of the trench death and injury. After the incident, the business had suffered but owner Jamie Cote had managed to rebuild the business.
Gilewicz said the company had paid $500,000 in legal fees and incurred another $600,000 owing. It is also embroiled in another $2 million in civil lawsuits.
Smart asked the court to consider a fine of $300,000, which with a 15 per cent victim surcharge would raise the figure to $345,000. He asked the court to consider the initial impact of the incident on the company, the legal fees and the lingering effect of a criminal conviction.
Rouleau said the $1 million figure was chosen because it represented two years of company net profits. The company, despite the 2012 incident, had grown from 20 employees to 60 to 70 employees and was earning profits, she said.
The $1 million figure also reflected the seriousness of the incident, the lack of safety protocol in place, the refusal to accept guilt and “the continuing need for denunciation and general deterrence in the construction industry.”
Rouleau said the construction industry is known to be hazardous and employers have the duty to ensure workers are safe.
“The seriousness of the offence, combined with the need to protect workers in the construction industry, requires a sentence that clearly denounces the conduct and deters other employers from similar negligence,” she said.
Rouleau referenced the provincial court judge’s comments in the Stave Lake Quarries Inc. death of an untrained employee on her second work day.
“The penalty imposed by the court must send a strong message to companies who operate unsafe businesses that if those working conditions result in harm to, or the death of, an employee, the consequences for the company will be severe. The fine imposed must be so significant that it cannot be considered simply as a cost of doing business.”
Winn told the court from 2004 to 2025, there have been few successful prosecutions relative to the scale of workplace deaths, with many withdrawn, stayed or diverted to provincial occupational health and safety regimes. As a result this limited the case law available to guide sentencing.
The largest fine has come in the Detour Gold Corp 2017 case which saw the company pay $2.4 million, that included $800,000 restitution to the widow of an employee who died from cyanide poisoning.
In 2013 Metron Construction was fined $750,000 (increased from $200,000 on appeal) for criminal negligence causing death when a swing stage collapse killed four workers and injured another in Toronto. The Metron ruling is a landmark as it emphasizes that a fine must reflect the offense’s gravity and not just the company’s ability to pay.
Winn pointed to B.C.’s Occupational Health and Safety regulations where penalties and fines can go over a million. The intent of the regulations is compliance while the code is directed at deterrence.
“What they (defense) is asking for in this case is not appropriate,” she said.
As well as paying a fine, J. Cote & Son will pay restitution to victims. Smart said the company is willing to pay the Caron family’s $10,000 funeral expenses and $6,000 in medical expenses incurred by Richer.
“This has cost the company significantly in terms of the amount of dollars,” said Sean Tucker, a part-time professor at the University of Regina monitoring the sentencing hearing.
Tucker, who lectures in the area of occupational health and safety, said companies need to “take safety seriously because the significant costs can bankrupt a company.”