Skid Steer Injury Costs Ontario Paving Firm $70,000 Fine
A Kanata, Ont., paving and landscaping contractor has been fined $70,000 (CAD) because it never told its crew how close workers on foot could get to a moving skid steer, Daily Commercial News reports. The company, 1000537263 Ontario Inc., operating as Permeable Plus, pleaded guilty in Provincial Offences Court in Ottawa on Sept. 3, 2026. Justice of the Peace Karen (Soloman) Baum imposed the fine.
According to an Ontario court bulletin cited in the report, the incident happened on May 22, 2024. A worker was walking alongside a skid steer with a hand against a tear in a dry-stone bag hanging from the machine’s forks. The worker’s foot became caught under the right-side track. The machine kept moving, and the worker suffered critical injuries.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found the employer gave neither the injured worker nor the operator any instructions on a safe working proximity between foot traffic and a moving skid steer.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Paving, hardscape and landscape crews: Put a written rule in your next job-start briefing on how close workers on foot may get to a moving skid steer. Name the operator and the ground crew, and record who received the instruction. The ministry’s finding turned on the absence of that instruction.
- Material handling with suspended loads: Stop crew members from walking beside a machine to steady or hold a bag hanging from the forks. Plan a different method, such as setting the load down before anyone approaches it. This is our inference from the incident description, not a finding in the report.
- Equipment operators: Check that every skid steer operator has documented training that covers working around pedestrians. The source does not mention inspection records, but keeping them alongside training files gives you evidence if a ministry inspector arrives.
