KITCHENER: Hawksview Homes Ltd. pleaded guilty and was fined $50,000 after a worker fell from a scaffold and suffered a spinal cord injury resulting in paraplegia.

On July 24, 2013, the worker was applying stucco to a wall on a new-home project on Moorlands Crescent in Kitchener. To work on the application the worker needed to stand on a scaffold next to the wall. While standing on the scaffold, the worker fell about 25 feet to the ground from at least the second level of the scaffold.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that there was no guardrail on the scaffolding as required under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Construction Projects Regulation (Ontario Regulation 213/91).

Hawksview Homes Ltd. pleaded guilty to failing as a constructor to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by the regulation were carried out

Hawksview Homes was fined $50,000 by Justice of the Peace Michael A. Cuthbertson in Kitchener court. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.