CNRL gets three-month extension to enter plea on worker deaths
Posted September 14, 2009
ROLAND CILLIERS
Fort McMurray Today staff
Canadian Natural Resources Limited was given an extra three months this morning to enter a plea to charges in connection with the 2007 deaths of two workers on site.
The company, along with, Sinopec Shanghai Engineering and SSEC Canada are facing a combined 53 charges in relation to the fatalities and are now scheduled to be back before a judge Nov. 4. There are 29 occupational health and safety-related charges filed against CNRL.
The maximum penalty for a first offence under the Occupational Health and Safety Act is $500,000 for each charge.
The charges stem from the deaths of Hong Liang Liu, 33, an electrical engineer, and Genbao Ge, 27, a scaffolder, both of China, when the roof of the oil tank they were working in collapsed. The April 24, 2007, collapse injured four other workers, two seriously, at the CNRL Horizon project. The two temporary workers who were killed were non-union employees of Sinopec Shanghai Engineering.
One problem that has been encountered by the Crown in the case has been difficulty in serving the Chinese company court notices.
“We are having some significant problems serving them in Canada. They're a large Chinese government-owned company that was contracted to build the tanks that collapsed,” said Crown attorney James Mahon.
Judge J.R. Jacques granted the extension, saying, “This looks like a complicated matter.”
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