Construction workers at a Waterloo water pumping station weren’t warned that the building they were working in contained asbestos, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour says.
According to the ministry, the Region of Waterloo pleaded guilty Friday to failing to provide a worker with required information about materials containing asbestos.
As a result, the region was fined $50,000.
The ministry says that people working on a construction project at the William Street pumping station were exposed to asbestos during October 2015.
Although the region knew there was asbestos in the building, the ministry says, it never warned the workers or their supervisors about that.
Therefore, the workers were not wearing protective equipment when they inadvertently disturbed the asbestos.
The exposure was not considered to be extensive, as one worker was around it for seven hours and another one for two hours.
