Nova Chemicals fined $130,000 after safety failure leads to serious injury at Corunna site

Nova Chemicals has been fined $130,000 in provincial offences court following a workplace incident near Sarnia last spring that left a maintenance worker seriously injured. The fine, issued in December […]

Nova Chemicals has been fined $130,000 in provincial offences court following a workplace incident near Sarnia last spring that left a maintenance worker seriously injured.

The fine, issued in December 2025, was publicly reported this month by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.

The incident occurred on May 7, 2025, at Nova Chemicals’ petrochemical manufacturing facility on Petrolia Line in St. Clair Township. Two workers employed by contractor Kel-Gor Limited were working from a scaffold adjacent to an exhaust stack while a heater was undergoing cleaning.

Nova Chemicals contracts Kel-Gor Limited to provide maintenance services at its Corunna facility.

The ministry’s investigation outlined that the site operates several boilers and heaters as part of its chemical manufacturing process. To maintain this equipment, water must periodically be removed to prevent scale buildup, corrosion, and the concentration of impurities.

One method used for this maintenance is known as intermittent blowdown, a process that involves manually opening valves to release boiler feed water from a heater storage drum into an intermittent blowdown drum.

During the May incident, hot boiler feed water was unexpectedly discharged from the top of the intermittent blowdown stack. The release resulted in serious injuries to one of the workers on the scaffold.

Investigators determined that neither the scaffold nor the exhaust stack had been equipped with shields or protective barriers to safeguard workers. The ministry also found that workers had not been provided with adequate information or instruction to safely perform tasks associated with intermittent blowdown operations.

Nova Chemicals pleaded guilty to failing to provide information, instruction, and supervision to protect workers from workplace hazards, contrary to Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

In addition to the $130,000 fine, the court imposed a mandatory 25 per cent victim fine surcharge under the Provincial Offences Act. That surcharge is directed to a provincial fund that supports victims of crime.