Horizon denies Chalmers asbestos charges
WorkSafeNB alleges health authority placed employees at risk over five years
The province’s anglophone health authority is headed to trial on workplace safety charges alleging failures to protect workers from potential exposure to asbestos at a Fredericton hospital.
WorkSafeNB charged Regional Health Authority B, better known as the Horizon Health Network, this summer with four counts under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The charges alleged Horizon failed to follow the established code of practice regarding work around asbestos, failed to educate workers of the risk inherent in handling asbestos, failed to advise workers there is asbestos in certain workspace areas and failed to take precautions to protect workers from being exposed to asbestos.
The WorkSafeNB counts allege events over a five-year period, from Nov. 7, 2017, and Oct. 6, 2022.
Fredericton lawyer Ashley Arbour appeared in Fredericton provincial court as an agent for Jessica Bungay, defence counsel for Horizon in the case.
Arbour entered not-guilty pleas on behalf of the health authority Monday.
No officials from Horizon were present in court for Monday’s proceedings.
Arbour and prosecutor Derek Weaver said it was felt at least a day of court time would be necessary for the trial, so Judge Natalie LeBlanc set the matter over to Nov. 23 for a case-management conference to see if the issues to be tried can be narrowed.
A WorkSafeNB spokesperson previously informed the Fredericton Independent the asbestos issue was detected at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton, which is a Horizon facility.
Laragh Dooley, WorkSafeNB’s executive director of corporate communications, noted previously the asbestos was located in a restricted area of the hospital and that only a limited number of employees had been at risk of exposure.
The area in question is inaccessible to the general public and most hospital workers, she said, so there wasn’t a general risk to those who had been in the hospital over the relevant time period.
“The investigation uncovered that potential exposure to asbestos occurred with employees working in the interstitial space (area between floors),” she wrote in an email last month.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.