A worker died after falling through a roof at an Edmonton construction site on December 11, 2023.
The Calgary-based landscaping company that was prime contractor on that site has now been fined $318,000.
Arbutus Landscaping Inc. pleaded guilty on August 19 in Edmonton Court of Justice to one count under Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Act, for failing to establish a system or process to ensure compliance with OHS laws. All remaining charges were withdrawn.
The fine includes the victim fine surcharge. The company and the Crown each have up to 30 days to appeal the conviction or the penalty.
The worker has not been publicly named.
What a prime contractor is responsible for
The charge Arbutus pleaded to is worth understanding, because it isn't about the fall.
Under Alberta's OHS Act, a work site with two or more employers must have a prime contractor, and that role carries a distinct duty: ensuring the health and safety of everyone on the site, not just the prime contractor's own workers, and establishing systems to coordinate compliance across every employer present.
That means a company can be prosecuted for what happened to someone else's employee, on the basis that it never built the system that should have caught the hazard.
A landscaping company holding that role on a construction site isn't unusual in itself. Prime contractor status attaches to whoever is designated for a site, not to whichever trade is most obviously connected to the work being done.
The roofing company faces 24 counts
Albatross Roofing Ltd. was charged over the same incident and is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10 in Edmonton Court of Justice.
According to Alberta's public charges register, Albatross faces 24 counts.
They include a charge under Section 3(1)(a)(i) of the OHS Act, alleging failure to ensure the health and safety of workers by failing to ensure they were protected from falling while working at height, covering December 1 to 11, 2023.
They also include a charge under Section 314(2) of the OHS Code, alleging that where a person removed a cover or part of a cover protecting an opening or a hole, the company failed to ensure a temporary cover or other means of protection replaced it immediately.
None of the allegations against Albatross Roofing has been proven in court.
Falls are the recurring Alberta case
Falls through roofs and from heights account for a steady share of Alberta's workplace fatality prosecutions.
The province's OHS Code requires fall protection where a worker could fall three metres or more, requires employers to inform workers of fall hazards at every site, and requires enforcement of fall protection systems where a risk exists. Residential roofing has its own fall protection plan guidance published by the province.
Alberta OHS also publishes fatality investigation reports online, but only after investigations and all court proceedings are complete. That means the report on this death won't appear until after the Albatross Roofing case concludes.
What Alberta OHS law gives workers
Three rights: the right to know about hazards in the workplace, the right to participate in health and safety decisions, and the right to refuse work you believe is dangerous.
Refusing unsafe work is a formal process rather than a walkout. You report the concern to your employer, the employer investigates, and you cannot be disciplined for a refusal made in good faith. If it isn't resolved, OHS can be brought in.
Unsafe work can be reported to Alberta OHS, and reports can be made anonymously. Employers must report serious injuries and fatalities immediately.
Alberta publishes its enforcement record publicly and searchably by company name. Charges pending lists what's been laid but not resolved. Convictions lists what was proven. Prosecution outcomes lists what was withdrawn, stayed, appealed or dismissed. Fatality investigation summaries describe what happened in workplace deaths without naming the worker.
What comes next
Albatross Roofing is sentenced September 10. The appeal window on Arbutus Landscaping's conviction and fine runs 30 days from August 19.
Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration does not release sentencing documents. Those are available through the Edmonton Court of Justice.
Sources
Company fined for a workplace fatality — Government of Alberta, August 25, 2026
Charges under OHS Legislation — Government of Alberta
Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act and Occupational Health and Safety Code
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