A former longtime Mississauga company now located just over the border in Toronto has been fined $80,000 after one of its workers was injured in a fall last year.
The Ontario Ministry of Labour said in a news release this week that Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited pleaded guilty in Provincial Offences Court in Guelph on Sept. 18 to an offence under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Gay Lea Foods, Ontario’s largest farmer-owned dairy co-operative, has been located in Etobicoke near Toronto Pearson Airport since 2025 after basing its operations in Mississauga for nearly two decades.
The incident occurred on March 23, 2025 at a Gay Lea Foods dairy processing plant in Guelph, west of the Greater Toronto Area, the ministry said.
“A worker was injured after falling from the top of a milk transport truck while collecting milk samples. Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited failed, as an employer, to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker with respect to the safe setup and operation of a hatch access system (gantry),” contrary to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the ministry’s news release continued.
According to the ministry, milk delivered to the Guelph plant is sampled by receivers before being unloaded.
“Samples are collected from hatches located on top of milk transport trucks. Workers access the hatches using an elevated hatch access system, known as a gantry, which is equipped with steps and guardrails to help prevent falls,” the Ministry of Labour said. “To shorten the sampling process, some workers would step onto the top of the truck and walk to the second sampling hatch rather than repositioning the gantry.
“On March 23, 2025, a milk receiver stepped from the gantry onto the top of a truck and was no longer protected by the guardrail system. The worker slipped on the wet surface of the truck and fell to the floor below.”
A subsequent ministry investigation found that the employer “failed to provide adequate information, instruction and supervision regarding the safe setup and operation of the gantry.”
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In addition to the $80,000 fine imposed by a Justice of the Peace, the court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
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