Supreme Court finds City of Greater Sudbury could be liable in Elgin Street pedestrian death

Canada's highest court has ruled that the city was responsible for the downtown Sudbury construction site where a woman was crushed to death eight years ago. 

The Supreme Court released its decision Friday morning, determining that the city was responsible as an employer for the workers and work on Elgin Street in the fall of 2015 and can be held legally liable for the deadly accident.

In a split decision, the justices found that "a person can be an employer... even where they lack control over the worker or the workplace."

The court found that the city was the "employer of the inspectors" who were checking on the repaving of Elgin Street and was the "employer of Interpaving, with whom it contracted to undertake the construction project" and that the Ministry of Labour does not have to prove that the city had direct control over the workers on site for the municipality to be responsible. 

The justices note that the City of Greater Sudbury "can escape liability" by proving that it exercised "due diligence" in making sure the construction site was safe and all the rules were being properly followed.

The case will now go back to the provincial offences appeal court for a final decision.

Cecile Paquette was walking across Elgin Street on Sept. 30, 2015 when she was run over by a grader and killed.

Within days, Greater Sudbury officials were quick to say they weren't responsible, because they legally are not "employers" or "constructors" and that the blame fell with Interpaving, the contractor hired by the city for the Elgin job.

"We feel answerable in many ways to some of the questions that I know the community has," interim chief administrative officer Kevin Fowke told CBC in the days following the deadly accident in October 2015. 

"But at the same time the regulations are clear that the accountability for safety are the accountability of the constructors."

The Ministry of Labour charged both the city and Interpaving with violations under the health and safety act, leading the construction company to plead guilty and pay a $195,000 fine.

The city also banned Interpaving from bidding on any municipal contracts between 2016 and 2020.

The City of Greater Sudbury decided to fight the provincial charges in court, convincing a judge in 2018 that it couldn't be held responsible for Paquette's death because it wasn't legally seen as a "constructor."

The Ministry of Labour took the matter to a superior court judge, who also sided with the city, but then in 2019, the court of appeal overruled the two lower court decisions and ruled the city could be held responsible.

Then in 2021, Greater Sudbury decided to appeal to the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court of Canada, which held a hearing in the fall of 2022.

All that legal back and forth has cost Sudbury taxpayers $633,784.05, a figure obtained by the CBC through Freedom of Information laws.

The Paquette family also sued the city and Interpaving in civil court, seeking $2 million in damages.

Interpaving agreed to pay the family $350,000 and the city settled with the Paquettes as well, but no details of that settlement have been made public.