Bracebridge mayor has no comment on Ministry of Labour charges.
Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith
The Town of Bracebridge is waiting to see what happens in court before it will comment on the charges laid by the Ministry of Labour last week.
Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith said charges have been laid, but the town has not been convicted yet.
“I’m not going to have any comment on it right now because it is before the courts and it is a legal matter,” he said.
Last week the Ministry of Labour laid charges against the Town of Bracebridge for an incident involving a tractor that rolled onto a student employee on August 31 last year, crushing her foot.
Rachel Cockburn was working on maintaining Wilson’s Falls Trail with two other summer students when the tractor she was driving rolled over. She required surgery for the 22 fractures and three dislocations in her foot.
A year after the accident she is starting to jog in physiotherapy, but her main focus is learning to walk properly again.
The ministry investigated the situation and concluded Cockburn had not been properly trained on the tractor and that a supervisor was not on-site or easily accessible to the workers.
On August 13 the Ministry of Labour laid charges against the town of Bracebridge for “failing to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker to protect the health and safety of the worker.” A supervisor is also facing charges for “failing to take every precaution reasonable to the circumstances for the protection of a worker.”
The mayor was on vacation when the charges were laid, and on his return to work was immediately involved in AMO (Association of Municipalities Ontario) meetings in Ottawa.
“I haven’t been back in the office, so I haven’t really had a chance to discuss this with staff, but that will be one of my first orders of business when I do get back,” he said.