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Suncor's Syncrude Canada to pay C$ 390,000 after employee death

Oil sands manufacturer Syncrude Canada, majorityowned by Suncor Energy, will pay C$ 390,000. ($ 287,187.04) after pleading guilty to a health and wellness. charge connecting to the death of an employee on one of its websites in. 2021, the Alberta government stated on Monday.

The employee had been running an excavator to build a berm. at a website near Fort McKay in northern Alberta when the bank the. excavator was on slumped into water, Alberta Occupational Health. and Safety stated in a statement. The excavator taxi became. immersed and the employee drowned.

It was among five deaths at oil sands websites run by Suncor,. Canada's second-largest oil manufacturer, in between late 2020 and. mid-2022. The fatalities added to push from U.S.-based. activist financial investment firm Elliot to overhaul management and. operations at Suncor, and prompted the resignation of previous CEO. Mark Little.

Syncrude Canada pleaded guilty on April 4 to one charge of. stopping working to ensure the health and safety of a worker, while four. other charges brought under the Alberta Occupational Health and. Security Act were withdrawn.

Under a plan referred to as creative sentencing, the business. will pay C$ 390,000 to two University of Alberta centers and the. Alberta Municipal Health And Wellness Association to assist develop. more secure practices around trenching and excavation work.

Suncor did not right away respond to a request for comment.

In the business's annual report, launched last month, CEO. Rich Kruger said there had actually been no deaths or life-threatening. injuries in 2023.

(source: Reuters)