Transport Canada issues $62,000 in penalties in tugboat sinking
The tugboat Ingenika sank in frigid waters near Kitimat in February 2021, killing two members of its three-person crew.
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Transport Canada has issued $62,000 in penalties against the owners of the tugboat Ingenika, which sank in stormy seas near Kitimat in 2021, killing two.
While the penalties are the maximum allowed, they are not sufficient to deter the company from further unsafe practices, says the wife of one of the crew members.
“That’s a slap in the face to everyone,” said Judy Carlick-Pearson, wife of tugboat Capt. Troy Pearson. “If you’re only having to pay $62,000 for potentially taking the life of two men, who’s to say they’ll clean up their operations?”
The tug sank in turbulent, freezing waters in the Gardner Canal near Kitimat in February 2021 while towing a barge loaded with construction materials. Pearson and deckhand Charley Cragg, 25, died. A third crewman, 19-year-old Zac Dolan, was rescued on land.
On Sept. 22, Wainwright Marine Service was fined $52,000 under the Canada Shipping Act for three sanctions, including failing to ensure the vessel was staffed with a sufficient and competent crew; failing to ensure the person employed on board holds a certificate for their position and that the certificate complies with terms and conditions; and jeopardizing the safety of a vessel or persons on board.
Bates Properties Ltd. was fined $10,000 for failing to ensure the vessel, its machinery and equipment met regulatory requirements. Wainwright Marine Services and Bates Properties both list James Bates as company director.
The summary of Transport Canada’s enforcement action did not provide details on the sanctions.
Carlick-Pearson said that while her husband was an avid mariner, he only had a year of experience as skipper of a tugboat.
“Any other company wouldn’t expose someone with so little experience in those waters and in those conditions,” she told Postmedia on Tuesday.
The other crew members also did not have sufficient experience to be put on that route at that time of year, and the tugboat should not have been in those waters to begin with, with both a gale warning and freezing spray warning in effect, she added.
“As the wife of Troy, I honestly think he was pressured, and I don’t think he would have gone if he wasn’t pressured to go.”
The Ingenika has not been recovered, despite calls from Pearson’s and Cragg’s families and First Nations concerned about the downed vessel’s environmental impact.
The Transportation Safety Board has been sounding the alarm over lack of regulation and enforcement governing Canadian tugboats less than 15 gross tonnage in size.
It had launched an investigation into the sinking of the tug.
The findings have not been publicly released, but Carlick-Pearson said she was given a copy of the TSB report two weeks ago. She said the report proves the tug’s owners were negligent.
Jason Woods, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 400, said the Transport Canada fines are not sufficient to change the behaviour of any marine employer, including Bates Properties, which he said has already been identified as being non-compliant with many regulations.
“I am disgusted by the fact they put such a low price on the lives of two people when clearly there’s negligence in this case,” he said. “(Bates) was a company that was already on their watchlist and they could still operate on this behaviour.”
Based on the TSB report and other sources, Woods also believes negligence was a factor in the sinking of the tug. “If this isn’t corporate negligence, I don’t know what is.”
The TSB says it does not assign fault or determine civil or criminal liability.
Genevieve Cragg, the mother of Charley Cragg, said change is needed in Canada’s marine shipping industry.
The penalties are an “indicator of the injustice committed against my son and his skipper,” she said in a statement issued by Taylor Bachrach, MP for Skeena-Bulkley, who has also called for stricter federal safety regulations around tugs.
“I will not stop, nor will I rest until I see a new safety culture in place as part of Charley’s legacy. He died as a result of this systemic injustice. He paid the ultimate price with his life, and it is now time for change.”
RCMP had launched an investigation into the incident. To date, no charges have been laid.
Woods said he would like the Crown to press criminal charges under the Westray Bill, federal legislation that established legal responsibility for workplace health and safety and imposes serious penalties for violations that result in injuries or death.
Carlick-Pearson is also calling for criminal charges under the Workers Compensation Act.
“We are not necessarily fighting for monetary compensation,” she said. “The bottom line is, we are righting for justice so this doesn’t happen again.”
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