Coroner Andrée Kronström started her public inquiry on Monday to seek out the circumstances and all of the elements that contributed to the deaths of 4 staff on development websites in Quebec.
The 4 deaths on which her thematic investigation focuses are these of Vito Fundaro, which occurred on June 19, 2024 in Montreal; of Médrik Lincourt, which occurred on August 4, 2025 in Terrebonne; of Maxime Neglect, which occurred on August 21, 2024 in Brownsburg-Chatham; and of Mario Ross, which occurred on April 4, 2025 in Drummondville.
Fudaro died after being struck by a pole that fell from a skyscraper, which had been hooked by a crane that was on the roof.
Lincourt died when the bucket of a mechanical shovel got here unfastened and fell whereas he was in an excavation for a development web site.
Neglect, who was appearing as a highway flagger, was crushed to dying by a backhoe throughout a reversing maneuver.
Ross, who had been assigned to signaling, died when he was crushed by a truck that was reversing to entry the development web site.
Along with the circumstances and contributing elements, the investigation also needs to permit for “a broader reflection on the parts that affect the well being and security of development staff,” mentioned Kronström in his opening remarks.
The primary witnesses heard, from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) and the Fee des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), defined the position and operation of their respective organizations on the whole.
Thus, the Régie du bâtiment du Québec specified that in 2024-2025, it employed 110 inspectors and carried out 14,284 inspection interventions.
Pierre Privé, investigations coordinator on the CNESST, specified that the Fee employs 314 inspectors, together with 200 in amenities and 86 devoted to development websites. He emphasised {that a} third of the employees is devoted to the development sector (buildings and public works).
He famous that, regardless of price range cuts imposed on all ministries and businesses, the variety of inspectors on the CNESST has not been decreased.
This sector of Buildings, public works comes first when it comes to the variety of deaths and first when it comes to deaths associated to an occupational illness, Privé testified.
The CNESST thus recorded 74 unintentional deaths in 2024 for the 32 sectors mixed, together with 16 on this sector referred to as BTP, or 22 per cent.
As for deaths from occupational illness, it recorded 172 in complete, together with 52 within the development sector, or 30 per cent.
The hearings proceed till March 27, then for a number of days this spring, then this autumn.
A number of employers’ and commerce union associations within the development business are attending, in addition to authorities departments and the Quebec Building Fee, along with the RBQ and the CNESST.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews