Safety charges stayed against Faro mine construction company, superintendent

Workplace safety-relatedcharges against the company managing construction at the Faro mine site and a site supervisor have been stayed.

Parsons Inc. and Len Faber, who's also the mayor of Faro,were charged under the Yukon'sOccupational Health and Safety Actin September 2019 for allegedly intimidating workers, obstructing safety officers in the course of their duties and failing to maintain a safe and healthy workplace.

Both parties pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The matter was set to go to trial on Nov. 16 but was adjourned to Nov. 24, when territorial Crown prosecutor Kelly McGill told the court that Parsons Inc. and Faber had successfully met the terms of a diversionary arrangement.

The terms included Parsons Inc. augmenting its health and safety training program,while Faber had to complete coursework in psychological heath and safety. They also donated$5,000 and $1,000to the Northern Safety Network Yukon, respectively, and paid $1,500 and $500 in administrative fees.

McGill told Judge Karen Ruddy that, in light of the successful arrangement, there was no longer a public interest in proceeding with the prosecution and entered stays on all charges.

Lawyers representing Parsons Inc. and Faber did not immediately return requests for comment.

The federal government awarded Parsons Inc., an international engineering firm, an $80 million construction management contract for the Faro mine site in 2018. The firm held the care-and-maintenance contract before that.

Faber won Faro's mayoral election in October 2018 by chance whenhis name was pulled out of a boxafter he and incumbentmayor Jack Bowers both received the exact same number of votes.

The Faro mine was, at one point, the largest open-pit lead-zinc mine in the world but was abandoned in 1998. Remediation work, set to begin in 2024,is expected to costupwards of $500 million and take about two decades, with officials needing to monitor the site indefinitely after that.