A worker who normally helped on production was asked to take over painting duties. They asked for training on the new role first, because it meant handling hazardous products. They were not given any.
They painted on July 14, 2023, using a hazardous paint mixture a colleague handed them. There was mixture left at the end of the day, so they put the lid back on the container and left it in the paint booth to use when the job resumed. Nobody had told them that was the wrong thing to do.
On July 17, 2023, they went to reopen it. The pressure that had built up inside blew the lid off toward them. They were seriously injured.
What Happened
Genaire Limited manufactures and repairs aviation parts in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. The incident happened at its King Street workplace.
A worker whose usual job was assisting with production duties was asked to assume painting duties. The role involved handling hazardous products, and the worker requested training for it. No training was provided.
On July 14, 2023 the worker began painting, using a hazardous paint mixture provided by a colleague. The worker was unaware of the safety requirements for its use and storage. At the end of the workday there was mixture left over, so they placed the lid back on the container and left it in the paint booth, intending to reuse the mixture when the job resumed.
On July 17, 2023, while attempting to reopen the sealed container, pressure that had built up inside caused the lid to fly off toward them. They were seriously injured as a result.
The Ministry of Labour investigation determined that Genaire Limited failed to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by section 7(1)(c) of Ontario Regulation 860 were carried out in the workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Genaire Limited pleaded guilty in the Ontario Provincial Offences Court in Welland and was convicted on December 4, 2025. Justice of the Peace Kevin L. Hicks imposed a fine of $60,000. A 25 per cent victim fine surcharge was added, as the Provincial Offences Act requires.
What the Law Says
Ontario Regulation 860 is the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System regulation. It is the WHMIS regulation, and it is worth being clear about that, because the label, the safety data sheet and the worker instruction that most people think of as WHMIS all live in it. It is not the designated substances regulation. That is O. Reg. 490/09, and it was not charged here.
The provision Genaire was convicted under is section 7(1)(c). The full opening of section 7(1) reads: "An employer shall ensure that every worker who works with or who may be exposed in the course of his or her work to a hazardous product is instructed in," and clause (c) is "procedures for the safe use, storage, handling and disposal of a hazardous product."
Read the four things that clause lists. Use. Storage. Handling. Disposal. Most WHMIS programs are built around the first one, spend some time on the second, and never reach the fourth at all. This worker was hurt at the seam between storage and disposal, which is exactly the part of the clause that gets skipped.
Two more subsections matter, even though neither was the charge. Section 7(2) requires that the education program be developed and implemented for that workplace and be related to the other training at it. Section 7(3) requires that the employer ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the instruction "results in the workers being able to use the information to protect their health and safety." That is an outcome test. Delivering the instruction is not the end of the duty. The worker being able to use it is.
Section 25(1)(c) of the OHSA is the employer's duty to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by the regulations are carried out in the workplace. It is the tether that turns a regulation requirement into an offence by the employer.
One point of care about the record. The Ministry bulletin states that Ontario Regulation 860 requires such mixtures to be used within four hours and any leftover disposed of safely, and that the worker was unaware of that requirement because of the lack of training. There is no four hour rule in the text of Regulation 860. A four hour working life is a property of a catalysed paint, and it comes from the product's own safety data sheet and technical data. What the regulation requires is that the employer instruct the worker in the procedures for safe use, storage, handling and disposal of the product. The four hours belongs to the paint. Telling the worker about it is the law.
Three Things This Case Teaches Ontario Industrial Employers
- A request for training is notice, and notice starts the clock. This worker asked before starting, and the request is recorded in the Ministry's own account of the case. From the moment it lands, the employer knows an untrained person is about to handle a hazardous product. Everything that follows is foreseeable, and foreseeability is what the fine is measuring.
- Disposal is in the clause, and it is the half nobody trains. Section 7(1)(c) names use, storage, handling and disposal in one breath. Ask what your own program says about what a worker does with what is left in the pot at the end of a shift. If the honest answer is nothing, you have the same gap Genaire had.
- Instruction that does not reach the person doing the job has not been given. Section 7(3) measures the program by whether workers can actually use the information. A colleague handing someone a mixed container is not instruction. Neither is a binder, an induction video from two years ago, or a sign on the booth.
If your facility mixes or catalyses coatings, adhesives or resins, pull the safety data sheet for each one and check that its working life and its disposal route are written into the job instruction your painters actually receive. The full analysis is in the WorkSafe Sounds article linked above.