Workers at a massive, publicly subsidized electric vehicle (EV) battery plant project in southwestern Ontario have faced repeated health and safety hazards, including high levels of carbon monoxide, electrical risks and flooded parking lots, according to government records obtained by CBC News.
The documents show provincial inspectors have visited the site dozens of times since construction broke ground in 2022 and have issued over 100 orders to NextStar Energy, the company behind the project, that were related to health and safety issues.
That included 10 stop work orders for certain areas of the site until the company addressed the issues. Failure to comply with orders under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) could lead to hefty fines and even imprisonment.
NextStar, a joint venture between global automaker Stellantis and South Korean battery giant LG Energy Solution, has complied with all but two recent orders, per the records.
But workers’ frustrations around health and safety have recently risen to the cabinet level of the provincial government, according to Andrew Dowie, member of provincial parliament (MPP) for Windsor—Tecumseh.
In recent months, Labour Minister David Piccini met with the building trades unions involved in the project, and health and safety “was a topic that had come up,” Dowie said.
“The minister proposed some solutions for consideration by labour, to see if they would be amenable, which included a strength and presence of labour inspectors on site, just on a more regular basis,” Dowie said last week.
“So there was a lot for the local building trades to digest as part of that and they’ll respond with what direction they’d like the province to go in at some point.”
The concerns are the latest in a string of issues that Canadian workers and companies have raised around the battery plant, which promises to create about 2,500 jobs and is receiving billions of dollars in incentives from the provincial and federal governments.
NextStar, which marked the official end of the construction phase in recent weeks, reiterated previous statements saying it is “extremely proud of the progress made on the construction of the 4.23 million-square-foot facility, Canada’s first large-scale battery manufacturing plant.”
“NextStar continues to meet or exceed appropriate industry standards and requirements; the recent occupancy permit received demonstrates that commitment,” the company added.
The company also celebrated what it described as eight million safe work hours earlier this year, despite publicly reported injuries, saying it is “proud to have maintained a zero lost-time injury record (LTIR) from the outset — a powerful demonstration of our collective commitment to safety.”
Asked how NextStar defines safe work hours, a spokesperson said the standards “are determined by the construction industry,” and that Alberici-Barton Malow (A-BM), the general contractor on the project, has a “robust Early and Safe Return to Work Program … which ensures that workers are offered meaningful and productive duties while recovering and rehabilitating.”
110 health, safety orders at NextStar
Some of the records were obtained by CBC News through a freedom-of-information (FOI) request. They include more than 50 pages of health and safety-related enforcement actions against NextStar. The rest of the records are field-visit reports provided by a source involved in the project.
According to the FOIA records, there have been 110 orders tied to the NextStar property since the start of 2023, based on the province’s latest available data.
The site-visit records, meanwhile, are not exhaustive, but show there have been at least 60 visits since 2022 — with at least 31 this year alone.
In an internal health and safety newsletter also obtained by CBC News, a veteran steamfitter wrote that he’s never seen so many ministry visits to a work site.
“Over the course of the two-plus years on this project, there have been more visits by the MOL [Ministry of Labour] than seen on all other jobs combined throughout my career,” Mike Ryall, who also serves on the project’s joint health and safety committee, wrote this summer.
“I think it is safe to say that there have been several reasonable cases to get the ministry involved, but also many issues that could have been dealt with in house or on site.”
Ryall wrote that calling the ministry before trying to resolve a problem internally “is considered a failure” of what’s called the “internal responsibility system” — a component of the OSHA that stipulates workers are responsible for reporting issues to superiors and employers must address those issues.
“When they come to the site, they are confirming failure and of course, they notice other violations and infractions,” Ryall said, adding that “calls to the MOL should be a last resort.”
It’s unclear what, exactly, drove the issues. Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) and the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario (PBCTCO) did not respond to interview requests.
But together, the two sets of documents paint a picture of a fast-moving project where crews building the immense facility often expressed frustration with health and safety issues that they felt were being ignored.
‘Workers are getting sick’
One of those issues was air quality, stemming from the dozens of gas- and diesel-powered pieces of equipment being used inside buildings — despite inspectors flagging the need to use them in “outdoor, ventilated areas” as early as February 2023 and again in October of that year, according to the field visit records.
By December, the ministry had received a complaint alleging there was “inadequate ventilation” as crews used fuel-powered equipment, welded and sprayed fire-retardant foam. Within a week, another complaint claimed there wasn’t enough ventilation for the “boom lifts that are running all day inside.”
Inspectors visited the site both times and confirmed that NextStar was regularly testing carbon monoxide levels in the air, in addition to opening doors when needed to help with airflow.
But the complaints persisted, and it appears they intensified as the project swelled from a couple hundred workers at the start of 2023 to roughly 2,500 the next year.
In February 2024, the ministry issued what appears to have been its first of several orders related to air quality, requiring NextStar to monitor work areas “where diesel-powered equipment is in use” for both “nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide to ensure workers are not exposed to airborne concentrations that exceed legislated” limits.
Later that year, the ministry received a complaint alleging that workers were getting sick as a result of the more than 60 pieces of gas-powered equipment running in the increasingly closed-off plant, “with no ventilation.”
“The complainant further alleges that the employer is aware of these issues, but not addressing them,” the Sept. 26 field visit report states.
Once again, inspectors noted that carbon monoxide testing was happening regularly, with results shared in a WhatsApp group chat, including “occasional higher readings.” But workers on-site told inspectors they were worried about “higher readings made at the project” that “did not appear to have been communicated on the message thread” — something NextStar and A-BM didn’t seem to have been made aware of, per the visit report.
The next month, the ministry received another complaint, this time about “hazardous fumes” indoors as crews cut concrete and used diesel-powered equipment. A-BM wasn’t addressing the issues either, the complainant claimed.
“Workers are getting sick and workers are going to be making a work refusal,” the complaint said, according to the field visit report.
But when inspectors arrived, some of the concrete work was done and several large fans were positioned nearby — fans that workers told inspectors were not there before. Carbon monoxide testing showed only a “single spike” as well, the report states.
Once again, the ministry reminded NextStar that internal combustion engines should only be used indoors if there’s enough airflow and the exhaust fumes are “adequately discharged” outside.
In January this year, the ministry got another complaint about poor air quality that alleged “people are getting sick/multiple respiratory illness/breathing trouble/a lot of outdoor use equipment being used indoors/ventilation is not working.”
Moreover, the complaint claimed “many people” had approached the general contractor, who was “getting aggressive” and “trying to use retaliation.”
Inspectors found that some of the equipment had been removed since their last visit, “with additional equipment being removed daily” and more air-handling equipment getting commissioned.
“The workplace parties advised that they are not aware of any medical aid in relation to air quality,” inspectors wrote in the Jan. 28 report.
Still, they found “elevated levels” of carbon monoxide in one area. “At the time of the visit. testing was inconsistent and was not completed in adequate intervals,” the report adds. The ministry then issued an order to NextStar, directing it to ensure testing was happening regularly.
But in June, NextStar was hit with two more orders around air quality. Inspectors had found that carbon monoxide levels weren’t being monitored in a specific area of what’s referred to as the cell building, “resulting [in] elevated levels.” They also found that “[i]nternal combustion engines were being operated inside” that area “without adequate ventilation to ensure exhaust gases will not accumulate.”
NextStar did not respond to a specific question about why air-quality issues have persisted throughout construction.
Workers had ‘accidents’ related to washroom access
According to the records, another recurrent complaint at the site was over washrooms, which must be no further than 90 metres from workspaces, where possible, under Ontario law.
As with the air-quality concerns, inspectors responded to complaints about washroom access and functionality as early as 2023, and issued NextStar seven orders over the past two years.
In some cases, when inspectors arrived, they found sufficient washrooms at the site and that they were in good working order.
In other cases, the facilities lacked water for handwashing or were missing from specific work areas altogether.
Last March, the ministry received a complaint claiming that washrooms had been removed from the south side of the cell building, while others were “considerably far,” meaning “workers have had ‘accidents’ trying to make it over to a washroom.”
Inspectors issued two orders to NextStar to ensure toilet access after finding none within a 90-metre radius in two areas. They responded to another complaint in May, once again issuing an order to provide access to a washroom within 90 metres of a workspace.
Electrical safety procedure among the issues
Another persistent issue on the project revolved around procedures that keep crews safe while they work on electric-powered machinery. Known as the LOTO (lockout/tagout) process, it involves cutting the power, then workers using physical locks with identification tags to prevent anyone from turning the power back on while they service the equipment.
Inspectors halted work in August 2024 because “the employer was not able to demonstrate that the training requirements have been met for workers who perform repair, setup, commissioning and maintenance” of certain machines in what’s known as the modular building.
“Order is specific to developing and implementing safe and effective procedures/instructions that outline the process of machine lockout including, but not limited to, additional robust controls to prevent inadvertent startup of machinery while workers are performing work on the machines/equipment,” the order read.
In February 2025, the ministry received a complaint alleging that workers did not have the right training or certifications either, and “lifted lockout and tagout, and proceeding with panel run-off.”
Inspectors said they met on-site with representatives from several companies. A certified electrician was there during the visit, inspectors wrote, and the contractors said all workers had received the proper training. The ministry did not issue any orders.
That changed in the spring, though. In April, the ministry started investigating “a work refusal regarding electrical hazards” — specifically, the lockout procedure.
“At the time of the refusal, no licensed electrician or journeyman was available to perform the lockout,” a ministry electrical engineer found, per a report dated April 23. “An expert, equipment-knowledgeable, electrical person was available at the time of the refusal, but there were communication deficiencies.”
The engineer also found that the panel where the work was happening was also missing arc flash labels that warn people of potential electrical hazards. The ministry issued an order to provide workers with more information and instruction.
The next month, the ministry also issued a LOTO-related stop work order after inspectors spotted “many locks in various locations without any accompanying tags.” In early June, inspectors also issued an order related to tagging problems.
Later that month, inspectors were back at the site to respond to an incident in which “a worker made contact with [an] energized electrical conductor.” It’s unclear what caused the incident, but a followup report the next week said the employer had “implemented corrective actions.”
Lot flooding, missing supervisors also flagged
Other issues brought up multiple times in the documents relate to work supervision and water accumulation.
Last month, the ministry issued an order to NextStar after inspectors found that the “constructor did not have supervision at the project with more than five workers working.” Similarly, in June, inspectors issued an order after no “supervisor was observed to be appointed for the project.”
Both orders echo a third one from March 2024, when inspectors found there were “access/egress concerns” in a specific area, “without any supervision by the constructor.”
Earlier this year, the ministry also issued a stop work order after receiving a complaint about “dark, flooded, muddy and often icy parking lots with no pedestrian walkways in certain areas.”
Inspectors found the “parking area was not being adequately maintained,” and some areas “had water and mud accumulation creating hazardous conditions.”
NextStar, in its statement Friday, said construction of the plant “has been a complex and incredibly collaborative process” involving “more than 9,000 Canadian trades workers.”
The company is looking forward to starting battery cell production “in the coming months,” the statement said.
