Worker safety board urges better training after young employee injured at Quebec resort

A popular Quebec vacation site needs to find a new approach to train teenage workers, Quebec's workplace health and safety board says, after investigating how a boy under 14 was injured in June in a workplace accident there.

The Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) released more details Thursday about the June 4 incident at Village Vacances Valcartier, about 30 kilometres from Quebec City.

The boy, whose exact age was not released, was assigned to the campsite area and was seriously injured after falling from a quad, a type of four-wheel all-terrain vehicle.

A team of investigators visited the grounds of the resort — which has two major waterparks, hotels and hosts the annual Quebec ice hotel — to produce a report on what happened and how to prevent similar incidents in the future.

This comes as the Quebec government seeks to limit the presence of children in the workforce following numerous reports of children employed in high-risk workplaces.

At the news conference, Vincent Gagné, one of the inspectors, explained that 500 out of the 800 employees at Village Vacances Valcartier were under the age of 18. More than 100 workers under the age of 14 failed to get written parental consent — a requirement under Quebec labour law.

The CNESST said it handed out 23 notices of infraction to the resort.

Quad operated by another minor

Back in June, employees working at the campsite, including the boy who was hurt, used the quad to transport branches and leaves from different areas of the property with a trailer attached to the back of the vehicle.

Gagné noted that even though by law, a quad needs to be operated by an employee who is at least 18 years old, in this case, it was operated by another minor.

Two workers were sitting in the quad, one driving the vehicle, while two other workers stood in the quad's flatbed, holding onto the roof.

The quad took a sharp turn and a boy holding onto the roof lost his grip and fell off the vehicle, Gagné explained. The boy was then run over by the trailer.

He suffered injuries to his head and upper body.

Investigation found better training needed

Joël Ménard, another inspector, said they found two main causes of the accident: the fact that workers were standing in a moving vehicle and a general lack of training for employees.

They found that new employees were often trained by shadowing a more experienced worker — something that wasn't sufficient for new and young workers.

"It's important to remember the team at the [campsite of] Village Vacances Valcartier for the 2022 season was composed of 18 employees, four of them were team leaders but 13 of the workers were new this year and 10 were minors," said Ménard. "So training would have been very important for these workers who were more at risk."

He noted that the boy involved in the accident was a recent hire. When investigators spoke with other employees, they found that none of them knew that seatbelt use is mandatory in quads. Some hadn't realized there were seatbelts available.

There was limited to no training for those operating the vehicles, said Ménard, noting that workers were asked to volunteer and there was no training procedure presented by the employer.

Following these findings, the CNESST created a list of requirements for Village Vacances Valcartier moving forward — a detailed welcome and training program for new hires and quad drivers plus increased supervision .

"They conformed to these requirements and established these corrective measures," said Ménard.

Village Vacances Valcartier in an emailed statement said it will receive the official report from the CNESST on Thursday but will not comment at this time out of respect for the injured boy and his family.

Quebec government to introduce bill about young workers

Labour Minister Jean Boulet says he hopes to introduce a bill as early as February to set a minimum age for workers. He hopes the bill will be adopted by June, in time for the 2023 summer break.

"There is much more fatigue, stress and anxiety among young people who work many hours per week," said Boulet. "The risk of an accident is therefore higher."