--- title: "$2M Maximum and $500K Mandatory Minimums: What Ontario's New OHSA Penalties Mean" description: Ontario OHSA now carries a $2M corporate maximum and a $500K floor for repeat death or serious-injury offences, plus AMPs from January 2026. source: Duty Room source_url: https://dutyroom.com published_on: '2026-08-11' updated_on: '2026-08-11' market: ca submarket: 'on' sectors: - all canonical_url: https://dutyroom.com/ca/on/briefings/ohsa-new-penalties --- # $2M Maximum and $500K Mandatory Minimums: What Ontario's New OHSA Penalties Mean Ontario OHSA now carries a $2M corporate maximum and a $500K floor for repeat death or serious-injury offences, plus AMPs from January 2026. Ontario has stacked three penalty changes onto a workplace-safety system that was already expensive. The typical (median) OHSA fine was $80,000 across 269 convictions the Ministry announced between June 2018 and January 2025.[^1] Hospitality shows up in that record three times in seven years, and one of those three was the largest fine in it: [$700,000 for a North York bakery after two worker deaths](https://dutyroom.com/ca/on/briefings/workplace-fatality-fine). [^1]: Duty Room analysis of 372 Ontario Ministry of Labour [conviction announcements on news.ontario.ca](https://news.ontario.ca/mlitsd/en), extracted March 2026: 269 OHSA convictions with fine amounts, announced June 2018 to January 2025. Median fine $80,000; the median is unchanged when the 15 announcements that report one combined fine for several defendants are excluded. All conviction-derived statistics in this briefing are from this analysis. ## What changed, and when Bill 79 (*Working for Workers Act, 2023*) raised the [maximum corporate fine](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90o01) from $1.5 million to $2 million per offence on October 26, 2023, keeping Ontario's maximum corporate fine the highest in Canada. Directors and officers face up to $1.5 million and/or 12 months' imprisonment. Individual workers and supervisors face up to $500,000. Fines at this level carry a 25% victim fine surcharge on top. ![The maximum OHSA penalty is $2,000,000 for a corporation, $1,500,000 for directors and officers, and $500,000 for individual workers and supervisors.](https://dutyroom.com/figures/ca/on/penalty-by-defendant-type.png) | Defendant type | Maximum penalty | | --- | --- | | Corporation | $2,000,000 | | Directors and officers | $1,500,000 | | Individual workers and supervisors | $500,000 | Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act maximum fines by defendant type. The $2 million corporate maximum is four times the $500,000 individual maximum. Source: [Ontario e-Laws, Occupational Health and Safety Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90o01). Bill 229 (*Working for Workers Six Act, 2024*) added a floor. A corporation convicted of a second or subsequent offence causing a death or serious injury within a two-year window now faces a mandatory minimum of $500,000. Courts previously had full sentencing discretion from zero upward. That discretion is gone for repeat serious offences. [O. Reg. 365/25](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/r25365) launched the administrative monetary penalties scheme on January 1, 2026. The enabling legislation (Bill 30, s. 69.1) lets inspectors issue penalties without laying a charge, with amounts set by regulation. As of July 2026, the regulation prescribes a single penalty, for one narrow procurement contravention under O. Reg. 364/25: the lesser of $100,000 or 10% of the contract value. The statutory authority exists for the government to expand the scheme to additional contraventions by regulation. The Minister may publish the names of penalized employers. ## The trend was already moving before any of this passed Fines were rising on their own. The typical conviction fine went from $80,000 in 2019 to $100,000 in 2023. [Total fines announced in a year went from $4.4 million to $7.0 million](https://dutyroom.com/ca/on/briefings/ohsa-fines-2025) over the same period.[^2] Courts were already treating OHSA violations more seriously before the legislature changed what courts were allowed to do. [^2]: Year-of-announcement medians across single-defendant convictions: 44 convictions in 2019, median $80,000; 53 in 2023, median $100,000. Annual totals count every announced fine, including combined multi-defendant penalties: $4.4 million in 2019, $7.0 million in 2023. The conviction record shows how wide sentencing discretion ran under the old rules. Goldentrust Development was fined $50,000 in 2022 after a worker's fatal fall; Resolute FP Canada was fined $500,000 in 2023 after a fatal lockout failure.[^3] Courts keep that discretion for a first offence. For the scenario the legislature most worried about, the floor is now $500,000 and there's nothing to negotiate. [^3]: Ontario Ministry of Labour court bulletins for [Goldentrust Development](https://news.ontario.ca/en/court/1002188/workplace-fatality-results-in-50000-fine-for-toronto-company) and [Resolute FP Canada](https://news.ontario.ca/en/court/1003994/lumber-producer-fined-500000-after-worker-fatally-injured). ## Exposure across multi-site operations Each location in a multi-site operation is a separate site where an inspector can arrive and find a contravention. The AMP scheme currently covers only one narrow regulation, but the statutory power exists for the government to expand it to general OHSA contraventions by regulation, and a penalty that can reach $100,000 positions it as a fast enforcement tool for ongoing non-compliance that hasn't yet caused a death. The mandatory minimum creates a different kind of exposure. Under Bill 229, a corporation convicted of a second or subsequent offence resulting in death or serious injury within two years faces a floor of $500,000. A conviction over a serious incident at any location within the same corporate entity can trigger that mandatory minimum where a prior conviction sits inside the window. The exposure points in bar and kitchen operations are predictable: burns and lacerations, falls from height in stockrooms and mezzanines, unguarded equipment. ## The combined effect The AMP scheme, even in its current narrow form, adds a direct monetary tool alongside inspectors' compliance orders, stop-work orders, and prosecution. The $2 million maximum raises the ceiling on what a catastrophic failure can cost. The mandatory minimum puts a floor under sentencing for repeat serious offences. The pre-2023 enforcement picture had three soft edges for operators: most workplace deaths never produced a conviction, most fines landed well below the maximum, and courts had full discretion over the amount. Bill 79, Bill 229, and O. Reg. 365/25 have reshaped those edges. The AMP power exists and can be expanded by regulation. Repeat serious offences have a floor. The numbers in the conviction record are largely the old regime's. The new one is stricter. --- Published by [Duty Room](https://dutyroom.com/ca/on/), software for organizing, tracking, and evidencing operational compliance.