The Totals Keep Climbing
Ontario Workplace Safety Fines: 335 Convictions, $37.3 Million
Ontario announced more OHSA convictions in 2025 than in any other year on record, and the fines added up to a record $7.4 million. The typical fine moved far less: $82,500 across the full year, close to the $80,000 it has centred on since 2018. The tables below cover 335 OHSA convictions announced in Ministry court bulletins between June 2018 and May 20261.
A worker's death costs double
Fatalities attract fines roughly twice as high as non-fatal injuries.
| Outcome | Convictions | Median fine | Mean fine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fatality | 111 | $130,000 | $165,428 |
| Critical injury | 132 | $70,000 | $88,019 |
| Injury | 89 | $65,000 | $80,472 |
Of the 335 convictions, 111 involved a worker's death. That's 33% of all prosecuted cases. The median fine for a fatality conviction ($130,000) is exactly double the median for a non-critical injury ($65,000)2. The timeline after a death is covered in our workplace fatality briefing.
These tables count announced convictions, not workplace deaths. Not every death leads to charges, and not every conviction gets a court bulletin, so every count in this report is a floor.
The Ontario Auditor General's 2019 workplace safety audit found that 48% of critical injuries go unreported to the Ministry entirely. The prosecution gap starts before charges are even considered.
Construction and manufacturing pay two-thirds of the total
| Sector | Convictions | Median fine | Total fines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | 111 | $85,000 | $12.6M |
| Manufacturing | 119 | $75,000 | $11.9M |
| Mining | 17 | $120,000 | $2.5M |
| Forestry | 11 | $80,000 | $1.5M |
| Agriculture | 12 | $95,000 | $1.2M |
| Waste management | 11 | $85,000 | $1.1M |
| Warehousing | 8 | $102,500 | $920K |
| All others | 46 | n/a | $5.6M |
Construction (111 convictions, $12.6M) and manufacturing (119 convictions, $11.9M) together account for 69% of all prosecution volume and 66% of total fines. Mining has the highest median at $120,000, but with only 17 cases3.
Hospitality appears just three times in the data. The sample is too small for meaningful statistics, but hospitality's low prosecution count doesn't mean low risk. The Ministry of Labour inspects restaurants, hotels, and bars under the same OHSA provisions. The Auditor General found that only 28% of Ontario businesses are in the Ministry's inspection system at all. If your sector has low prosecution volume, it may reflect low inspection coverage rather than low violation rates.
Totals are climbing faster than the typical fine
| Year | Convictions | Median fine | Total fines |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 (from June) | 23 | $75,000 | $2.0M |
| 2019 | 44 | $80,000 | $4.4M |
| 2020 | 28 | $100,000 | $3.2M |
| 2021 | 24 | $75,000 | $2.8M |
| 2022 | 32 | $87,500 | $3.9M |
| 2023 | 53 | $100,000 | $7.0M |
| 2024 | 41 | $75,000 | $4.6M |
| 2025 | 56 | $82,500 | $7.4M |
| 2026 (to May) | 15 | $80,000 | $2.0M |
Convictions and medians count single-defendant announcements; totals include bulletins that report one combined fine for several defendants. The Ministry published no court bulletins between late January and early April 2025, around the provincial election, so the 2025 count is a floor.
Across complete years, total announced fines rose 70% from 2019 to a record $7.4 million in 2025, while the median fine rose just 3%4. Record totals reflect more convictions and aggregate dollars, not a comparable shift in the typical penalty. The $175,000 median from January 2025 that looked like a step change settled back once the full year reported.
Three rule changes matter more than any one year's median. Ontario raised the corporate maximum to $2 million in October 2023. It added a $500,000 minimum for repeat serious offences in December 2024. Then it launched an AMP scheme in January 2026 that can put penalties of up to $100,000 on the inspection timeline instead of the court timeline, though so far it covers only one narrow contravention. The convictions in this report all come from the slower prosecution channel.
Most inspectors issue zero fines
The Auditor General's 2019 audit of the Ministry of Labour found that 61% of inspectors issued zero fines during the audit period. Enforcement is concentrated among a small number of inspectors. The same audit found that only 28% of Ontario businesses were in the Ministry's active inspection system.
Most employers never see an inspector. The ones who do can face very different outcomes depending on who inspects and what they find.
The GTA concentrates prosecution volume
Toronto leads the data in prosecution volume, with Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, and Concord close behind. The GTA's density of construction and manufacturing operations makes this predictable, but it also means the courts processing these cases have deep experience with OHSA sentencing. Hamilton stands out for severity rather than volume: its median fine, across 11 cases, is $200,000, two and a half times the data-wide $80,0005.
What a conviction costs after court
An OHSA fine doesn't stay at the number in the judgment. Ontario adds a 25% victim fine surcharge to every fine over $1,000, which covers every conviction in this report: an $80,000 fine leaves the courtroom as $100,000.
What changed in January 2026
The new AMP regime (O. Reg. 365/25) lets an inspector issue an administrative monetary penalty of up to $100,000 without laying a charge. This changes the enforcement math. Previously, the only way to impose a financial penalty was through the courts, a process that takes months or years. AMPs can be issued during or shortly after an inspection.
The 335 convictions in this data represent the court-based enforcement channel. The AMP regime adds a second, faster channel, but a narrow one so far: it covers a single procurement-related contravention, and paying an AMP closes off prosecution for that same contravention. The framework in section 69.1 lets the government add more contraventions by regulation. Our Ontario health and safety resources cover the records that sit before either enforcement channel.
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Duty Room analysis of the 533 Ministry of Labour court bulletins published on the Ontario Newsroom for announcements between June 2018 and May 2026, of which 335 are OHSA convictions with a fine on record: the 335 cases total $37,343,000, the median fine is $80,000, and 2025's 56 single-defendant convictions are the most announced in any year of the record at a record $7,404,000 across its 59 announcements (typical fine $82,500). Counts are floors: bulletins cover the convictions the Ministry announced.
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Duty Room analysis of Ministry of Labour court bulletins, by injury outcome: 111 (33.1%) involved a worker's death, fined at a $130,000 median and $165,428 mean; 132 critical-injury convictions at a $70,000 median; and 89 non-critical-injury convictions at a $65,000 median, so the fatality median is exactly double the non-critical-injury median.
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Duty Room analysis of Ministry of Labour court bulletins, by sector: construction (111 convictions, $12,587,500) and manufacturing (119 convictions, $11,916,500) are 230 of the 335 cases (68.7%) and $24,504,000 of the $37,343,000 in fines (65.6%); mining carries the highest median among the named sectors at $120,000 on 17 cases.
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Duty Room analysis of Ministry of Labour court bulletins, by announcement year (table above): single-defendant medians run $80,000 in 2019, peak at $100,000 in 2020 and 2023, fall to $75,000 in 2024, and sit at $82,500 across 2025, while all-announcement totals rise from $4.4 million in 2019 to $7.0 million in 2023 and a record $7.4 million in 2025.
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Duty Room analysis of Ministry of Labour court bulletins, by city of the named defendant (249 cases name a city): Toronto leads volume with 35, ahead of Mississauga 14, Brampton 11, Hamilton 11, and Concord 11; Hamilton's 11 cases carry a $200,000 median, two and a half times the data-wide $80,000.
This report is based on published enforcement data, sources available at publication, and original analysis. It is for general information only and doesn't constitute legal advice.
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