Leaked Metrolinx Reports Reveal Dozens of Serious Construction Near-Misses on Ontario Transit Projects

Metrolinx's own records describe how close some of these incidents came to killing someone. A 500-pound rebar cage fell more than 10 metres and missed a crew of four by about a metre. About 100 acoustic panels fell 15 metres and landed less than two metres from a worker. Contractors struck at least three live power lines, one carrying 115,000 volts. A train passed through an active work zone near Bloor GO station at almost 130 km/h. No one was reported hurt. Carmine Tiano, director of occupational services at the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, said "some of these could have been catastrophic" ('Could've been catastrophic': Metrolinx construction near-misses prompt safety questions — The Trillium (via TorontoToday)).

Tiano said falling loads, work under suspended loads, trucks reversing toward crews and electrical strikes are among the top causes of death identified in the Ontario chief coroner's June 2026 Construction Death Review, which examined 44 construction deaths. Sandro Perruzza, CEO of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and a Canadian Registered Safety Professional, put it more bluntly: near-misses are a sign that a fatality will eventually happen. Both experts also said Metrolinx has high safety standards and that it would be unfair to blame the agency alone for its contractors' mistakes.

What happened after each incident is largely unknown. The leaked reports say work was often stopped and additional training or discussions were sometimes ordered. Investigations are occasionally mentioned, but the reports do not explain what they involved. Tiano said the Ministry of Labour is always told about critical injuries and deaths, but other incidents are not always reported to the province. Asked by email whether the ministry investigated any of the listed incidents, Labour Minister David Piccini's office did not respond. As of the report, that question is still open.

The government has said little in public. At a press conference, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said safety is of the "utmost importance" and that incidents are "fully investigated." His spokesperson, Dakota Brasier, declined to answer detailed questions. Metrolinx also did not answer, and The Trillium reports that Brasier edits and signs off on the agency's media responses. Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay called the agency's approach "best in class" and said the internal reports themselves show that it takes safety seriously. The pattern of an arm's-length agency answering to a minister's office with little outside scrutiny also appears in the $504M GO Expansion write-off and the Ontario Line's $34B cost overrun.

This page rests on a single investigation by The Trillium, based on documents it obtained but has not published in full. It does not suggest that any law was broken, and none of the incidents described is reported to have injured anyone.

According to the Metrolinx reports, contractor MTZ Rail Constructors was placed on a Safety Improvement Plan after the Ministry of Labour stopped its work following an unexplained incident in July 2024. In August 2024, a Metrolinx safety officer found "several serious safety issues" with MTZ's work at King City GO station, including a worker in a trench while an excavator operated nearby. The report strongly recommended a temporary suspension. A report the following month said MTZ had taken corrective measures, expanded safety monitoring, updated training requirements and assigned a dedicated on-site health and safety manager. By press time, Metrolinx, Ontario Transit Group and MTZ had not said whether MTZ still works on Metrolinx projects.

Perruzza linked the incidents to how Ontario buys construction. He said provincial procurement rules put cost first, so a bidder's qualifications, track record and safety record "don't really count." In his view, low prices mean low margins, and low margins lead firms to take shortcuts, such as not putting their most experienced people on a job. With the Ontario Line and GO Expansion under construction at the same time, the pressure the reports describe is unlikely to ease.

The reports cover only incidents that were logged. Tiano said it is not uncommon in construction for safety problems to go unreported, and added that he would rather see incidents documented than hidden. Metrolinx did not say how many "significant" incidents have happened in more recent construction, so the public cannot tell whether things have improved since January 2025.

The story adds to earlier questions about how Metrolinx handles safety out of public view. The Trillium previously reported that the agency quietly investigates most "cardinal rule violations" involving GO trains itself. Unless the Ministry of Labour or Metrolinx says what follow-up these incidents received, the people most at risk will have no public account of whether the problems were fixed.