Worker dies in accident at construction site in downtown Montreal

A man died in an industrial accident in downtown Montreal on Wednesday.

The man had been working on a building under construction on the corner of Cathcart Street and Square-Phillips Street in the heart of the city’s business district.

Several Montreal police officers were on site Wednesday afternoon as onlookers and other workers gathered in the area.

Construction company Magil Construction released a statement shortly after 1:30 p.m. announcing that it was working with Quebec’s occupational health and safety agency, the CNESST.

“Today a tragic accident occurred in which an employee of a subcontractor of our company lost his life,” the statement said.

A fatal industrial accident occurred in Montreal’s business district on Wednesday. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)

“The site has been evacuated and we remind all our employees that psychological support is available to them. Above all, we would like to express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased employee.”

Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet, who happened to be nearby for a meeting with the CNESST board, spoke to reporters on site.

Quebec’s Labour Minister Jean Boulet attended a meeting on accident prevention not far from the site where a construction worker died in downtown Montreal on Wednesday. (Radio-Canada)

“It is with enormous sadness that I learned of the death of a worker in his mid-20s and I would like to express my sincere condolences to his colleagues, his relatives and his family,” Boulet said in a live television interview.

Boulet said he was meeting with CNESST to discuss preventing workplace accidents.

He said the panel’s investigators would determine the exact circumstances that led to the man’s death and also what could have been done to prevent the death.