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Chinese firm pleads guilty in worker deaths; most charges withdrawn

A Chinese engineering firm has pleaded guilty to three workplace safety charges related to a fatal accident in the oilsands five years ago.

ST. ALBERT — A Chinese engineering firm has pleaded guilty to three workplace safety charges related to a fatal accident in the oilsands five years ago.

Two workers were killed and another four injured when the roof on a large tank collapsed at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s (TSX:CNQ) Horizon project site.

Twenty-one other charges against Chinese contractors on the Horizon project were withdrawn.

Another 29 charges against the Calgary-based company have been stayed, meaning the government has a year to revive them.

Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Canada is to be sentenced on Jan. 24.

The pleas, which were entered Sept. 5, came to light this morning when a trial was to have begun.