The former director of maintenance at Mont-Sainte-Anne claims that he was fired after denouncing flaws in the safety of certain ski lifts in 2021, a year before a gondola fell to the ground. He is suing the ski resort for $99,000.
What there is to know
An engineer sues Mont-Sainte-Anne for $99,000. He claims to have been fired a month after reporting flaws in the security of certain ski lifts.
In February 2021, before he was hired, a gondola suddenly stopped. People were injured; 21 were taken to hospital.
In December 2022, a gondola crashed to the ground. No one was on board. The engineer had been fired a year earlier, he alleges.
Engineer Gilles Drapeau claims that he was fired in a “wrongful and abusive” manner a month after alerting his superiors. “During the month preceding the dismissal of [Gilles Drapeau]i.e. in November 2021, it noted that certain installations [du Mont-Sainte-Anne] did not appear to meet legal standards, particularly in terms of security, and requested that further verifications to this effect be carried out,” indicates the lawsuit filed last February, but remained in the shadows until today.
“Following the completion of the requested tests, the Applicant actually noted that his fears were confirmed, in particular since the tests carried out internally did not absolutely meet safety standards,” we read in the seven-page document.
The engineer was concerned, among other things, about the lack of adequate inspections on some ski lifts, deficiencies in the use of maintenance manuals and “weak” or “non-existent” training, according to the court document.
To correct these flaws, Gilles Drapeau claims to have formulated a list of recommendations. The engineer, however, came up against the “stubbornness and inaction” of his superiors and had to insist on several occasions that the necessary corrections be made, “since the safety of the employees and the public was at stake.” “, says the prosecution.
Mr. Drapeau also maintains that his bosses circumvented his responsibilities by giving “totally opposite” directives to employees normally under his authority.
Towards the beginning of December 2021, Mr. Drapeau therefore indicated to his bosses that he was no longer able to occupy his position as director of maintenance at the ski resort due to his professional obligations at title of engineer, the suit states. He claims that he never expressed his intention to definitively end his employment relationship with Mont-Sainte-Anne, but that the company “proceeded to dismiss him, trying to pretext a resignation” .
The Defendant wanted to get rid of the Plaintiff in order to keep the security issues she was experiencing discreet.
Excerpt from the lawsuit filed last February
As part of this action for damages, Mont-Sainte-Anne opposed the disclosure of 15 documents, including certificates of conformity for three ski lifts. Last week at the Quebec courthouse, the station argued that the documents were not relevant or that they “required significant steps to trace them.”
Superior Court Judge Marie Cossette, however, opposed this request and forced the ski resort to submit the documents to the engineer.
Questioned by The PressGilles Drapeau and his lawyer, Me Guillaume Demers, said they did not want to comment during the legal process. Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR), owner of the Mont-Sainte-Anne resort, did not respond to our interview request.
Concerns since 2016
Concerns about the Mont-Sainte-Anne ski lifts are not new. During the 2016-2017 season, resort regulars began to publicly complain about the numerous outages, sometimes long, which affected certain lifts.
On February 21, 2021, the L’Étoile filante ski lift suddenly stopped while hundreds of skiers were on board its cabins. The cabins began to rock violently, some collided and windows shattered. Twenty-one people had to be transported to hospital following this emergency stop.
Three weeks later, when traffic was less on the mountain, the ski lift stopped again without notice. One person was injured.
Gilles Drapeau was hired following these events, on July 23, 2021, as director of station maintenance. His mandate consisted in particular of “improving the maintenance plans in order to respect the rules of the art and the applicable regulations”, he says.
On December 7, 2021, he lost his job and “how to proceed [du Mont-Sainte-Anne] was humiliating and hurtful,” the suit reads.
This “without valid and abusive” dismissal caused him anxiety, stress and financial losses. He claims to no longer be able to assume significant responsibilities in his new job.
A year later, on December 10, 2022, a cabin of L’Étoile filante came loose from its cable and crashed to the ground, around fifteen minutes before the slopes opened. This cabin was empty, but others were occupied by employees. Dozens of people lined up to climb to the top of the mountain.
The Régie du logement du Québec (RBQ) demanded the cessation of all lifts from the station six days later. Mont-Sainte-Anne remained closed during the holiday season, a very lucrative period for the ski industry, until January 8.
The L’Étoile filante lift only reopened on April 8, 2023 following repair work and the validation by the RBQ of a safety certificate signed by an engineer.
At the time, the Régie raised the hypothesis of human error to explain the fall of a cabin. The RBQ was not able to answer our questions before the publication of this article.