Workers at a massive, publicly subsidized electric vehicle (EV) battery plant project in southwestern Ontario have faced repeated health and safety hazards, including high levels of carbon monoxide, electrical risks and flooded parking lots, according to government records obtained by CBC News.

The documents show provincial inspectors have visited the site dozens of times since construction broke ground in 2022 and have issued over 100 orders to NextStar Energy, the company behind the project, that were related to health and safety issues.

That included 10 stop work orders for certain areas of the site until the company addressed the issues. Failure to comply with orders under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) could lead to hefty fines and even imprisonment.

NextStar, a joint venture between global automaker Stellantis and South Korean battery giant LG Energy Solution, has complied with all but two recent orders, per the records.

But workers’ frustrations around health and safety have recently risen to the cabinet level of the provincial government, according to Andrew Dowie, member of provincial parliament (MPP) for Windsor—Tecumseh .

In recent months, Labour Minister David Piccini met with the building trades unions involved in the project, and health and safety “was a topic that had come up,” Dowie said.

Andrew Dowie, PC MPP for Windsor—Tecumseh, is shown at a steel-related rally in Windsor on Oct. 10. Speaking recently about the NextStar EV battery plant project, Dowie said the labour minister met with building trades unions in recent months, and the topic of health and safety 'had come up.' (Leandra Vermeulen/CBC)

“The minister proposed some solutions for consideration by labour, to see if they would be amenable, which included a strength and presence of labour inspectors on site, just on a more regular basis,” Dowie said last week.

“So there was a lot for the local building trades to digest as part of that and they'll respond with what direction they'd like the province to go in at some point.”

The concerns are the latest in a string of issues that Canadian workers and companies have raised around the battery plant, which promises to create about 2,500 jobs and is receiving billions of dollars in incentives from the provincial and federal governments.

NextStar, which marked the official