Hazards were so high, inspectors had to issue stop-work orders at dozens of Alberta commercial construction sites this fall during a six-week safety campaign.

And Alberta's employment minister is alarmed by his safety inspectors' findings.

"We issued stop-work orders at a quarter of the sites we visited," Thomas Lukaszuk said Tuesday. "To say I'm disappointed with these results is an understatement."

Fall hazards resulting in serious injury if not death were the biggest issue. Inspectors found commercial contractors in violation of Alberta laws requiring fall protection equipment, a fall protection plan, or properly installed scaffolding.

Lukaszuk reported they issued 30 stop-work orders as well as 12 stop-use orders, related to inadequate equipment, while randomly visiting commercial construction sites across the province. The inspection blitz, from Oct. 8 to Nov. 7, covered 146 employers at 159 locations and resulted in 139 follow-up visits.

"Clearly, the commercial construction sector has its work cut out," the minister said. "The laws are in place, and we will continue to ensure they're followed."

Projects inspected by Lukaszuk's staff included retail structures, apartment buildings, schools and other public facilities as well as high-rise towers. Their next blitz, he said, will cover residential construction sites as well as checking young workers and fork-lift operators.

Lukaszuk announced the commercial sites inspection blitz in October, following a series of high-rise construction incidents that included the death of a child hit by falling items. He ordered inspectors shut down projects if lives were at risk.

Eleven of 31 workplace fatalities in 2009 involved construction sites, as well as 17 of the 44 workplace fatalities across the province in 2008. Alberta Employment and Immigration lays charges when inspectors determine employers' violation of safety laws was a factor in workers' injuries or deaths.

Earlier this month, an Alberta excavating company was fined $75,750 after entering a guilty plea to charges laid under the province's Occupational Health and Safety Act. Court was told a back-hoe boom struck and seriously injured a worker at a Medicine Hat construction site.

A construction fatality three years ago near Cardston resulted in charges laid against a drilling company, after the lid of a clamshell container fell onto a worker who was trying to close it. That case is still before the courts, as is one involving a severe head injury suffered by a worker several years ago in Stavely.

In Lethbridge meanwhile, a roofing company is facing OHS Act charges as a result of injuries suffered when an employee fell more than eight metres, off the roof of a warehouse. The victim was dumping gravel from a wheelbarrow when it slipped over the edge, followed by the worker.

Construction contractors should expect still more enforcement, Lukaszuk warned.

"I expect better of industry in Alberta and I know industry leaders, employers and workers expect more of themselves."