The Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board has fined the territorial government and one of its contractors after a man died while capturing wild horses a year ago Monday.

The fines follow a 10-month investigation by the board into 57-year-old Arnold Johnson’s death.

The Department of Energy, Mines and Resources’ (EMR’s) agriculture branch must pay $5,000 “for failing to establish a complete occupational health and safety program,” a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the board stated Monday in a news release.

Contractor Dan Sabo has been fined $750 for failing to assess the job’s risks and for not providing appropriate protective equipment.

“The dollar value of a penalty does not and cannot reflect the loss of life and the pain and suffering of workers and families,” the health and safety board said.

Johnson was working with Sabo, a Yukon livestock control officer, on Jan. 26, 2014.

They were rounding up wild horses near Kusawa Lake, about 60 kilometres west of Whitehorse.

Sabo, a contractor hired by the agriculture branch, built a Russell fence corral and baited the horses into it.

The animals were to be guided from the wooden corral into a horse trailer using metal fence panels.

While the workers were connecting the metal panels to the Russell fence, the horses bolted.

One horse became tangled in a metal fence panel Johnson was standing behind, and the panel failed at a joining hinge. He was knocked to the ground and the horse rolled over him.

Johnson suffered a head injury and died at Whitehorse General Hospital the following day.

The Yukon’s chief coroner released her report into Johnson’s death last month. She noted he wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time.

In its release, the board noted employers may appeal any penalty levied within 21 days of receiving the order.

EMR was not ready to comment by press time this afternoon.