The B.C. government is introducing legislation that would allow for the prosecution of negligent employers whose actions seriously injure or kill workers.
Labour Minister Shirley Bond says the legislation she will table this afternoon will allow for on-the-spot penalties and is based on recommendations in a report looking into two separate sawmill explosions that killed four workers in 2012.
WorkSafeBC administrator Gord Macatee says the bill provides exactly what he intended in the report he forwarded to the government last July.
He says staff have received training involving searches and seizures, warrants and forensic interviewing and that a second team will take over when there's the potential for liability involving workplace incidents.
The Crown declined to approve charges against Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake and Lakeland Mills in Prince George, in part over concerns that evidence collected by WorkSafeBC wouldn't be admissible in court.
Inquests into both blasts are scheduled - starting next month in the Lakeland Mill case and in July for the Babine explosion.
