The B.C. NDP repeated its call for a public inquiry into the Babine Forest Products explosion this week, going so far as to draw up a draft terms of reference for the investigation.
Party leader Adrian Dix and labour critic Harry Bains met with mill workers and families in Burns Lake for four hours Monday night.
"We wanted to discuss those issues with the families first and not after the fact and that's why we took the trip to Burns Lake and will continue to work with the families to see that a public inquiry happens," Dix said during a Tuesday morning stop in Prince George.
The terms of reference are being reviewed by legal counsel and Dix said they will be released likely by the week's end.
The fatal January 2012 explosion that killed Robert Luggi and Carl Charlie will be the subject of a coroner's inquest - likely to be held in the fall - but there are questions that won't get answered through the inquest process, said Dix.
Who failed them, why a preventable incident happened and why two Crown agencies didn't work together to collect evidence are among the questions that need to be answered, said Bains, and those are the kinds of answers that the affected families need in order to have closure.
"They want to get to the bottom of what happened and, until then, they will not stop and I think we're working with them to ensure they do get the support they need to get all those answers," Bains said.
In response to earlier calls for a public inquiry, B.C. Liberals have dismissed the need and said it can't change the decision made by Crown prosecutors.
But Dix said while he understands that you can't retry a case, there needs to be a deeper look at what's broken in the system.
He pointed to the ineffectiveness of the Westray law in B.C., a piece of federal legislation passed in 2004 that amended the Criminal Code to establish criminal liability to organizations for the acts of their representatives. It "establishes a legal duty for all persons 'directing the work of others' to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of workers and the public," according to the Criminal Code.
"We are talking about workplace-related deaths in the thousands and no one has been prosecuted," said Dix. "What that tells us is the system is not working to bring accountability and we need to have a look at how we address that in British Columbia to ensure that that accountability happens."
Any calls for an inquiry into the Babine explosion and fallout could potentially be expanded to include a deeper look into the April 2012 Lakeland Mills blast, Dix added.
"Certainly many issues intersect in and are the same issues with both explosions," he said. WorkSafeBC handed over the file on Lakeland Mills to the Crown last month, but did not recommend any criminal charges. The Crown has until April 22 to make a decision.
"I think that this, if any, matter requires the powers of a public inquiry to get to the truth and the powers of a public inquiry to make recommendations and see that these things do not happen in British Columbia," said Dix. "This is the case. There is a compelling and strong case for a public inquiry. We're going to continue to see that one happens."
