WorkSafeBC was told that wood dust could cause an explosion in sawmills about two years before the deadly Babine Forest Products and Lakeland Mills incidents in early 2012, NDP leader Adrian Dix told the legislature Wednesday.
The NDP asked the government during Question Period why this knowledge did not result in quicker action to protect millworkers.
"In 2010 John Astad, an expert from the Combustible Dust Policy Institute in Texas, was brought to B.C. for a meeting with WorkSafe safety officials, officers and management. Issues included, on a day-long meeting, combustible dust ignition and explosion factors," Dix said. "Will the Premier explain to this House and the families and workers of Burns Lake and other communities why WorkSafe did not actually apply the information it had two years before?"
Premier Christy Clark replied first about measures the government had taken following the two incidents, and she openly scolded WorkSafeBC for its investigative techniques following the Babine blast in particular, which led to no formal charges being laid.
Dix and fellow NDP member Harry Bains called on the government for a public inquiry while Clark and Prince George MLA Shirley Bond responded that the government has responded to both the sawmill explosions and the WorkSafeBC investigations. Earlier this week, the government unveiled a 90-day implementation plan aimed at preventing explosions.
The Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake was destroyed as the result of an explosion and fire in January 2012. A similar incident happened at the Lakeland Mills site in Prince George three months later. Four men died and more than 40 were injured in the two tragedies. Both mills are currently being rebuilt.
WorksafeBC spokesman Scott McCloy said Astad was not the definitive speaker on the subject of wood dust combustibility and WorkSafeBC was appraising his input at the time.
"Here's what I know about the meeting. It was organized in March 2010 as a general awareness workshop concerning combustible dust," said McCloy. "John Astad was not a man with scientific credentials but he was an interested lay-person who had done a lot of research. He was very knowledgeable and very helpful."
Astad was, at the time, the director of the Combustible Dust Policy Institute in Texas and had been brought to Canada to speak at a meeting of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers in Alberta . One of the WorkSafeBC personnel associated with that group suggested him as a B.C. keynote speaker since he was in the area.
McCloy said the Richmond meeting was attended by about 40 of WorkSafeBC's prevention officers and approximately 40 other fire services professionals from other agencies.
"It was part of a general kind of learning we do," McCloy explained. "There are always changes going on in the workplace and if there is someone who comes to our attention who can comment in on issues of the workplace we are happy to hear from them. He was one speaker out of a whole number of other people and information sources at the time. We recognized that we needed to update our guidelines around combustible dust, and that is what was being researched at the time."
