Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Minister Shirley Bond defended WorkSafeBC's record in question period Thursday as the opposition NDP accused the agency of dysfunction after a bungled investigation into a fatal mill explosion in Burns Lake.
In Janurary 2012, an explosion at Babine Forest Products killed two workers and injured 20 others. Two years later, provincial Crown determined that it could not proceed with criminal charges in the case because some evidence collected by WorkSafe may not hold up in court. Premier Christy Clark then asked her top civil servant John Dyble to investigate and he released a report in February that was critical of WorkSafe's handling of the file.
"WorkSafeBC is failing its mandate under the watch of [the current] government," NDP MLA Harry Bains said during question period Thursday. "It means in this particular case, no one will be held criminally accountable. WorkSafeBC is obviously failing, and the people of British Columbia deserve to know why."
Bond replied that the government intends to fix any problems at the agency, but said the NDP are failing to recognize the good work done at WorkSafe.
"What is really additionally unfortunate in this chamber is that the member opposite writes off all of the good work that hundreds of people who work for WorkSafe, hard-working individuals who do their best every single day," Bond said. "He writes them off."
The NDP also continued their call for a public inquest into what happened at the mill that led to the explosion. MLA Norm Macdonald said the upcoming cororner's inquest won't go far enough because it won't be able to assign blame for what happened.
"When are those families going to get the justice they deserve? When are workers going to be protected in the way that they deserve?" he asked. "When is there going to be a full public inquest into what took place at Babine?"
Bond said that the province has received legal advice that a public inquiry would do nothing to change the Crown's decision about the admissibility of evidence and that a coroner's inquest is the best venue to address any unanswered questions about the blast.
"I have been the first to say that words are not enough for families - action is required," Bond said. "That's why we expect WorkSafe to make changes and for them to co-operate with Crown to ensure that this does not happen again."
