The families of workers killed and injured in two 2012 British Columbia sawmill disasters will march today in Prince George to call for a public inquiry into the incidents.
An explosion followed by fire leveled both the Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake and Lakeland mill in Prince George in early 2012. Two workers at each mill lost their lives and many others were injured.
This January, B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch announced it would not approve the regulatory charges WorkSafeBC had recommended under B.C.'s Workers Compensation Act. The Crown said problems with WorkSafeBC's investigation meant that it would be unlikely the charges would be able to be proven in court.
The B.C. government has so far resisted calls for a public, independent inquiry from the families and the opposition NDP, instead opting for a review of WorkSafeBC's investigation process and a Coroner's inquest.
"We want an Independent Public Inquiry into both sawmill explosions and the families need answers," said Maureen Luggi, the wife of Robert Luggi Jr., a worker who was killed in the Burns Lake explosion.
"I am aware that a Coroner's Inquest will not address all of the questions that our families have."
The families and surviving mill workers are also questioning why Canada's federal safety law, Bill-C45 — introduced in 2004 in response to the Westray Mine disaster — is not more widely used.
"The police generally, and the attorneys general advising them, have taken a hands-off approach with Bill C-45," Norm Keith, a lawyer with Fasken Martineau who specializes in workplace safety law, told Business in Vancouver in a January 2014 interview.
The legislation has been used in under a dozen cases in the past 10 years, contrasting sharply with the approximately 900 workplace deaths in Canada each year, Keith said.
