“Mill owners, Hampton Affiliates, are in the process of building a new mill, although there has been the possibility of charges being laid against the mill operators for violation of the Workers Compensation Act. “

The mill’s owners are not the only one’s that should be complicit in the conditions leading up to the explosion and resulting deaths and injuries to those workers.

IMO the government is partly to blame, due to the cutting of numerous industry health and safety regulations, and weakening the BC Safety Authority’s ability to enforce non-compliance or safety violations within all industries, including the sawmill industry.

The families of these victims, should not just be suing the sawmill’s “owner / employer”, they should also be suing our provincial government!!!

People#1.

The BC Safety Authority has limited jurisdication when it comes to safety enforcement. Their primary juristiction is to look at things like boilers, pressure vessels and electrical. The rest falls under the Workers Compensation Act which is regulated by (WCB aka Worksafe.) which is not under the arm of govenment.

If anything the health and safey regulations in this province are the most strict has they have ever been..And this is largely because of legislation drafted as a result of accident investigations and chronic occupational illnes.. No matter how much legislation is in place there always will be someting unforseen that will come along and challange the current system. Ie, Sawmill explosions. Confined space atmosphere fatailites.. to mention the most recent curve balls..

“Mr. Sinclair, however, says the two mill explosions highlight how a policy shift by the B.C. Liberal government has undermined worker safety. In 2001, the government began a campaign to reduce bureaucratic regulation. In 2003, 400 worker safety regulations were eliminated to meet the government’s targets.”

“Today, the legacy of the two sawmill explosions, which have killed four workers and left others with serious burns, is almost certainly going to be more regulation, with Ms. MacDiarmid expected to roll out the kind of enforceable safety rules her government once derisively described as red tape.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/red-tape-and-sawdust-two-views-of-bc-workplace-safety/article4104651/

I guess this will not be the first, nor the last, time we will have two opposing views of BC workplace safety.. hey northman?

Sue, sue, sue…sorry dude but those under the WCB umbrella cannot sue other workers or owners / employers / government. They can only ‘sue’ by appeal of decisions made by the WCB. In order for WCB to have the clout they do that is how the framework is built.

Same as ICBC, those covered by ICBC cannot be ‘sued’ by other motorists or pedestrians. They sue ICBC directly as you are covered by ICBC’s insurance.

Have you ever been in a mill people #1?I really doubt it. Not that long ago you suggested that the mills return to the old days because the mills employed more people. Those mills had a layer of sawdust on anything that sat in one place for more than a minute or two.
Was never in the Burns lake mill but Lakeland was as clean or cleaner than any mill in the province. I have been on numerous tours with a WCB inspector and they did write orders to clean up areas with accumulated fine dust, mainly the chipper areas.
The dust from bug kill wood for whatever reason is more prone to explosion and caught the industry and those who inspect the mills by surprise.
Saw on the other page that if you post something it should be taken as gospel but as usual you are full of something besides yourself.

People..

I worked in the forest industry for 20 years and mining for the last 5. And I’m currently working in health and safety. So I know my way around legislation and policy therefore I know when someone is feeding the media a load of shit. Regardless of the government of the day the ultimate responsibility in any Act puts the onus on the persons in charge of workers…

I would like to think your heart lies in the overall good of the well being of society but its over ruled by any oppertunity to bash the liberal government. And taking this oppertunity to do it is down right disgusting..

Ewitt.

It would very interesting to see the details of these reports once released. What is weird about these explosions is they never have happend to this extent before.. In my sawmill and planner mill working days we always ran dry wood even before the pine beetle.. A week run of dry balsam was worse than any dry pine and the balsam was starting fires more frequently than any pine. If fine dust theoretically such a problem then more planer mills would be blowing up as they are worse than sawmills because the dust is finer and dryer..The major explosions and fires at mills I worked at were usually a result of broken gas lines due to accidental impacts or frost jacking..

Having said that this is why I’m curious to know what is in these final reports and why these cases are so different.. Not to mention the recommendations that come from them..

Although no criminal charges are laid this incident will still impact their ability to be a competitive company because of any fines WCB issues and the compensation premiums will increase.. Not to mention there is nothing stopping the victims from taking legal action..

Poeple#1, using quotes from Jim Sinclair to illustrate your dislike of the Liberal government & it’s policies…hmmm.
First hand experience, I worked in the forest industry from ’87-2008. Safety was really not taken too seriously until around 2003.
Northman is correct, as has been pointed out to you before, BCSA does not deal with general safety concerns. That is covered by Worksafe BC. BCSA deals with Gas, Boilers, Elevators & Electrical issues.

I have a question to those of you with the experience and the knowledge, specifically: After Burns Lake and the supposed wake-up call that incident should have provided, should not the Lakeland incident then be considered a culpable incident? IOW, how can Lakeland claim they didn’t know any better?
My thanks in advance.

Take a tour of any mill now and see if they are cleaning up properly! The answer is a big fat NO! Time for the workers to do their due diligence and start refusing unsafe work conditions. Oh never mind someone might lose their job if they did that.

NoWay, if you feel there is an unsafe working condition in the mill where you work report it to the management.

If they’re not willing to rectify it, and you believe it’s still in violation of safety standards or the Dust Control Plan EVERY sawmill has now had to file with WorksafeBC and the BCSA, then report it to WorksafeBC, and they’ll investigate. That’s what they’re there for.

If it’s something that CAN’T be rectified to the satisfaction of these regulatory agencies within the financial means of the Company to do so, then yes, that plant could well be shut down and the workers could lose their jobs. If the workplace is that dangerous, isn’t that better than losing their lives?