The move by BC Premier Christy Clark to have one of her Deputy Ministers review the file on the Babine Mill explosion is a good move. While it is going on in tandem with the Coroner's Office and an inquest that is planned , it will give the head of the civil service a look and see who should be responsible for what, and that is needed.

Work Safe took the file to the Crown Prosecutors office with the hope that charges would be laid in connection with the explosion that killed two and injured twenty others , but the Crown wouldn't move on the file. That is where the ball was dropped in the first instance. Work Safe cannot issue a search warrant, its investigators  are not peace officers and so while they investigated the issue, they could not come armed with a warrant and the Crown should have known that  fact.  Lack of  search warrants didn't stop the Crown from laying charges in the 2008  case of a Langley mushroom  farm where three  workers died.  There was a conviction and  fines of $350 thousand dollars levied in that case.

Before however Work Safe , you have to look at the original file.

That file shows that Work Safe had been in the mill on a number of different occasions and had told Hampton on the first few occasion  that there didn't appear to be anything wrong in the manner the mill was operating . It was not until they came just before the explosion that they noted an increase in the amount of dust that was the subject of complaints by employees and they advised the mill operators to increase dust suppression, giving them more than a month to do that. The explosion took place on January 20th-2012.

Looking even further back, examination of the mills and Work Safes' records shows there were no complaints in the previous five years. This is no doubt where the Crown was looking when they considered charges.

The United Steel Workers union says a Coroner's inquest  is a good thing , if the recommendations from that inquest are implemented.

That is the hook.  If the jury finds that there are ways and means to prevent such a re-occurrence, will government move to put them in place?

It is a sad ending for those families who lost members and for those that have suffered from the effects of the blast. Their only remaining hope is that now we may be able to make changes to ensure that what happened at Hampton and here in Prince George at Lakeland never happens again.

I'm Meisner and that's one man's opinion.