Responses to Coroner’s Jury Recommendations Trickle In
Prince George, B.C. – The 33 recommendations made by the Jury for the Coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Glenn Roche and Allan Little are now under review by the agencies called upon in those recommendations to make changes.Minister of Jobs Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Responsible for Labour Shirley Bond, has extended her condolences once again to the families of the those who died or were injured in the explosion and fire at Lakeland and says the five recommendations directed to her ministry and 16 to other government agencies will be reviewed.
“Government will now take the required time to review the recommendations and continue to pursue the steps necessary to ensure that workers are safe in British Columbia. We will do everything we can to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.”
WorkSafeBC has also issued a statement on the recommendations “Nine recommendations are addressed to WorkSafeBC. We thank the jury for these recommendations and commend them for the commitment and thoughtfulness they have shown throughout this extensive process. Each recommendation will be examined and WorkSafeBC will provide a written response to the Coroner.”
The full list of recommendations can be accessed here.
Comments
WorksafeBC now is that an oxymoron if there ever was one. If only those overpaid bearucrates where doing their job in the first place.
I posted this elsewhere on 250 but this is the most current article and I think needs repeating since for some obvious reasons.
As they say this is a good example of a SNAFU of a system which involved the following based on the recommendations
1. BC Forest Safety Council,
2. Manufacturer’s Advisory Group
3. United Steelworkers
4. RCMP
5. BC Ambulance
6. Minister of Jobs, Tourism, Skills and Training
7. Minister of Justice
8. Office of the Fire Commissioner
9. WorkSafeBC
10. City of Prince George
11. Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd.
12. Canadian Standards Association
13. Attorney General of Canada
As they say, safety is everyone’s business. Not a single authority and organization which has an impact of how safety in the workplace is enabled can come away from such incidents and say to themselves that they did everything to the best of their ability. If they could, the Coroner’s Jury could not have come up with the 33 recommendations they made.
We develop complex systems. We assume the systems work. I think anyone who has experienced the integrated workings of a complex organizational system over the years, understands that they often do not. Sometimes it is a single weak link, more often it is a multitude of weak links, as it was in this case.
Just a reminder of the WestRay Mine Disaster which was serious enough to have caused the following addition to the Criminal Code of Canada:
217.1 Every one who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task.
Relate that to the recommendation made in this incident: “The inquest heard that it was very difficult to successfully prosecute bodily harm and death in workplace incidents.”
Read that 217.1 of the Criminal Code very carefully. “EVERY ONE who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task.”
That goes beyond the employer. That includes the individual, the union, and government and other agencies who direct the standards of work and the workplace environment.
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